Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "RoboCOp" (1987). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*

"Robocop" (1987) is very much that 1980s movie which portrays the divisiveness of the 80s, before the 1990s gentrification and its interconnected globalisation, pre-internet attempted at smoothing it all out.  Yet, this dystopian science fiction, was also part of continuum of late 1980s action movies with large kill rates, mixed with satire, and one liners.  That, ironically into the 90s, the satire petered out, but the kill rates increased.  Written by Edward Neumeier, who penned the script for the 1997 "Starship Troopers", and claims that the idea for the story of a corporatism future dystopia, with its corporate owned Police Force of Detroit, occurred when he unofficially, as he did work for Warner Bros at the time, worked on the set of "Blade Runner" (1982) which was located on the Warner Bros lots, thus, as the story goes, he hustled onto the Blade Runner production, for script ideas.   Which makes sense on how Neumeier gained those ideas for the RoboCop script, as science fiction of the 1970s and into the 1980s dealt with the fears of an autocrat incorporated world, retrofitted, with unstable technology, crumbling cities, corruption, widespread crime, and freedom of movement restricted.  In other words, a dystopia in the year 2025.  Yes, there is a pun here.

RoboCop's success can also be attributed to the importance of script writing and redrafting to fine tune the story idea, and it is also very handy if you are an industry insider, such as Edward Neumeier, who was able to convince up-and-coming Director Michael Miner to assist with the brainstorming of the RoboCop idea to become a tangible project.  The script and the pre-production landed with the very 1980s esque "Orion Pictures", known for its plethora of VHS style 1970s 'exploitation' grindhouse cinema, be it the themes of sex and violence.  And under the watchful eye of producer Jon Davison of Orion Pictures, who asked that Dutch  arthouse 'heavyweight' director Paul Verhoeven to direct, rather than an inexperienced Miner (yes, connections will get you so far, but risk is still risky!), making Robocop Verhoeven's first (one of many to come) 'payback' movies, after his American debutial release of "Flesh and Blood" (1985) which was panned by the critics.

And Verhoeven was clearly the correct choice by Orion Pictures, with a lower budget  $13.7 Million and emphasized to create a unique story from the many of Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner's script rewrites, Verhoeven was able to project a serious human story to the comic book style project, with enough violence and gore, to which Verhoeven became renowned for in his notorious 1980s and 1990s  Hollywood tenure.  With production in full swing, Neumeier offered ideas to Verhoeven and vise versa, to further emphasize his thoughts on the ruthless Corporatism within the script, with its fusion of corporate entities, all internally competing with each other, to what was once Government operated, such as the fictional mega company "Omni Consumer Products" ("OCP") control over the military, hospitals and education.  And now the Police department of Detroit.  Hence the theme of RoboCop to mechanize the police department with robots to fight crime, so that OCP can build their new 'Utopia' city over old Detroit.

In steps rookie cop "Alex Murphy" played by Peter Weller, who is brutality shot to pieces and killed by a bloodthirsty crime gang, lead by cocaine snorting, psychopathic cop killer "Clarence Boddicker" convincely played by Kurtwood Smith.  And alas, Murphy becomes "RoboCop", created by a sleazy, ambitious, and yes, cocaine snorting "Bob Morton" (Miguel Ferrer) an "OCP" executive in competing with power hungry, megalomaniac Senior President of OCP, "Dick Jones", played by Ronny Cox.   All setting the stage for a violent, blood soaked, gory, satirical fest, which was able to be a success upon its release, but not a blockbuster, despite the censorship board slapping an X-Rating on the initial release, with recuts shifting the rating to an R.

Watch for the news and television ad inserts that occur throughout the movie, extended to the even more violent "RoboCop 2" (1990), very much showing up the near future it be hyperreal and dysfunctional society, yet very familiar to the world we are currently living in.  Also watch for the actress Nancy Allen, who plays "Alex Murphy's" police partner "Anne Lewis", portrayed as a tough, and butchy, but caring sidekick to Murphy when he becomes "RoboCop", standing by him the whole time, after "Clarence Boddicker's" gang try and kill Murphy/RoboCop for the 2nd time.  Apparently asked by Verhoeven to have her hair cut short in a male style and gain weight, to which she obliged, with a boyish hairstyle and giving up smoking to put on those extra pounds.     

"RoboCop" is 37 years old, and stands as one of the more prophetic 1980s science fiction movies to date, and a popular culture warning of ensuring that governments don't have corporations running the whole thing.  But, maybe it's too late?  

A 1987 cult classic, worthy of that monthly DVD/cult cinema Friday night rerun.

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(A.Glass 2025)

All CHIAMUS Cult Cinema trailers/commentary to date: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search/label/Chiasmus%20cult%20cinema