Media Diary (Week One)

          RoboCop (1987)

"DEAD OR ALIVE - YOU'RE COMING WITH ME."

Twenty-six years after its release,  Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop, with its over-the-top violence and comically dark satire, retains its cult status among the best of 80s action films. Set in the dystopian future of Detroit; RoboCop is about Alex Murphy (Peter Weller), a cop brought back from the brink of death after being blown to pieces in an attack by an infamous gang. Murphy is reborn as the titular half-man/half-machine programmed for the war on the crime-ridden city. Soon, RoboCop regains memories of the attack and sets out to destroy those responsible for Murphy's death.

The film was Verhoeven's first foray into American cinema after various art-house films neither involving cops or robots; he would go on to direct features such as Basic Instinct and the similarly over-the-top chaotic space-set action films Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Starship Troopers. Surprisingly, as by the numbers the plot may sound, RoboCop's greatest strength lies in its ability to go that bit further either with its fantastically gory effects or stupendous action sequences. One particularly remarkable scene, involving a person held at gunpoint, shows the 'man-machine' shoot clean through a woman's skirt and into a criminal's crotch. This sort of mayhem is exactly the draw to the 'golden garbage' of many 80s action films.  

Accompanying the carnage are acutely satirical advertisements poking fun at the absurdity of this dystopia including children's board game 'Nuke 'Em' and a TV soap opera, a staple of the director's famous sci-fi features of the late 80s and 90s. These attacks on neo-fascist corporatism are what raises RoboCop above the 80s herd of sci-fi action. Weller's portrayal of a family man stripped of his humanity is a complex and interesting performance, melding shades of Dirty Harry and Judge Dredd into his character.  


VERDICT:

The first, but not the last, RoboCop film is also the best. Chaotic, visceral and absolutely bonkers; see it.