Episode 150: Robocop with Slim from Letterboxd and 70mm pod

“Come quietly or there will be… trouble.”
No friends, this one was NOT part of Movie Night of Movie Night Automata, but it dang well could have/should have been! Instead Forrest, Conan Neutron and J. Andrew World are joined by 70mm host and letterboxd demigod Slim for our 150th episode, Paul Verhoeven’s ROBOCOP. A podcast crossover for the ages.

We talk about at what age we all saw this (too young, probably for most of the panel), how (sadly) prescient so much of this movie is with our modern culture. The news entertainment complex, consumption satire, public sector privatization. Bald middle-aged dude with glasses Clarence Boddicker being one of cinema’s most incredible second-string villains in this! Nancy Allen! Ray Wise as the thug in the club. The commercials (NUKEM!) and tv programming and how Verhoeven refined and reused some of those ideas in Starship Troopers. Why Basil Poledouris’ music in this is both incredible and iconic.

We all agree how incredible to see Alex J. Murphy, being stripped of his humanity for doing his job, the home tour with the Kiosk realtor, etc. Anne Lewis’s help helping remember the man he is and was. It is a new twist on the hero’s journey, where the hero dies early in the film.

This one is successful at being a cool dystopian violent revenge tale, a sly satire of so much we still deal with (Public/private partnerships), the cost-cutting of essential humanity while being bleakly funny. There really isn’t a lot of movies like Robocop. Legendary relentlessly paced action, endlessly quotable, completely badass, Is it the absolute pinnacle of subversive science-fiction satire? I’d buy that for a dollar.

“Can you fly, Bobby?”