RoboCop (1987)

Paul Verhoeven’s first american film, shot in dallas standing in for a near-future detroit that has collapsed into crime and corporate rule. the film works as an ultraviolent action movie and as a satire of reagan-era privatisation, and it is hard to say which half is more vicious. the script by edward neumeier and michael miner was rejected by verhoeven twice before his wife convinced him there was more to it than a robot shooting people.

what the film does

detroit cop alex murphy (peter weller) is killed by a gang led by clarence boddicker (kurtwood smith). the megacorporation omni consumer products takes his body and rebuilds him as robocop, a cyborg law enforcement unit with no memory of his former life. the film follows robocop as he dismantles detroit’s criminal infrastructure, then begins to recover fragments of murphy’s identity and turns on his corporate creators.

why it’s in the canon

verhoeven’s instinct for excess is what makes this film work. he pushes the violence so far past the line that it loops around and becomes funny, then pushes further until it is not funny anymore. the boardroom scenes at ocp are played completely straight, which makes them the bleakest part of the film. the ed-209 demonstration alone is a masterclass in tone: a pitch-perfect corporate presentation that ends with a man being shot to pieces while the executives stand around looking annoyed about the paperwork.

the criteria blend is 1+2+3. it is a film i love, a film that mattered in 1987 and still matters, and a film i want to remember clearly rather than letting it blur into the franchise it spawned.

on hand

yes, dvd.