Robocop is a dystopian sci-fi thriller set in a near-future version of Detroit. The city is overrun by crime and the police force is run by a private company, OCP. Often dismissed as a conventional action movie, the film can also be seen as a subversive satire which dissects contemporary American values. The notion of a privatized police force can be compared with US President Ronald Reagan’s policies in the 1980s, and there are many negative depictions of a brash commercial culture.

Robocop deals with the concept of the artificial human, which has been a central theme in science fiction since the time of Mary Shelley. The artificial human has appeared in a number of different guises: robot, android, cyborg and replicant. This complex figure has been used to personify technology, while its polysemic image has been adapted to explore anxieties surrounding conformity, class, slavery and racial difference.

Robocop is a cyborg (cybernetic organism), a hybrid of man and machine. The cyborg usually personifies the fear that technology is invading our bodies and destroying our humanity. Science fiction has always dealt with the relationship between the human and the robot, but combining the two into a hybrid being is a particular trend of the 1980s. As a hybrid, the cyborg can be seen as a quintessentially postmodern figure.

Key questions:

? How is the city of Detroit depicted? Are the images of industrial decline comparable to other texts, e.g. Get Carter?

? What is the function of the TV commercials? What do they suggest about American society and the values of the 1980s?

? How is business culture presented in the film?

? Verhoeven is known for his heavy use of Christian symbolism. Do you think that Murphy/Robocop is portrayed as a Christ figure?

Viewing:

The DVD of Robocop features a good documentary entitled Flesh and Steel. Also included are useful interviews with the film’s director, producer and writers.

Reading:

Doanne, M.A. ‘Machine as Messiah: Cyborgs, Morphs and the American Body Politic’ in Redmond, S. (ed.) (2004) Liquid Metal: the science fiction film reader.

Haraway, D. ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: science, technology and socialist feminism in the 1980s’ in Redmond, S. (ed.) (2004) Liquid Metal: the science fiction film reader.

Larson, D. ‘Ghosts and Machines: the Technological Body’ in Redmond, S. (ed.) (2004) Liquid Metal: the science fiction film reader.

Mizejewski, L. ‘Action Bodies in Futurist spaces: Bodybuilder Stardom as Special Effect’ in Kuhn, A. (1999) Alien Zone II: the spaces of science fiction cinema.

Trussell, R. ‘I, Robot: You Gotta Have Heart’ in Journal of Religion & Film; Oct 2005, volume 9, issue 2, p15.