TCP#7: RoboCop

Welcome to the September 22nd edition of Tuesday Couch Potatoes where we post about a movie each week. Today's theme is Robot/Cyborg movie. If you love human beings turned robots or love the idea of a future with robot or robots in the law enforcement or just plain science fiction, then come join us this week.

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me."

That sounds quite violent but if you live in a dystopian future, where there is unchecked crime and financial ruin (the latter is a VERY familiar scenario in the present day), you may find it common and even necessary. I guess if you are a law enforcement officer in the midst of gangsters and criminals, you wouldn't have the courage to say so. But if you are a cyborg and bullets have no effect on you, just like RoboCop, then you have all the right to say so.

I was only a kid when this movie came out in the year 1987 and I loved RoboCop since then. I even followed the series that came 7 years after the movie. I like the character of Robocop, who used to be Officer Alex Murphy. Murphy was killed in the line of duty and his body was used by OCP to create the first Robocop. His memory was retained however and remembers glimpses of wife and son, and of spinning his gun before holstering it (one of my favorite Robocop mannerisms). He is guided by 4 prime directives with the fourth being his weakness because opposing an OCP Officer leads to his shutdown.

1. "Serve the public trust"
2. "Protect the innocent"
3. "Uphold the law"
4. "Never oppose an OCP Officer"
   

RoboCop was not only a science fiction film. Various social themes were also incorporated into the movie such as, to quote Wikipedia,

"the decay of American industry from the 1970s through the early 1980s. The abandoned "Rust Belt-style" factories that RoboCop and Clarence Boddicker's gang use as hideouts demonstrate this theme. Massive unemployment is prevalent, being reported frequently on the news, as is poverty and the crime that results from economic hardship. Director Paul Verhoeven, known for his heavy use of Christian symbolism, states in the documentary "Flesh and Steel: The Making of RoboCop" (featured on the RoboCop DVD) that his intention was to portray RoboCop as a Christ figure. This is represented in Murphy's horrific death, his return as RoboCop, and a scene near the end of the film where RoboCop is seen walking over water."

Hmm... I didn't know that one!

Anyway, if you want to refresh your memories, then have a look at the 1987 trailer:


And if you are joining us this week, be sure to enter your link to this week's TCP at the MckLinky below:

Hope you enjoyed this week's theme. Next Tuesday, September 29th, we will feature a movie fit for The Entire Family! Till then!

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