10 reasons why Robocop is one of the greatest movies of all time
Robocop is getting a remake. The news that made us very excited when we first heard it reduced us to tears today when the first trailer landed. It’s… heartbreaking.
There’s no ultra-violence. Murphy gets burned, not shot. They literally made Robocop black, so he looks like a 1990 VCR. They gave him ridiculous red laser-looking eyes. It’s just a giant mess.
So, after you’ve reduced yourself to tears by watching the trailer for the new version, let us settle you down by reminding you of why the original is one of the .
Robocop is not a kid’s film. The new trailer shows Murphy getting mildly injured by a car bomb and he’s a little bit burned. PLEASE.
In the original film, Murphy is shot to death in cold blood, dismembered piece-by-piece. Hell, the film had to go to the ratings office in the US cutting different scenes before it got an R-rating.
This is the robot film every grown-up with a little boy trapped inside wanted.
Murphy is one hell of a complex character. He’s a man trapped inside of a machine. Unlike the new version, he doesn’t scream and shout. He can’t - his humanity has been stripped away.
The whole film is a metaphor for modern human existence in a technological world. When we can replace part of what defines us - our work, our social interactions, whatever - with digital technology, is that a good thing? These are the deep and serious questions Murphy asks.
As Weller himself says in a video further down, “it’s not about a human-looking thing with mechanics inside, it’s about a mechanical thing with a human inside.”
Deep.
is how you write a neutral female character who isn’t just there to hook up with the male lead. Officer Lewis is a kick-ass cop packing a shotgun who can take care of herself.
She’s Murphy’s partner, with a sense of loyalty and fellowship that makes her want to help him, and she bails him out of more than one tight spot. She just happens to be a woman.
Clarence Boddicker is one hell of a bad guy. Not only is he a brutal cold-blooded murder with absolute disdain for human life, he goes about this day like he’s a store clerk, laying out the facts and cracking bad jokes.
Don’t let the fact that he’s a bespectacled man with a bad haircut fool you- Clarence is one of the most under-rated villains in cinema history.
Apart from the constant infomercials and dark humour all around in the film, Robocop had possibly the greatest copyright notice in the history of cinema, which pretty much summed up the craic the team had putting it together.
“Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.” Man, that robotic voice. Followed up by the completely nonchalant “excuse me, I have to go. Somewhere there is a crime happening.”
ED-209. Man, what a robot. I mean, Robocop is cool, but we all want an ED-209, too. It’s a walking battle tank, for crying out loud.
The entire design of this movie is incredible. There’s a reason Robocop's suit is so iconic- it’s a masterpiece of costume design, right up there with the Alien or Predator. It took a lot of work to make that suit. Take a look:
the team behind Robocop put a lot of effort into making Robocop believable. Instead of just telling us what happens with rolling text or a rubbish narrator, they filmed Media Break - you give us three minutes, and we’ll give you the world - to explain the background events with a news reel.
Hell, they even made ads and infomercials to populate the world. Remember “I’ll buy that for a dollar”?
In fact, Nixon was paid a pretty penny to promote the film, in what must be the weirdest promo agreement ever.
There are very few film franchises so popular that a successful crowd-funding campaign could fund the creation of a giant statue to the main character for placement in the centre of Detroit. But that’s what Robocop is getting, at a cost of $50,000.
Hell, there are so many spin-offs out there from comic books to fan-art and cartoon shows. Robocop was, and still is, a big deal. Just because he’s over 15 years old doesn’t mean he needs an update.
We love him just like he is. Silver and all.
