Review of RoboCop (1987) by Joseph B — 24 Apr 2016

Paul Verhoeven's 1987 film "RoboCop" is at times bloody, at other times very poignant encompassing many themes. Its humorous at many times in the film in its portrayal of the media and consumerism. There are themes of corporate greed, privatization and capitalism present in the film that give it a timely factor. It may have been made in the conservative decade of President Reagan but the film is just as important now as it was then.

But do I like this film because of my own political ideologies? I'm against privatization of certain government programs and it's definitely a bad idea to privatize the police force. When Detroit's police force is completely underfunded, the mayor signs away total control to a corporation called Omni Consumer Products (OCP). This causes a bit of conflict of interest if you think about it, what deeds could the corporation get away with if they pay and own the police?

They attack the military industrial complex with Dick Jones's (Ronny Cox) ambitious attempt to get the ED-209 up and running and working so he can sell countless numbers of the product for use in the military. When this fails, that's when a young businessman with ambitions of climbing up the corporate ladder suggests the "RoboCop" program. They just needed a volunteer when cop and family man Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is gruesomely gunned down by Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) and his gang.

Murphy then becomes RoboCop and he is designed to serve the public trust, protect the innocent and uphold the law. His fourth objective is to never arrest a OCP executive. RoboCop doesn't remember who he was but glimpses of his past come back to him and his partner Annie Lewis (Nancy Allen) recognizes him by a trick he does with his gun his son asked him to do off a kids' show.

This film is very much an attack of the conservative era of Reagan's presidency and corporate greed.