RoboCop ***** (1987, Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith, Ronny Cox, Miguel Ferrer) – Classic Movie Review 808

Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 pounding sci-fi action thriller film RoboCop boasts a great premise and a spectacular role and snazzy cyborg suit for Peter Weller as Alex Murphy, a futureworld Detroit cop blown to bits by a street gang and revived to fight crime.

Director Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 poundingly exciting sci-fi action thriller film RoboCop boasts a great premise and a spectacular role and snazzy cyborg suit for Peter Weller as Alex Murphy, the futureworld Detroit cop who is blown to bits by a street gang in a shoot-up and put back together again to clean scum off the streets by the madmen running the police department.

It’s a near-future dystopia, an imagined society where people lead wretched, dehumanised and fearful lives, and an out-of-control and out-of-finances city of Detroit has granted the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) control of the Detroit Police Department to tackle crime. Irish actor Dan O’Herlihy plays ‘the Old Man’, the chief executive of OCP.

Detroit is a crime magnet and being run by the huge OCP company that has developed an enormous crime-fighting robot, which develops a dangerous glitch, going haywire. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public by reconstructing the dead Murphy’s body in a steel case and catchily re-naming him RoboCop.

Now part-man, part robot, a sleek and shiny cyborg, Murphy chases relentlessly after all the city’s villains, but of course particularly concentrating on those who tried to terminate him, marking them for death. But because of his successful against the bad guys, Murphy becomes a target of scheming supervillain Clarence J Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith), a crime lord in league with Dick Jones (Ronny Cox), the Senior President of the mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP).

Verhoeven’s movie is a steamy, bubbling brew boiling over with lots of drive and packing a powerful punch-to-the-gut impact, and there is enough care with the action, special effects and story to turn this into a sci-fi action classic.

With an 18 certificate, there is plenty of strong, in-your-face violence and writers Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner are clearly relishing the nasty tone, though even they mitigate it a bit by leaving some space for Nancy Allen to act out the hero’s love interest as macho lady cop Officer Anne Lewis, providing some welcome human warmth, both tough and loyal.

This mean machine of an action movie is a great B-movie, assembled by Verhoeven with utmost relish, though admittedly not always with total precision, and driven along at top gear throughout. Technically it was pretty much state of the art in 1987. Phil Tippett’s stop-motion animation effects are still highly impressive and so is Rob Bottin’s special makeup. Rob Bottin led the special-effects team in creating practical effects, gore and the RoboCop costume.

Supposedly following the idea of the script’s satirical intent, Verhoeven emphasises the violence throughout the film, apparently intending to make the violence so outlandish that it becomes comical. Well, that was the idea, but censorship boards were not amused, certainly didn’t see the funny side of it, and forced scenes to be shortened or modified, hence the various cut versions circulating. Obviously the full 103-minute unrated director’s cut is the one to see.

Is RoboCop actually comical and satirical? Maybe it is a complex sci-fi action movie wrapped in a darkly comic social satire or maybe it is plain and simple a thrilling series of violent visuals.

The sound effects editing won a Special Achievement Award at the 1988 Oscars and the sound and the film editing were nominated. The makeup and special effects were Bafta nominated.

There are several versions: the full 103-minute unrated director’s cut and various cut versions ranging from 78 minutes via 91 minutes to 98 minutes.

Also in the cast are Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Dan O’Herlihy, Miguel Ferrer (as Bob Morton), Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, Felton Perry, Mario Machado and Angie Bolling.

It was shot from August to October 1986, mainly in Dallas, Texas with other filming in Las Colinas and Pittsburgh.

It was made by Orion Pictures and released by them on 17 July 1987, earning $53.4 million against a budget of $13.7 million. 

The film was conceived by Edward Neumeier while working on the set of Blade Runner (1982), and developed with Michael Miner. Producer Jon Davison bought their script early in 1985 for Orion Pictures, but Verhoeven dismissed the script twice because he did not understand its satirical content, until supposedly convinced by his wife.

RoboCop continues to fascinate over the years. There were sequels (RoboCop 2 in 1990 with Weller and RoboCop 3 with Robert [John] Burke in 1993), then a TV series with Richard Eden in 1994-95 and a miniseries of four films with Page Fletcher in 2000 before the spectacular remake RoboCop in 2014 with Joel Kinnaman, reviving the franchise.

RoboCop in 2014 with Joel Kinnaman.

American screenwriter Edward Neumeier is best known for his scripts for Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop and Starship Troopers. He wrote the sequels Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (and directed) and Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars.

Miguel Ferrer (1955–2017)

RIP favourite star character actor Miguel Ferrer (1955–2017).

RoboCop was his breakthrough role.

The cast

The cast are Peter Weller as Alex Murphy / RoboCop, Nancy Allen as Anne Lewis, Dan O’Herlihy [Daniel O’Herlihy] as “The Old Man’, Ronny Cox as Dick Jones, Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker, Miguel Ferrer as Bob Morton, Paul McCrane as Emil Antonowsky, Ray Wise as Leon Nash, Jesse D. Goins as Joe Cox and Calvin Jung as Steve Minh, Robert DoQui as Sergeant Warren Reed, Michael Gregory as Lieutenant Hedgecock, Felton Perry as Donald Johnson, Kevin Page as Mr Kinney and Lee de Broux as cocaine warehouse owner Sal.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 808

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