ROBOCOP
A film review by Dale L. Skran, Jr.
Copyright 1987 Dale L. Skran, Jr.
Let us cross pens. Mark and I have a number of long-running debates, including one on the value of movies like DREAMSCAPE, TERMINATOR, and ROBOCOP, and another on the adaptability of super-hero comics to film. If I may be somewhat cavalier, Mark tends to feel these films are unexceptional, while I feel they serve the special purpose of bringing standard SF ideas to a movie audience generally unfamiliar with them. On the other topic, Mark tends to argue that super-heros make poor, or at least silly films that are not good SF or anything else. As a long-time fan of the super-hero genre, especially Marvel's merry mutants, I, of course, disagree. At least, I feel the super-hero genre could be made into excellent films--if only Hollywood tried.
At long last, in ROBOCOP we may have such a film. Although flawed, it's a pretty good action picture--better than BLUE THUNDER or WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE. It has a nice score by the gentleman who scored Conan the Barbarian (really another successful super-hero adaptation). It has lots of good lines and funny jokes, including "My name is Murphy," "You're going to be one bad m***er-f**ker," and "You're fired." It is 100% better than the scientifically silly RUNAWAY (wherein Tom Selleck battles robots). Like TERMINATOR, which along with BACK TO THE FUTURE, introduced recursive time travel stories to the modern audience on a sensible level, ROBOCOP shows us a lot of wonderful stuff we've read a hundred times, but never seen before. The plot is old stuff, but who cares? Heinlein claimed there were only three basic plots anyway: boy meets girl, the little tailor, and boy becomes man. For those who care, ROBOCOP combines elements from all three of Heinlein's basic plots.
Mercifully, the makers of ROBOCOP take their premise seriously, and spares us cackling villains and silly sidekicks. This is a clean, mean story that owes a lot to the THE ROAD WARRIOR's realistic violence and BRAINSTORM's greedy, militarized, hi-tech corporations. Mark complains a good deal about the inconsistencies in this future world. I think he's holding to an excessively high standard. ROBOCOP is not BLADE RUNNER, but its future (a few Merlin phones aside) is far more completely thought out than the average SF movie. It is not up to written SF standards, but I suspect the producers wanted to make a few bucks and couldn't afford to re- do everything. It suspended my disbelief far better than 2010: ODYSSEY TWO which by contrast (except for the spaceships) seemed to be taking place in the next five years. The makers of ROBOCOP have at least made a serious (and sometimes not so serious) attempt to project current trends out 20-30 years.
The plot has several weakness that tend to make it easier for ROBOCOP to bring in the bad guys. In particular, at one point the main henchman makes a speech to Robocop admitting that he works for the main villain. This makes things easy for Robocop, but 1) the henchman is getting thrown through windows and such like, 2) it is clearly established in the film that the henchman might suppose mentioning his boss's name would save him. At another point a bad guy puts down a perfectly good armor- piercing cannon to use a crane to drop a lot of metal parts on Robocop. This is stupid, but at least the movie has the main bad guy yelling at him to "Stop messing around and shoot." Mark also complains that the ED-209 (a robot that the cyborg Robocop edges out of a job) would not be very effective as a policeman, which is amply demonstrated in the movie, but it is also made clear in the film that the corporation doesn't care if it actually works as a cop--their plan is to sell it to the Pentagon.
I have a beef that I'm surprised Mark missed. Cops are being killed right and left. The crooks are armed like they just came out of the National Guard Armory. The cops...well, the cops carry what appear to be 9mm pea-shooters with nary a shotgun or automatic rifle in sight! Maybe these are supposed to be some kind of advanced handguns, but if I were on that future Detriot police force, I'd carry an AK-47 or a Uzi!
Overall, though, these are just quibbles. ROBOCOP is more realistic than many action movies, including most James Bonds and REMO WILLIAMS. The plot is not as tightly wound as that of THE CONVERSATION but it exceeds BLUE THUNDER by a wide margin. To this it must be added that ROBOCOP continues the line of "action" heroines started by ALIEN and ALIENS. We see for the very first time without any special attention that sexual equality has reached the point that male and female cops share the same locker room. There is no gratuitous flesh, and the heroine is not model-pretty. However, she has a mean crescent kick.
ROBOCOP straddles the edge between a realistic super-hero comic and SF. If one guy is a cyborg or wears a powered-suit a la the comic hero "Iron Man," we tend to have a super-hero story. If everyone has a powered-suit, we have Heinlein's STARSHIP TROOPERS. It is clearly implied in the movie that fairly soon there are going to be other cyborg cops, marking the beginning of the transition to a still more fantastic future.
ROBOCOP also marks a new level in audience acceptance of technology and human transformation, and may well point the way toward our own "cyber-punk" future. Murphy, as Robocop, eventually overcomes his programming and recovers his sense of self. Once having done so, he accepts his new role as a cyborg-cop, realizing that his previous life is over. Although technology not under human control is dangerous ("Star Wars" lasers burn 10,000 acres in California, the amuck ED-209, etc), technology backed by human integrity is working for the betterment of all. I was amazed at how favorable the audience seemed as the movie ended.
In some non-trivial sense we are all Murphy. We went to sleep and a lot of technology insinuated itself into our lives. Now, as before, it is up to us to use it for good or ill. Each time we wake, however, there is still more technology, and like Murphy, we know there is no going back. Who knows, Mark? If you get very very lucky, someday you may wake to see the planets forming around that star you want to visit. But if you do, you will find that, like Murphy, you have said more good-bys than it is healthy to contemplate.
Rating on the (-4) to (+4) scale: (+2). Keep in mind that Robocop is rated "R" for a reason--this is not a "kiddie" movie.
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