the late show with Melina

Even though I tend to go to bed early on Fridays, as the work week has cancelled out my chronic insomnia by then, I ended up watching the movie Robocop on IFC. I've seen it several times, as in some ways it gets better each time, as it's stuffed with all types of clever hidden messages. And since almost all of it was filmed in Dallas (OCP headquarters are aptly tacked onto our existing CIty Hall), I like to see which neighborhoods I can identify.

Even though the story's simple, sort of a Bladerunner in reverse, Robocop has much to say about our future. It's an unpleasant, post-industrial future where the mass media trivializes suffering and death, even making light of a mortally wounded police officer with a smile and wink. Everything in the big city is broken-down, dirty, or rusting. Our government is so privatized and technocrat-led that we're being forced to scavenge cyborg law enforcers from dead police officers. Big business has expanded into building cyber-Frankensteins to keep the citizenry safe. As a society, we've earned this fate.

However, throughout all this pessimism, the director can't help but toss in some satirical ads. My favorite was for a new car, the SUX 6000, which gets 8 mpg and is described as a "return to traditional values". The director, Paul Verhoeven, seems to have a weakness for satire, thankfully he's pretty good at it.

The first time I saw this film, I had difficulty handling the violence, especially when the lead character is killed. The scene just went on and on. I remember closing my eyes after the first few seconds. Later, when this was mentioned to Verhoven during a press conference, he retorted that if the violence of the scene didn't upset the audience, then there was something wrong with them.

During last night's viewing, I began noticing Verhoeven had thrown in some references that described Robocop/Murphy as a messiah-type character who wants to save us from ourselves. For example, during one of the final scenes, he appears to be walking on water.

The actor Kurtwood Smith - best known as Red Foreman on That 70's Show - plays an awfully good bad guy, with an awfully amusing pack of followers who meet some incredibly distasteful ends. Allegedly Smith was chosen because he showed up to his audition wearing glasses, which somehow reminded Verhoeven of a Nazi he'd seen in his early childhood. And Smith even gets to hit on his real-life wife during the film (look for when he sticks his gum on a secretary's name plate - the secretary in the purple blouse is his wife).