Robocop: The Most Hardcore Action Flick of the 80s?

step up your 6000 sux stop watching TJ laser reruns put down that flyer from Lord Center box up your game and Nukem and try if you can to stay out of trouble that's right four we're time traveling to the not too distant future of 2043 Detroit in this episode of Revisited where Paul verhoven set his seminal all-time classic Sci-fi action epic roarable cop the Dutch director showcases all of his trademark filmmaking skills and a pawn Sean for graphic violence in the movie and it remains an often copied but never better example of visceral sci-fi filmmaking just think of entertainment Empires that are now synonymous with the era in which the first emerged and have gained longevity in various forms for example Star Wars Marvel The Lord of the Rings Harry Potter and it's hard to imagine a mid-budget movies such as RoboCop having the same cultural appeal or influence however just like its hero Alex Murphy it's proved very hard to kill the most obvious reason for this is that the movie is simply awesome I love that guy so stock up on baby food and get ready to dive head first into the most violently hardcore sci-fi movie to emerge from the 1980s I'd buy that for a dollar the idea for the film first came from aspiring screenwriter Edward Nehemiah he was working as a junior story executive for Universal Pictures in the early 1980s Nehemiah was influenced by a robot-centered movies such as Star Wars and loved action Cinema as well as the mature comic books he would read for potential future acquisition deals it was while working on the 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner that Nehemiah got the idea for a Robocop he's quoted as saying I had this vision of a far distant Blade Runner type world where there was an old mechanical cop coming to a sense of real human intelligence he then began collaborating with aspiring director Michael Miner who had produced a robot themed rock music video and who also had an idea for a film called super cop well you gotta be some kind of breaker come in here all by yourself the film focuses on Detroit police officer Alex Murphy who was murdered by a gang of criminals and subsequently brought back their life by Mega Corporation Omni consumer products you're gonna be a bad as the cyborg RoboCop with his memory seemingly erased forever the super cop executed a brutal campaign against Crime in Detroit while also coming to terms with a slowly returning fragments of his own Humanity the movie's plot was influenced by the 1960s psychological horror cycle in which the film's heroine is also killed off in the First Act the movie also has an unforgettable satirical Edge that was influenced by Wright and nehemiah's experience with corporate culture and the infamous scene where Ed 209 layers wasted Poor Unfortunate Mr Kinney was inspired by nehemiah's office dear dreams about a robot bursting into a meeting and killing everyone while in development the first draft of the script was titled RoboCop the future of law enforcement which is admittedly a bit of a mouthful it was passed around industry to friends and Associates of writers Nehemiah and minor and before long the pair had offers from both Atlantic releasing and director Jonathan Kaplan and producer John Davison from Orion pictures Davison was drawn satirical edge of the script ensured Nehemiah and maina films such as Mad Max 2 Dirty Harry and Madigan to get across the tone that I envisioned for the movie Once Orion green lit the project Nehemiah and Mayan are set about right in a second draft of the script and the birth of one of the most iconic sci-fi characters was well underway thank you for your cooperation good night when director Kaplan left to make 1987's Project X the search began for his replacement and it was a six-month process that saw many names thrown around before they had found their man most filmmakers were put off by the film's title thinking it played Too Young like the Transformers like GoBots or another version of forbidden planets Robbie the robot for example if only they knew what they were about to miss out on call this a glitch the project was offered to the likes of David cornerberg who in hindsight would have been a wild choice to direct the movie just imagine the awesome amount of body horror he would have developed from the premise in fact Amazon have recently announced that they are revisiting the ruble cup frontise so what about Cronenberg Jr taking a shot at it it won't happen he's too edgy for the likes of Amazon to trust with their expensively acquired IPS but just imagine the trip you take Alex Murphy on regardless of what they do with a franchise it won't have the satirical bite or hardcore violence of the movie or will it again let us know your thoughts in the comments ultimately Orion executive Barbara Boyle suggested Paul verhoven should direct the movie on the back of the Acclaim he had achieved from both his 1977 romantic Thriller soldier of orange and also 1985's Flesh and Blood his only English language film at the time however verhoven took one look at the first page of the script and dismissed it out of Honda's being awful putting the brakes on the project for a while it wasn't until his wife Martine encouraged him to give the second copy of the script he was sent another chance and to consider the subtext and soul of a story in which somebody loses their identity in such a visceral way veroven admitted that not being fluent in English meant that the sasai and the script was lost on him but that the scene in which movie visits his abandoned home and experiences linguine memories of his former life was intriguing the Hoven initially wanted to direct RoboCop as a serious film however after Nehemiah and maina explained aware not their vision of the movie was more like something that came to 2000 A.D featuring Judge Dredd behoven admitted that a more comic book tone would suit the project perfectly and boy with their right happy New Year oh the film stars Peter Weller as Alex Murphy RoboCop most famous previously for TV rules and the 1985 film My Sister's Keeper also known as a killing Affair well I had the perfect physique for the role in that he was tall and intimidating but also slim enough so that he could peel himself into the suit relatively comfortably Nancy Allen best known for being a teen goddess in De Palma's horror Masterpiece Curry as well as Roars opposite the likes of Jack Nicholson and John Travolta plays Murphy's partner Anne Lewis come here when you're finished around with your suspect the late Daniel or Hurley plays ocp's top brass the old man Ronnie Cox is the corrupt scheme and Dick Jones and Miguel Ferrer who sadly passed away in 2017 cleared the unfortunate Bob Morton kurtwood Smith Above All Else steals ashore and is one of the most memorable villains from the 1980s spitting out killer lines and blood while dominating the criminal underworld with pure gravitas just give me my phone call the most notable support and cast members feature the likes of er veteran Paul mccranean is Emil antonowski who also gets his fair share of brilliant lines I bet you think rear wise as Leon Nash Jesse de goines as Joe Cox Calvin schoenis Steve Minh all of which help make a buttock as gun also we can't leave out the legendary Robert dekai as sergeant Warren Reed Felton Perry as ocp employee Donald Johnson Lee De Bru as cocaine Warehouse owner Sal Frankie blow this cocksucker's head off I'm the unforgettable push smoke Mr Kinney who finds himself on the end of a flurry of bullets from the malfunctioning at 209 the cast are all awesome and every single one of the aforementioned characters has at least one memorable and endlessly quotable scene and yes that includes the Airborne Bobby can you fly Bobby Claire's not generally speaking the early movies from Dutch filmmaker Paul verhoven were initially dismissed as being low rent genre flicks only for them a guy that cult status grow in the public imagination and ultimately remain firmly in the Zeitgeist both 1990s Total Recall our 1997 Starship Troopers are classic examples and to be fair you could probably throw the incredibly badass RoboCop into that mix Dead or Alive you are coming with me setting a dystopian crime riddle Detroit where a huge conglomerate owns the police force the hero's journey isn't your typical Hollywood trough where they must overcome insurmountable odds in order to do the right thing nah this movie is way more cynical and therefore satirically biting than that why don't you drive with Alex Murphy's prime directive not only to serve the public trust but to do so as effectively as possible to maximize the profits of aforementioned conglomerate or CP before I introduce to RoboCop himself via Darth Vader like genesis ocp realize they need a new form of cup after their self-promoted future of law enforcement goes here I adjuna boardroom presentation and riddles a lower level executive the aforementioned poor Mystic Kinney with bullets after Peter welly's newly transferred cop Alex Murphy is tortured and seemingly fatally shot in the head by crime Lord Clarence Bodega his body is transformed into ocp executive Bob Morton's new project ruleball cup a powerful and heavily armed cyborg with no memory of his former life RoboCop is programmed with three prime directives serve the public trust protect the innocent uphold the law a fourth prime directive directive four is classified what follows is a brutally entertaining movie that effortlessly reinvents what proper grown-up fiction filmmaking could be and does so with Panache humor and a satirical Edge unseen in anything at the time RoboCop's initial crime fighting sees him easily foreign robberies or Street crimes and it's not until the encounters some of the goons who faintly wounded him but he begins to regain memories of who he was before and exactly what has been taken away from him the aforementioned violence is gleefully constructed with a mixture of practical Gore Prosthetics and stop-motion model work Blended together beautifully the early destruction of the Poor Unfortunate Mr Kitty is widely over the top and Murphy's assassination by borica and friends is brutal with limbs being blown off remorselessly we're also treated to a warehouse shootout fully loaded with enough scribs to make John McCain in blush as well as a blood soak climatic battle with toxic waste melting bodies decapitated heads and a wonderfully satisfied in sense of Retribution this of course is just scratching the surface of the ultra violence on display and we could discuss the violence and how it isn't simply there for shock value but to add to the substance of the narrative and will building for hours while the violence in the movie arguably helps to drive the plot forward the key messages in the script are also telegraphed with wit and cynicism were shown various commercials that exist in the movie's Distortion Detroit future such as a TV spot for a family nuclear war game called Nukem as well as one for the recurring 6000 sux car with the Rampage and eye pop in stop-motion t-rex with a message that bigger is better this ties in nicely with the movie's message that while weapons get bigger and better more explosive and more powerful Brute Force ultimately just creates more problems the movie isn't subtle in any way and is all the more badass as a result the social commentary makes you question the morality on display how the hero is being controlled by a nefarious conglomerate and offers a bleak world view of the future so whether or not you're here for the subtext or to simply enjoy a revolutionary action movie with ultra violence and cool one-liners RoboCop does not disappoint what's the charge he's a cop killer RoboCop opened in North America on July 17 1987 and during its opening weekend the movie exceeded all Expectations by earning 8 million dollars from 1580 theaters it was weekend's number one film beating the re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs plus the much-anticipated horror sequel Jaws the Revenge by the end of its theatrical run the movie had grows 53.4 million dollars domestically and while this didn't set the Box off as a light it was nonetheless considered a modest success with it being the 14th highest grossing movie of the year behind the likes of Dragnet La Bamba and Crocodile Dundee nice [Music] there's a knife RoboCop was one of the surprise hits of the summer and helped to meet in 1987 set a record box office return of 1.6 billion dollars thanks in part for a rise in ticket prices but also a quality more adult orientated releases in the marketplace following the success of Robocop and the growing cult State as the movie was built in the studio and franchise rights holders began to fully Embrace this with a series of video games merchandise and yep you guessed it sequels will hopefully cover the highs and well mostly laws of the subsequent movies in the franchise here on Revisited including the mildly entertaining but sadly tame reboot from 2014 that somehow manages to cheapen and water down the iconic original also as mentioned earlier in this video Amazon Studios have announced that they are developing another incarnation of the franchise and while the cynics Among Us yep me included are skeptical could they somehow recapture what made the first movie one of the greatest sci-fi action movies of all time it's doubtful but intriguing one addition to the RoboCop world is a crowd-funded make enough documentary called Robo dock the creation of Robocop due for release in 2023 that promises that tantalizing glimpse into the making of the first three RoboCop movies and will feature interviews with key members of the cast and crew whatever your view of the movie is there's no denying the fact that Paul verhoven and his team crafted a movie that not only stands the test of time but also gets better as it gets older nice shooting son what's your name Murphy [Music] you're on your own oh there's a lot of jungle

Channel: JoBlo Originals

Views: 52,612

Keywords: joblo, wtf happened to, wtf happened to this movie, joblo originals, robocop 1987, paul verhoeven, science fiction, robocop scene, robocop 2, alex murphy, robocop scene ed 209, paul verhoeven robocop, robocop 1987 alex murphy death, robocop 1987 soundtrack, ed 209, clarence boddicker guns guns guns, clarence boddicker dies, robocop gore, peter weller, nancy allen, kurtwood smith, basil poledouris, miguel ferrer, ronny cox robocop, ray wise, robocop toxic waste

Id: nprRPJMj2Xo

Length: 15min 10sec (910 seconds)

Published: Mon May 08 2023