Robocop was released in 1987. I was 9. So I guess the memory of me seeing it in the theatre is a false one. Give another year before it was out on VHS and maybe another year after that before my parents went out on one of their annual nights on the town and I could be alone to sit through a restricted film without having to fast forward sex scenes, and this takes me up to roughly the age of 11 when I first saw Paul Verhoeven's masterpiece of social commentary. And a masterpiece it is, though thinly cloaked in silver spray painted fiberglas, stilted acting and extreme violence.
Shoot ahead, sigh, 16 years.
The evening begins with thai peanut coated skinless and boneless chicken breast, steamed rice and broccoli, and a side of spinach salad. Library Girl brings beer to lower my defences and forces me to sit through CSI New York and American Idol. In retribution I put on Robocop.
Not having seen the film for close to two decades, I wasn't really expecting it to stand up. I've done my best to rekindle my pre-teen passion for such classics of 80s action films as Big Trouble in Little China, Cobra, and American Ninja, but apparently my desire for plot, character development and, oh I don't know... production value, has gotten the better of me.
So consider my pleasant surprise when the classic synth theme ques and the Robocop logo, probably designed on a computer the size of my bedroom, skyrockets onto the screen. Suddenly my voice cracks and I have a bad pre-pubescent moustache again.
The film itself, if you can believe this, is actually better than I remember it to be. Previously unnoticed themes bubble to the surface such as the commercialization of not-for-profits, the dangers of alternative service delivery, and dehumanization through technology. Verhoeven has always been more Gilliam than Bruckheimer to me, and Robocop is more akin to Brazil than Commando.
Next up: Starship Troopers, with it's satire of American militarism, critique of fascism, and its revelations of the unpreparedness of human civilization to an all out invasion by a race of giant bugs that shoot digestive acid from their mouths.
All that, and it stars Doogie Howser!
posted by pizza diarist | 7:51 AM
3 Comments:
Starship Troopers, for all its (puerile and blatant) social commentary, is still perhaps the worst movie I've ever seen.
I loved the part where the dude gets his face melted off by the toxic waste, then gets run over by the truck. That was sweet!
I also found it hard to watch That 70s Show because the dad is so mean to Robocop.
where is the reference to my incredible operatic performance???
i sang all of the character's lines from CSI cast in "opera"
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