What if corporate entities took over the police force of a major city? According to Robocop, it opens it up to subversion and mismanagement at the expense of innocent lives.
In the near future, Omni Consumer Products, who owns the police department of Detroit through a company called Security Concepts, Inc., plans to tear down what’s known as Old Detroit to pave the way for a New Detroit, which will bring prosperity to the now blighted city. The head of Security Concepts, a man named Jones (Ronny Cox), unveils a new type of robot-cop, the ED-209, that will aid the city’s police force in erasing crime from the New Detroit. The ED-209 fails miserably at it’s first test, killing an OCP employee during a drill.
A young up-and-comer named Morton (Miguel Ferrer) has a backup plan, the Robocop program, in which the body of a recently deceased police officer would be united with a robotic exoskeleton to create a blend of man and machine that should prove vastly superior to the ED-209’s purely robotic makeup. Given the green light by OCP’s CEO (Daniel O’Herlihy), Morton’s crew waits for a body matching the requirements of the program to become available.
That body belongs to Murphy (Peter Weller), who is killed while attempting to stop supercriminal Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) during a routine chase. Murphy’s body is joined to the machinery and a supercop is born. It’s inevitable that that Boddicker and Robocop will meet again.
Kurtwood Smith, who is probably better known for his roles in Dead Poet’s Society and A Time to Kill makes a fantastically slimy villain. Ronny Cox is good as the OCP man most interested in derailing Robocop’s progress. Weller’s robotic movements in the Robocop suit, which looks unbelievably restraining, are awe-inspiring. He manages to be graceful as well as powerful, often at the same time.
Robocop is more than just a mere action film. Although it’s graphically violent, it also has a lot to say about the corruption of big business by organized crime, the value of the police department, and humanity itself. While far from a perfect movie, Robocop shines with an intelligence that the two sequels and TV series that it spawned are sorely lacking. Pick this one up, but ignore the sequels.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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