In any previous decade, the chances of an arty Dutch filmmaker travelling to Hollywood to make a film about an ultrasophisticared cyborg cop wouldve been slim to none. Robocop couldnt have been made at any time other than at the height of Reaganism, and only Paul Verhoeven couldve brought the material alive. As much a satire as an action movie, Robocop takes place in a not too distant future where the corporations own justabout everything, including the police force. When an officer dies in the line of duty, hes transformed into their latest product, a cyborg thats allowed to shoot rapists in the balls but whose programming wont allow him to touch corporate villains. Best known for sexually charged dramas set in his native Holland, Verhoeven keeps the action crisp and even though the movies about as subtle as a chainsaw, he never allows it to descend into flat out silliness. He left that to the sequels and the remake.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
