Robocop

As I have mentioned before on here, I spent my childhood as I am spending my adulthood, either reading or watching movies. I could reel off now a list of movies that I would return to time and time again as a kid. These are the sorts of movies that imprint themselves upon you to the point that you can almost memorise every word, every frame and watch the movie in your head.


Robocop is one such movie. It's the tale of Alex Murphy, a good, honest cop in Detroit who gets gunned down in the line of duty. Instead of croaking, the suits at the company that now runs the Detroit police department decide to use him in an experiment to make the perfect cop, one that doesn't need to eat or sleep. Once they've made their Robocop he goes out onto the streets and starts making arrests. However they didn't erase all of his memories and he starts getting flashbacks which results in him going off a revenge trip against the villains that attacked him. However, these villains are in with the second in command of OCP, the company that made Robocop and as such there's conflicts of interest. Well I say that but you could just say that the second in command at OCP is a twat.



Which brings me onto something interesting. You could almost see Robocop as a Jesus type figure (stay with me here). After all Murphy dies a horrific death so there's your crucifixion. He then gets resurrected so there's your Easter and at the final confrontation he walks across a shallow pond, giving the impression of walking on water. the number 2 at OCP? Well if you take the top man as G_D, you can take the rebelling number 2 as Satan and given that the final scene is of him being shot and falling out of a window on a skyscraper then that's him being cast from heaven.

That may be a bit of a stretch but this movie is definitely one that stands up to repeat viewings. The cast is perfect and whilst it can look a little dated now it certainly does have the capacity to thrill and entertain. None of the lines in here feel forced and the heroes are spot on and the villains are splendidly hateable.

Looking back on it now this film is surprisingly violent and gory. There's a memorable scene in which a criminal is flung into a vat of toxic waste and comes out melting! This film also has a tendency towards satirising America at that time with great big factories left empty and mass unemployment leading to huge crime waves. I think what I'm getting at it is there's a really nihilistic feel to this movie, an almost fascistic tone to the proceedings. This isn't a movie for the faint hearted, but it is a damn good sci-fi film that is almost equal parts social commentary.