The cyberpunk movie triumvirate of the 1980s, begun with BLADE RUNNER (1982) and THE TERMINATOR (1984), was completed with this 1987 exploitation film, conceived by screenwriter Edward Neumeier while working on the art department of BLADE RUNNER and helmed by a notorious European provocateur. Paul Verhoeven was known in 1987 for Dutch language outrages like TURKISH DELIGHT (Turks fruit; 1973), SOLDIER OF ORANGE (Soldaat van Oranje; 1977) and SPETTERS (1980), as well as the unsuccessful English language period piece FLESH AND BLOOD (1985). Verhoeven was, in short, a most unlikely choice as director of ROBOCOP (and reportedly turned down the assignment twice), yet, it turned out, a mighty good one.
Released in July 1987 (alongside FULL METAL JACKET, REVENGE OF THE NERDS II and JAWS: THE REVENGE), the film was a sizeable hit, grossing $53 million against a $13 million budget. Yet Mike Medavoy, who headed ROBOCOP’s parent studio Orion Pictures, wasn’t impressed, claiming the film “unquestionably should have done better at the box office” and blaming Orion’s marketing arm for it falling short (despite a widely hailed gambit in which actors wearing RoboCop costumes were hired to greet people outside theaters during the film’s opening weeks). Orion did nonetheless turn out a ROBOCOP 2 in 1990, and ROBOCOP 3 in 1993, neither of which had Verhoeven at the helm, and neither of which amounted to much.
ROBOCOP’s setting is near-future Detroit, which has ceded control of its police department to the OCP mega-corporation. OCP’s president Dick Jones (Ronny Cox) wants to replace human cops with the ED-209, a Phil Tippet designed robot bearing machine gun equipped arms that malfunctions severely during a demonstration, riddling an innocent man with bullets. Enter Bob Morton (Miguel Ferrer), a young OCP exec who comes up with a rival to the ED-209: a bioengineered human known as RoboCop.
The raw material for Morton’s creation comes from Alex Murphy (Peter Weller), a police officer who’s killed by the criminal mastermind Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang of assholes. Morton wastes no time subjecting Murphy’s corpse to a technological overhaul that results in a bulky Rob Bottin designed metallic contraption. RoboCop proves quite efficient at taking down criminals, but is afflicted by memories of Murphy’s existence with his wife (Angie Bolling) and young son (Jason Levine), and has to contend with Dick Jones’ desire to replace him/it with an ED-209, and also the fact that Boddicker and his goons are still at large.
ROBOCOP may be the apotheosis of the 1980s action movie boom, and there’s certainly much to admire: the breakneck pacing (in the words of Rob Bottin, what Verhoeven films “never lasts longer on the screen than the time it takes him to read the scene” in script form), the many clever homages to action movies past (Verhoeven claimed he prepared for the film by watching THE TERMINATOR over and over), the once-shocking amount of graphic carnage (be sure and view the unrated version) and the surprisingly intelligent way the film satirizes Reagan-era America.
Unlike other Verhoeven films like THE 4th MAN (De vierde man; 1983) and SHOWGIRLS (1995), ROBOCOP’s humor is fully intentional. There’s a demented ingenuity in the sight of a news cameraman pivoting to capture a falling body, a close up of a man’s pee-stained crotch as he frantically zips his pants to avoid being reprimanded by his boss, RoboCop firing a bullet through a woman’s skirt to shoot a rapist’s genitals, and the sight of the ED-209 shooting that “criminal” for refusing to put down his gun…even though said criminal has already done just that. Credit goes to Verhoeven, who reportedly came up with at least one of those gags himself, and screenwriter Edward Neumeier, whose sensibilities meshed quite well with those of his director (as would be proven again in Verhoeven and Neumeier’s second collaboration STARSHIP TROOPERS). Best of all, the comedy never compromises the action sequences, which are strong and intense.
The one area in which ROBOCOP doesn’t quite measure up is the acting. In the manner of most old school European filmmakers, Verhoeven regarded an actor as (in his own words) “someone who walks from A to B, and when I snap my fingers they turn.” ROBOCOP’s well-heeled main players Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Kurtwood Smith, Ronny Cox and Daniel O’Herlihy were unaffected by that decree, but the supporting cast wasn’t acting so much as imitating what the director did; a minor issue, to be sure, but an issue nonetheless.
Vital Statistics
ROBOCOP
Orion Pictures
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Producer: Arne Schmidt
Screenplay: Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner
Cinematography: Jost Vacano
Editing: Jim Rodnunsky, Frank J. Urioste
Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, Felton Perry, Paul McCrane, Jesse Goins, Del Zamora, Calvin Jung, Rick Lieberman, Lee DeBroux, Mark Carlton, Edward Edwards, Michael Gregory, Fred Hice, Angie Bolling, Jason Levine