Yup. They HAVE to watch Starship Troopers next! I also recommend watching Robocop 2 (but not 3). Another film they’d like is ‘Crank’ starring Jason Statham.
@@BigMikeDTW Robocop 2 is good , when Tom Noonan plays the villain , Robocop 3 is silly . There is Judge Dredd 1995 , with Stallone and the way better remake from 2012 , where they actually follow the comics canon. Starship troopers have also those strait to DVD sequels .
Paul Verhoeven is Dutch so the word bitch is not common there. So he referred to the two actresses as bitches, unbeknownst to him. Miguel Ferrer and Kurtwood Smith said this was so so funny
Peter Weller was picked as the lead for two reasons. The first was that they needed an actual skilled actor who could convey emotion and internal angst even with half their face covered. The second was they needed somebody who could fit the suit. They wanted robocop to be lean and mean and a big muscle dude would have required a bulkier suit.
@@nickm5419 Only because the producers wanted a big name. The reason he wasn't picked was because of the suit. Here is a part of an article where they discuss it..."According to Orion's Paul M. Sammon in 'The Movies That Made Us', the issue was when the suit's designer Rob Bottin started drawing the suit to Arnold Schwarzenegger's proportions, which Sammon claims made him look like ...'the Michelin Man.' The Arnold Schwarzenegger version of RoboCop was "too exaggerated" and bulky, to the point where he looked both indestructible and ridiculous. It soon became clear RoboCop couldn't work with Terminator star Arnie, and that they needed somebody with low body mass and appealing lips - since that's what audiences would see for most of the movie." Before choosing Weller Michael Ironside, Tom Berenger and Rutger Hauer were all considered.
Kinda sad that he never made it out to become a bigger action movie type actor like Arnold, Stallone, or Willis. I think his next biggest film outside of the Robocop franchise was Leviathan. And even though it was a pretty good movie in and of itself, it's largely forgotten today.
Paul Verhoeven is an absolute master at making films that on the surface are just popcorn chomping action flicks, but beneath that is brutal societal, social and political commentary without being too obvious and bashing it into your skull, nor is he so subtle that it's missed entirely. It's like he holds up a slightly distorted mirror on society. Since George was so impressed with the attention to detail with how they finalized Robocop's targeting etc. another area that is often overlooked and missed is how medically accurate the triage scene with Murphy is, they actually filmed a full triage team including the team on the roof when he gets choppered in, the director gave them the scenario and told them, to just do what they do.
Its a difficult balance to strike because there's never a shortage of idiots in any audiance who''ll misread a films message in the worst way. Like Starship Troopers, Fight Club, Demolition Man and even most recently Joker.
@@Avenger85438 NPH walks in wearing a version of an SS uniform. People who don't get satire: I don't get it! The problem is that Heinlein very much was imagining a military junta in control or a straight up fascist state. It seems "nice" mostly because we follow kids in a rich area school
His films tend to be mislabeled as pro- whatever they were actually critical of. Robocop - critics said it was pro militarization of police. Starship Troopers - Critics thought it was pro-authoritarianism, there are always idiots.
This is the Chappelle show problem. Chappelle show became so popular that Dave began to think that a substantial portion of the fans of the show weren't seeing it as satire, instead embracing it as a depiction of black America with no sense of irony. He felt his show was doing more harm than good, so he had a crisis of conscience and abandoned 50 million dollars. How many people watch starship troopers and think that ah . . . what a kickass movie, really you shouldn't get to vote unless your in the military? I think it's a real question, and given our current political context, I, for one, am honestly concerned. People take the wrong messages from these things and Verhoeven's intent as a satirist wasn't to boost the fascists he was satirizing. If I were him I would consider closely whether I successfully had the effect I was aiming for.
It's always funny to see people see Clarence, and say, "Hey is that Red Foreman", when those of us who grew up with this film saw Red Foreman and say, "Holy shit, is that Clarence from Robocop!" Such a great film, think I was around 10 when my Dad let me watch it, and representative of the 80s, and Basil Poledouris composed one hell of a score.
@@MrTech226 Yea I know, maybe I wasn't clear in what I said, but growing up seeing Robocop first, it was strange to see Kurtwood in a comedic role after knowing him as Clarence, but the new generation sees it the opposite way.
Clarence Boddicker is such an underrated villain, also so well educated and mannered. He always knocks, invite people out, brings nice gifts and closes the door on his way out.
Based on Nancy getting nearly killed at the end I think a lot of us thought that she would also be a Robocop if they did a sequel but they decided not to go down that road.
When you play the directors commentary with Ed Neumeir, they describe at the end being in a cinema, the crowd jumped up and went. YYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
Starship Troopers is what y'all need to watch next. In the past 20 years Verhoeven's turned from bombastic action to artistic drama. Black Book is an exceptional WW2 spy thriller he made in 2006, highly recommend.
I agree: Black Book is great. Verhoeven's other films are a bit uneven. I do like Starship Troopers though I think it misses the ideas from Robert Heinlein's book by a wide margin.
good old starship troopers. a bomb.. and then 20 years later... Genius! wheres the fuck'n sequal? and i mean the REAL one. not this low budget shit. I'll never understand why they never made another.
Peter Weller said the concept behind Murphy's face being just "pasted" onto Robocop's metal skull was based on psychological research that said a person would eventually go insane if they didn't see a human face looking back at them in their reflection. I remember reading an article (I think the title was "A Human Face") in a popular psychology magazine in the mid eighties that basically said the same thing, though it was more about the need to see a a face, not necessarily your own. Something that has stuck with me after all these decades is the case cited by the article of a prisoner held in prolonged solitary confinement who flattened out the foil wrapper from a candy bar so he could have even a distorted reflection of a human face to look at. Interestingly the anime and manga "A.D. Police" had a story, "The Man Who Bites His Tongue," about a cop who is turned into a cyborg (that somewhat resembles Robocop) designed to fight renegade androids. He gradually becomes insane and suicidal because of the effects of living inside a metal body with no tactile sensation and his growing dependency on the stimulant drug his creator gives him to keep him functioning.
"effects of living inside a metal body with no tactile sensation and his growing dependency on the stimulant drug" Damned if you do, damned if you don't. No feel vs feeling nothing but pain. People will do anything to get rid pain getting hooked on their own drugs trying to get by and survive just the same. Once pain gets past a certain level just thinking becomes hard, it can make ya crazy where cutting things off yourself just to get rid of that pain makes sense. I'm not at that level yet but I'd be fine with no mirror ever... I'd think a face is more for other people, uncanny valley freaks them out.
This is still one of my favourite 80's action movies. Rob Bottin (the genius behind the effects in The Thing) had a hand in creating the special makeup effects here. I'm not surprised as they still make you say WTF 35 years later, especially the guy melting from the toxic goo being hit by the car.
This film is basically Paul Verhoeven's interpretation of 1980's America. His other notable films are Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers. They're all extreme satires of many different subjects and viewpoints. RoboCop's primary weapon is a heavily modified Beretta 93 9mm burst fire handgun and the "Cobra Assault Cannons" are Barrett M82 .50BMG rifles. There are crossovers with The Terminator franchise
@@JacopoBasanisi The 80s started about 15 years after white flight to the suburbs from most US cities, leaving very little tax base to keep things going. Throw in Hep-C, HIV/AIDS, and the Crack epidemic and most major cities in the US were an absolute dumpster fire starting in the late 60s and didn't really start to turn around until the late 90s/early 00s.
There's great documentary called Robocop Villians, and Kurtwood Smith said there that in the script when Robocop arrests him, he must have said "just give me my phone call" and he told Verhoeven, what if I spit blood and say "Just give me my f-ing phone call", to which Verhoven smiled and said "You want to spit blood? Yes! This is sick! I Like it!". So, yeah, Verhoeven is all about it.
It's not really a documentary, just a featurette on the DVD/Blu-Ray. But yes it's there. Also there is a spot where Kurtwood and Miguel Ferrer talk about the 'bitches leave' scene, specifically how Verhoeven and his DOP Jost Vacano kept nonchalantly saying it to each other, including imitating their accents. If George lost it so much just hearing it here.. he'll die from laughter seeing that clip.
Red Foreman asking a dude if he can fly is still my favorite villain moment of all time. Brutal piece of satire that will unfortunately probably always be relevant in America.
So glad you guys finally watched this. This movie rocked me to my core as a kid. Along with being young & dumb, it was my first R rated movie. To make it even worse, my dad was a young cop like Murphy when I saw this movie. He stayed a cop for over 30 years. This film is forever seared into my brain, & will always be one of my all-time favorites.
I saw it in the theater when it came out and couldn't believe a family with 2 young children were sitting behind me. The kids were really chatty and I was dreading they'd talk though out the movie, but they were apparently dazzled into silence by the violence, blood and gore 😛
Yes, that is Kurtwood Smith, a.k.a. Red Forman from That 70's Show, as Clarence Boddicker. A lot of Verhoeven's films are intentionally over-the-top and satirical. I'd recommend Starship Troooers next. It got panned upon release but has earned a more positive reappraisal since then, and the film satirizes American militarism, fascism, propaganda, and "forever wars".
I always liked the attention to detail in this movie... Like when Murphy arrests Clarence and reads him his rights while throwing him through the glass, the recording starts when he told him that everything he says can be used against him...
In my totally not canon headcanon, this was what Red's life turned into after Eric left the house and Kitty passed/divorced him. Nothing left to lose, he turned to crime and ruthlessly rose through the ranks, carving a swath through all those "dumbasses"
Peter Weller was picked because he was thin enough to fit in the robo suit. Shooting was a nightmare, The suit fought Peter every step of the way. It was almost to the point where they were seriously considering scrapping production. the very 1st scene they ever filmed was Robocop catching the car keys, and because of the rubber on his hands peter couldn't catch the keys they kept bouncing off, something like 100 takes and everyone was so frustrated and angry they were all about to quit and scrap the movie. Peter actually brought in Moni Yakim from the Julliard school. he was a master of mime and movement and worked with Peter to learn how to move in the suit. it's why Peters robotic movements look so spot on.
The funniest thing about this is the actor who plays Clarence played Red Forman in That 70's Show, which just makes all that character's threats to insert a foot in a part of his anatomy so much better.
"Oh, it's like in the beginning" - It's not just that shootout. It's the whole movie that's mirrored. "What's your name? Murphy", two baddies on two different windshields, ED-209 blowing a fuse/getting blown up, etc.
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me!" remains a great line years on. Also you guys debating who would win in a fight: Robocop of Terminator takes me right back to schoolyard conversations i had as a kid.
Screw Attack did an analysis of this death match. In short, Robocop can easily overpower a hydraulic press which is quite literally what killed the Terminator. Winner: Robocop.
I love that both of you acknowledge the cyberpunk elements this movie has in it so early on. Not enough people realize that this is one of the earliest and most cyberpunk genre movies made. I’ve always held the belief that Robocop is set in a cyberpunk world that hasn’t become a cyberpunk world *quite* yet. Pretty much the only other sci-fi Verhoeven movie worth watching is Starship Troopers, his take on a war film in a way. Hollow Man is technically a sci-fi film by him too, but I’ve never seen it and heard it’s kind of rapey, but I could be wrong.
Yeah, I lived in downtown Detroit for a couple years & never recognized any areas of Detroit from this movie. Same with ‘The Crow.’ I did recognize lots of spots from ‘Out Of Sight,’ since a lot of the establishing shots were filmed by my old place.
Peter Weller is not your stereotypical 80's actor. He has an MA in Roman and Renaissance Art, a PhD in Italian Renaissance Art History and has taught classes in Ancient History at Syracuse University. He hosted a really cool show on the History Channel called Engineering an Empire. The show explored/examined engineering and architecture from ancient civilizations.
The doctor in the scene after Murphy gets shot to pieces was a real doctor. According to the voice over commentary on the Criterion DVD i've got, the writer/co-producer (Ed Neumeier if I remember correctly) asked that doctor if it was possible that Murphy would still be alive after what happened, because a lot of people thought there was no chance. Apparently that doctor said yes, he'd seen people shot up similar to that before and they were still alive - not in any kind of good shape obviously but still alive, absolutely!
All of Verhoeven's stuff is worth watching, with over 50 years of filmmaking behind his belt, and covering three distinct periods of creativity: his early Dutch movies, the wild run through Hollywood, and his current set of Euro blockbusters (including ELLE and BENEDETTA). Also, don't knock SHOWGIRLS until you've tried it. That film is truly an amazing thing to behold, and as much fun as one can have legally with pants on.
in the 80s, after watching "Robocop", I searched for the "Nukem" board game in every store and you can imagine my disappointment when I found out it wasn't a real game 😭
My recommendation for a Paul Verhoeven sci-fi would be "Starship Troopers." However, if you are a fan of Heinlein's novel upon which it was based, it is very different. Peter Weller later became a professor of history at Syracuse University. Students there got to learn Roman history from Robocop (or maybe Buckaroo Banzai, but Robocop is cooler).
I honestly can't understand how people like that book. And I like Heinlein, quite a bit. But that piece of fascist trash, which he literally wrote to protest the US ending nuclear testing, is just terrible. Verhoeven's satire of it, though, is a masterpiece. IIRC, he said of it, "I wanted to give the fascists their perfect world, and show them that all that it was good for was killing fucking bugs". Even people who like the book, grudgingly like the movie. It's pretty funny to watch them twist themselves into knots trying to reconcile the two facts by pretending the movie is fundamentally different from the book, but all they can come up with are minor details and omissions of specific pieces of tech, none of which impact the substance of the narrative. There are lists of "differences" on some of the fan Wikis. I've read them. They're very amusing.
@@michaelccozens The real irony is that all the things that Starship Troopers the book was criticizing are the things that are now destroying society. That book was right on the money. Verhoeven tried to make fun of it, but the movie was a flop and the underlying truth of the message still shone through, despite the attempt at satire. The "woke" left has just about pushed society to the breaking point with their lies and degeneracy, and what will you feminine soi-bois do when things finally break down, and the natural order of things is restored? What will a low-testosterone pseudo-intellectual like yourself do when masculinity, honesty, courage, and honor once again become valuable in life, and your lies, hypocrisy, and Neo-Marxist fantasies go out the window? It's coming soon. Everything you believe in is lies, and everything you hate---masculinity, the genetic inequality of human beings, the fundamentally hierarchical nature of human existence---is the truth. As is typically the case with SJW types, the reason you hate the inegalitarian truth is your subconscious knowledge of your own inferiority. With lefty males, this usually stems from a lack of masculinity and all its virtues, leading to a character defined by cowardice, moral corruption, and fearful hatred of biological reality. There's a reason SJW males tend to be so feminine, and SJW females so unattractive. Egalitarian ideologies (classic Marxism, cultural Marxism) are always the most appealing to the inferior. But such ideologies are false, and contrary to the laws of nature, which is why they will always fail. The ideology that you fear the most is the truth, and it's the future. That's why people like you are getting more and more scared all the time. Don't you know the truth will always win in the end? It's almost time. Stand by for the return of the patriarchy and the rule of the evolutionary elite.
@@michaelccozens The word "fascist" get thrown around carelessly and often demonstrates that the person accusing someone of being a fascist is ignorant of political/economic philosophy. Even Paul Verhoeven doesn't get it; he has said that his take on this movie was influenced by his childhood experience of WWII in the Netherlands, which evidently taught him that fascism is military + good-looking uniforms. This is fine for a child, but not very good for an adult wanting to comment on fascism. So what is fascism? Let's start with Mussolini, who coined the term. His definition was "Everything for the State, nothing outside the State, and nothing against the State." When we move northward and look at the 25 point manifesto of the NSDAP, we can see that is simply Communism in one country, instead of world-wide revolutionary international Communism; the difference is enemy is not the rich (or middle class - the bourgeoise, or the yeoman farmer - the Kulaks), it is the foreigner. During the time leading up to Nazi control of Germany, the NSDAP and the Communists were not ideological opponents, they were rival parties competing for votes by promising to have better socialism than the other. Fascism, therefore is the apotheosis of government such that the state replaces all other sources of authority, maybe also with a side of ethno-nationalism. The novel "Starship Troopers," is, in essence, a mediation on government. What Heinlein puts forth is a liberal democracy with limited suffrage. In his Federation, the right to vote or hold office is not a consequence of existence, but something earned though the willingness to sacrifice one's life for the polity. Federal Service is both entirely voluntary and individually accommodating. Heinlein writes that the government will find some form of service that the hopelessly stupid or the severely disabled can do so that *everybody* has the opportunity to earn citizenship. There is no indication that the state controls the economy, prescribes where people can live or what people can do for a living. Other than the right to vote or hold office, "civilians" have no social, economic or legal disadvantage to citizens - Rico's family is wealthy and are in no fear that this wealth will be arbitrarily confiscated by the state, there are private institutions, such as Harvard, and private businesses, such as his father's. Nobody is prohibited from criticizing the government or the political system (as shown by Rico's father and that scientist who examined Rico after joining the military. There is no conscription, and there is no punishment for dropping out of military service. The society isn't even particularly militaristic; note that while the military is the means by which one can become a citizen, one only becomes a citizen *after* completing military service. While the legal system is more punitive than ours, it is not a police state - people get fair trials and they have fewer police than we do. There is no ethnic discrimination (unless, I suppose, we count the ethnicity as "human," in which case the Federation is unapologetically "nationalist.") None of this is fascistic. The government is not totalitarian - it is not really even authoritarian. There is no apotheosis of the state. Whether or not this is a good and/or sustainable political system is up to the reader, but what it is not is fascism. In the film, Verhoeven actually gets most of this correct (meaning true to the novel). The only difference that I can remember is the arbitrary sentencing of the criminal shown in the film. I cannot remember if it is in the book, but in the film, the Federation isn't even expansionist. The war started with the Arachnids essentially nuking Buenos Aires (Geneva in the novel) in a surprise attack. According to the film the only possible provocation was "Mormon extremists" settling in the "Arachnid Quarantine Zone," where they were killed; however, far from retaliating against the Arachnids, the Federation blames the human settlers, presumably because it wanted to avoid conflict (as shown by establishing a quarantine zone in the first place and advising its people to stay away). Thus the "fascism" that he is criticizing is having a military that fights wars, and that military having uniforms reminiscent of those of the Third Reich. To the extent that Verhoeven was trying to make a satirical critique of "fascism," he failed. Contrast this, for example, with his pseudo-cyberpunk (cyberpunk adjacent?) Detroit in Robocop; if Verhoeven's goal was to paint a picture of a corporate-controlled society filled with violence and lawlessness as a terrible place to live, he succeeded. Nobody wants to live in Robocop's Detroit. However, even according to your own description, people would not mind living in Starship Troopers' Federation. To be fair, Verhoeven had the example of the actual shithole that was (and still is) real Detroit to draw upon for the former, and only the presence of foreign soldiers in smart uniforms occupying his country before he was old enough to understand and/or be interested in political philosophy for the latter.
@@bigtechisbigbrother8690 It's always amusing to see that people like you are thinking they would belong to the ruling class in a system you have described. The truth is, you wouldn't. The most you would reach is to be a small cog in the giant machine of the state - somebody who can be substitued without anyone noticing you are no longer there. The only way you could be more if you are a psycopath, an immoral killer who has no problems if he have to shoot a toddler in the head. And if you really are that kind of person... you have no place in today's civilization, you belong in a mental institute for life.
The choice to pick a lean guy for an action movie was simply due to have him fit into the Robocop suit. They picked Peter Weller because of his iconic jaw line which would be the only human part visible in the Robocop suit. For another Paul Verhoven sci fi movie, people already recommended Starship Troopers. I also highly recommend that one. Just make sure to not miss the satire and critical undertones. Starship Troopers is one of the most misunderstood movies because many people took it seriously or just saw it as a popcorn action flic. Like Robocop, there's a much deeper layer below that over the top action. I'd also give Robocop 2 a chance. While it's nowhere as iconic and great as the first movie, it's still a very watchable and entertaining sequel. Everything after Robocop 2 (including the TV show) was simply milking the franchise and isn't worth watching imho.
To be precise, they built the suit around the actor they chose but they figured when they cast the part that if they went with a big, beefy, Schwarzenegger type he'd look chunky and not at as much of a bad-ass once you put him in the suit.
@@karlmortoniv2951 My answer wasn't intended to imply the suit was pre built. Obviously, it has to be custom built to perfectly fit the actor. What I meant was they chose a rather slim actor so he would look good in the finished suit which would inevitably add quite some bulk. A bigger actor would have resulted in a comically massive cyborg which wouldn't have fit the tone of the movie they were going for.
@CYB3R2K30 I have mixed feelings about the remake. While I liked some aspects of it, I completely disliked the 'he only thinks he's in control' part. On top of that, Robocop is one of my all time classics which simply don't need a remake. They could have told the same story with a completely new 'hero'.
@@HrWisch I think we’re both saying the same thing. I didn’t mean to call you out or anything like that, but I have a memory of Verhoeven and maybe the producer talking on a commentary track about how slender Peter Weller was and how this was a factor in casting him.
Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's my guilty pleasure. But I have a soft spot for Robocop 2. While it was nowhere near the masterpiece the first movie was, it stayed true to the story of the first movie (picking up things like the police strike they were talking about in the first movie). On top of that, Robocop 2 was self aware and they didn't take themselves too seriously which resulted in a lot of funny scenes. Like Ghostbusters 2, it's nowhere near the original. But as a sequel and if you don't expect another 'perfect' movie, it works well enough for me. The remake couldn't pull that off for me. I'd rather watch Robocop 2 than the remake.
25:05 If you were wondering why Dick Jones' arms are so super long when he falls out of the window at the end it's because that was filmed as a stop motion doll and because it was quite small, being close to the camera gave them a longer appearance because of the wide angle of the lens. It still looks really weird though.
@@carn9507 Indeed. In fact I think we appreciate stop motion even more because we subconsciously understand the HUGE amount of artistry and patience that went into making it (not that CGI is easy necessarily, but the computer does do a large amount of the work). Interesting tidbit about stop motion: When they were designing Jurassic Park they considered stop motion but tests did not live up to what Steven Spielberg saw in his mind's eye. Computer graphics were fairly new but the modelling and animating software was even newer (this was years before even the first crude Toy Story came out), so they thought they'd be forced to use stop motion regardless. Someone came up with the idea of building a rig that a stop motion artist (Phil Tippet, stop motion legend) could manipulate, while the angles of all the joints would be recorded by computer and then the software would interpolate the 'in-betweens' which removes all of the jerkiness of typical stop motion. This is why, to this day, Jurassic Park looks as good or better than many movies coming out almost 30 years later.
You need to see “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension.” Peter Weller is in that, along with John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum and Clancy Brown with a bunch of awesome 80’s character actors.
i'm always really blown away by peter weller's robot performance. his robot mime movements make you totally believe that he's some robotic beast (the sound effects enhance it so much too)
In an old interview with Kurtwood Smith (Clarence Boddicker) he stated that of all his character's lines of dialog, "Bitches, Leave!" was his favorite.
If you're interested in how Paul Verhoeven takes on the Middle Ages, his film "Flesh and Blood" starring Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh is highly watchable.
I love Flesh + Blood. That was really film that introduced me to both Verhoven as a director and Rutger Hauer as an actor. The plague sequence alone gave me nightmares as a child. I had just read about the black death and seeing it depicted in such a visceral and over the top way really hammered home how brutal it could be.
Most people concentrate on Verhoeven's big-budget Hollywood movies, but his early films made in his native Netherlands are overlooked and some are pretty good if you have an interest. 'Soldier of Orange' is an historical movie about students in the Dutch Resistance vs. the German occupiers. 'The 4th Man' is a very creepy horror/thriller with some great twists.
I haven't seen Soldier for decades but I remember it as being a very good film. The first thing I remember seeing both Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbe in.
Krabbe is also in 4th Man, along with Renee Soutendijk, who was also in Verhoeven's 'Spetters'--one gets the impression that the Dutch film industry was a relatively small community.
@@WUStLBear82 It still is. Budgets are small and there's a limited market so good actors have a hard time going full time. That said, some great movies were made here.
And that he was skinny. Which allowed him to wear the bulky suit without being too bulky. Even so, he lost a TON of weight through sweating, because of how hot that suit was.
This was one of the best of Paul Verhoeven's films. From the title, it's like, "Really?". When I saw it on opening day, I was blown away. It's one of my favorites. - 3:36 - The old man that is the Chairman is Dan O'Herlihy. A sci-fi movie of the 80s that he did that I LOVE is 'The Last Starfighter' with Robert Preston. That one has a lot of heart and is a Steven Spielberg movie that Spielberg had nothing to do with...it just has the same feel as a lot of his films. In that film, O'Herlihy is covered in prosthetics...but the voice is unmistakable! - 3:51 - Bob Morton was played by the late Miguel Ferrer. He was the voice of Shan Yu in 'Mulan', and was a great character actor who was also Hollywood royalty...his father was Jose Ferrer (Best Actor Oscar-winner for 'Cyrano De Bergerac' (1950)...the first Hispanic actor to win an Oscar. His mother was singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, best known today for the film musical 'White Christmas' with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen (1954). His cousin is George Clooney. - 6:10 - "He kinda looks like Mr. Foreman..." BINGO...That is Kurtwood Smith aka Red Foreman from 'That 70's Show'! In the 80s, he kinda played unlikable characters, but did so with charm. One of my favorite performances of his was as Robert Sean Leonard's father in 'Dead Poets Society' with Robin Williams. - 22:45 - You must watch this video for an answer, George (and it's rather humorous!)... th-cam.com/video/Jmqa99Ar1Hs/w-d-xo.html - 26:42 - In the sci-fi genre..."Starship Troopers'. It's a lot of fun! Also, a really good erotic thriller that Verhoeven did is 'Basic Instinct' with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas, it put Stone on the map as a bankable actress for a while in the 90s. You'd have to shadow or blur out A LOT of stuff, but it keeps you guessing till the end! Thanks!!!
I like to think that this movie and That 70s Show take place in the same universe, and the kids just eventually drove Mr. Foreman so crazy that he turned into a crime boss.
The nail... it was not the nail, it was the bone 😳 I watched this movie when I was around 17 and didn't remember that detail! This movie is brilliant and even the special FX aged well. But the thing I love is the way the narrative sets the whole world where the story happens. Great video as always!
I remember watching this movie in the theaters. I live in Michigan but just not Detroit, Michigan. It's fun to see how far videos have advanced in the last 20 years. Great reaction! Can't wait for your next one.
14:52 -- The device that Robocop has in his hand was known as a "data spike". You would insert it almost like a key into a data port and physically turn it for read and write.
Or like Wiz and Boomstick said it best, *OR FOR RIPPING OUT THROATS! JUST LOOK AT THAT THING!* *"No wonder Detroit is falling apart. All their USB flash drives double as shivs."*
I was 9 when the is came out and it never gets old. The theatrical release has a little less gore. You didn’t see Murphy’s arm get blown off and the head shot wasn’t as graphic. You guys need to watch the Honest Trailer on YT for this movie. It’s hilarious!
"Who would win, Robocop or Terminator?" That was the inspiration behind a video game and a comic book back in the 90s. If you want sci-fi and Verhoeven, you should definitely check out Starship Troopers - it's brilliant.
RoboCop: Haven't we done this before? Terminator: I have no record of our previous encounter. Robocop: We have met, I'm sure of it. (MK11 Intro dialogue)
Saw this movie as a kid (the 80s!) When the toxic waste scene happened it freaked the shit out of me. It haunted me for several years there after. Despite that Robocop was one of my favorite and a lot of kids favorites movie. When ever we go to rent movies, I always asked to get that one or commando…..again it was the 80s! 😂
17:54 I do believe that the pistol is a rapid fire low caliber gun, so his bullets don’t go through the bad guy and hit someone behind. However a cool feature they don’t really say but kinda imply is that when he “holsters” the gun in his leg, his leg is automatically reloading the pistol.
The 80's was a different era. The thing about late 90s babies and millennials is they want a deep dive into everything and just can't except a great story for what it is. They want to know who, where, what and why and the why behind the why🤦🏻♂️.
This is very much based on the Judge Dredd comics - a number of Robo’s lines are direct Dredd quotes. Also the practical effects in this are great - ah the days before cgi.
Trigger warning (graphic): Just so you know there have been cases where self-inflicted gunshot wound victims survive, worst I've heard was a guy who used a shotgun, he was missing the front of his face and only died hours later at the hospital, not saying murphy did survive, but it's possible
This movie was one of the bloodiest movies at release. It had to be edited multiple times to not receive an X rating (NC17 didn't exist yet). This was also the first Rated R movie I ever saw. I was 11 years old. It was a shock at just how brutal and gory it was. I assumed all Rated R movies were just as bad. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they weren't. As for other Verhoeven movies.... eh... they are hit and miss. Starship Troopers is great, if you go in understanding it's satire. Showgirls? Yeah, definitely CineCringe material. That movie was soooo long and the only movie that can make boobs boring. Basic Instinct and Hollow Man were "meh" for me, but the former was pretty infamous.
It was also my first R rated movie, & to hit me even harder my dad was a cop for over 30 years. He was a young cop like Murphy when this movie came out. It rocked me pretty hard at that age & it’s forever seared into my brain. It’s still one of my all-time favorites.
Yea this has to have been one of the earliest R movies I had seen too. I got physically ill at the torture/killing of Alex and had nightmares of that and just the loss/gradual regain of humanity for him over the course of the film. It was less crime thriller and more horror to me at the time.
I watch youre Channel for two houres how and i have to say "great editing".You watch it and talk about it but all the Important Moments are clean to see...great Work👍
I saw this when I was about 10 years old not knowing how disturbingly graphic it was. The melting man in the toxic waste traumatized me for awhile. But looking back at it now it’s just kind of funny to watch cause it’s so ridiculous.
The first VHS I ever got as a gift was Robocop. I was 8 years old. My mother thought it would be fine as there's no sex in it. The 80's were a weird time
Peter Weller or Ray Wise, looking back on the success of Robocop for an anniversary edition disc said he was just glad they were able to make something that was interesting and the fact that it became so iconic was just "gravy on the cake...gravy on the cake?" getting his metaphors mixed up during the interview.
A great movie. Fyi It is the actor who plays Mr Forman :) .You should also see Starship troopers from the same director. The Director also did Total Recall.
@@JanGaarni I know they did Total Recall. I only asked them to watch Starship Troopers and only mention that Total Recall which they watched was made by the same director.
I was actually watching Robocop the other day and decided to do some extra behind the scenes research. The explosion at the gas station was so massive that residents in the city who could see the flames in the sky thought something had really blown up and a bunch of people called the fire department.
I have never recovered from the line *"Murphy had a wife and son, what happened to them?"* Not *_"I_** had a wife and son..." **_"Murphy_** had..."* Is this fella/gismo even Murphy, or not?
Peter Weller ( Robocop) is actually a college professor who teaches history, he’s been lead in other movies but this one is his most famous. Kurtwood Smith ( the one you kept calling BTK) actually is Mr. Forman from that 70’s show, he also has been in a lot of movies. The cobra cannon you where talking about is a real rifle, it’s actually the Barret .50 cal. Technically it’s a sniper rifle for long distance shooting ( it holds the record for longest kill shot from a U.S. marine from over 1.5 miles away, at closer range it will put a slug threw a semi engine block, threw the cab, out the back and into the trailer before loosing enough power to slow down) it’s a big gun lol
OCP was one of the inspirations for Shin-Ra in Final Fantasy VII. You have a very clean, sterile corporation contrasting with a very grungy and crime-ridden city. Kind of like Midgar. In fact, Final Fantasy borrowed a few ideas from Robocop and redesigned them, like ED-209.
Final Fantasy has lifted half of their material from extant fantasy and sci-fi. I guess Square Enix changes just enough to not get sued on a regular basis.
I think unmasked Robocop is my favourite practical effect ever... Hell, probably my favourite special effect of any kind. Aside from all the detail (particularly in the transition from stretched skin to the back of the head) t's a perfect balance of horror without being so grotesque that you struggle to empathise with Murphy as a character.
Starship Troopers is another brilliant scifi movie from this director.
Yup. They HAVE to watch Starship Troopers next!
I also recommend watching Robocop 2 (but not 3). Another film they’d like is ‘Crank’ starring Jason Statham.
@@BigMikeDTW 2 is good... 3... I liked it, but only because it scratched my young robot/anime itch when I was a kid.
@@BigMikeDTW Robocop 2 is good , when Tom Noonan plays the villain , Robocop 3 is silly .
There is Judge Dredd 1995 , with Stallone and the way better remake from 2012 , where they actually follow the comics canon.
Starship troopers have also those strait to DVD sequels .
Eh. Didn't do the book justice
Although it's a very poor adaptation of the book... It is still a must watch if you like robocop and total recall...
"Bitches leave." I've been cracking up over that line for 30 years 😂👍
one of the best lines
I think you have to be holding a gun for it to work
I mean, it's literally one of the best lines in movie history - let's face it lol
Paul Verhoeven is Dutch so the word bitch is not common there. So he referred to the two actresses as bitches, unbeknownst to him. Miguel Ferrer and Kurtwood Smith said this was so so funny
That and "Can you fly, Bobby?"
"Bitches leave" is one of the best and beloved bad guy lines in movie history.
Peter Weller was picked as the lead for two reasons. The first was that they needed an actual skilled actor who could convey emotion and internal angst even with half their face covered. The second was they needed somebody who could fit the suit. They wanted robocop to be lean and mean and a big muscle dude would have required a bulkier suit.
Weller's also just an amazing physical actor. Compare him with whoever they got to replace him in the later sequels. It's night and day.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to be Robocop
@@nickm5419 Only because the producers wanted a big name. The reason he wasn't picked was because of the suit. Here is a part of an article where they discuss it..."According to Orion's Paul M. Sammon in 'The Movies That Made Us', the issue was when the suit's designer Rob Bottin started drawing the suit to Arnold Schwarzenegger's proportions, which Sammon claims made him look like ...'the Michelin Man.' The Arnold Schwarzenegger version of RoboCop was "too exaggerated" and bulky, to the point where he looked both indestructible and ridiculous. It soon became clear RoboCop couldn't work with Terminator star Arnie, and that they needed somebody with low body mass and appealing lips - since that's what audiences would see for most of the movie." Before choosing Weller Michael Ironside, Tom Berenger and Rutger Hauer were all considered.
Kinda sad that he never made it out to become a bigger action movie type actor like Arnold, Stallone, or Willis. I think his next biggest film outside of the Robocop franchise was Leviathan. And even though it was a pretty good movie in and of itself, it's largely forgotten today.
@@rsuriyop I prefer "Screamers".
Paul Verhoeven is an absolute master at making films that on the surface are just popcorn chomping action flicks, but beneath that is brutal societal, social and political commentary without being too obvious and bashing it into your skull, nor is he so subtle that it's missed entirely. It's like he holds up a slightly distorted mirror on society.
Since George was so impressed with the attention to detail with how they finalized Robocop's targeting etc. another area that is often overlooked and missed is how medically accurate the triage scene with Murphy is, they actually filmed a full triage team including the team on the roof when he gets choppered in, the director gave them the scenario and told them, to just do what they do.
Its a difficult balance to strike because there's never a shortage of idiots in any audiance who''ll misread a films message in the worst way.
Like Starship Troopers, Fight Club, Demolition Man and even most recently Joker.
@@Avenger85438 NPH walks in wearing a version of an SS uniform.
People who don't get satire: I don't get it!
The problem is that Heinlein very much was imagining a military junta in control or a straight up fascist state. It seems "nice" mostly because we follow kids in a rich area school
Couldn’t have been stated better!!!
His films tend to be mislabeled as pro- whatever they were actually critical of. Robocop - critics said it was pro militarization of police. Starship Troopers - Critics thought it was pro-authoritarianism, there are always idiots.
This is the Chappelle show problem. Chappelle show became so popular that Dave began to think that a substantial portion of the fans of the show weren't seeing it as satire, instead embracing it as a depiction of black America with no sense of irony. He felt his show was doing more harm than good, so he had a crisis of conscience and abandoned 50 million dollars. How many people watch starship troopers and think that ah . . . what a kickass movie, really you shouldn't get to vote unless your in the military? I think it's a real question, and given our current political context, I, for one, am honestly concerned. People take the wrong messages from these things and Verhoeven's intent as a satirist wasn't to boost the fascists he was satirizing. If I were him I would consider closely whether I successfully had the effect I was aiming for.
"Dick? YOU'RE FIRED!!!!"
"Thank you."
I ALWAYS loved the cleverness & wisdom of that move. As well as loving that ending. (one of the best)
The music too. Robocop theme stick with ya. Basil Poledouris strikes again.
It's always funny to see people see Clarence, and say, "Hey is that Red Foreman", when those of us who grew up with this film saw Red Foreman and say, "Holy shit, is that Clarence from Robocop!" Such a great film, think I was around 10 when my Dad let me watch it, and representative of the 80s, and Basil Poledouris composed one hell of a score.
I didn't realise Basil did the score for this but now that you mention it I don't know why I never identified it before. Masterful!
Simone is correct! Clarence is Mr. Red Foreman aka Kurtwood Smith.
@@MrTech226 Yea I know, maybe I wasn't clear in what I said, but growing up seeing Robocop first, it was strange to see Kurtwood in a comedic role after knowing him as Clarence, but the new generation sees it the opposite way.
@@darthphayde508
I saw Robocop as a kid first too and still its Red Foreman for me, back in the 80s he was just a nameless villain
Exactly. When I saw the first episode of that 70s show, I looked at my brother and said, "Can you fly, Bobby?"
Clarence Boddicker is such an underrated villain, also so well educated and mannered.
He always knocks, invite people out, brings nice gifts and closes the door on his way out.
"Nice shooting, son. What's your name?"
"Murphy."
Best ending EVER.
Based on Nancy getting nearly killed at the end I think a lot of us thought that she would also be a Robocop if they did a sequel but they decided not to go down that road.
When you play the directors commentary with Ed Neumeir, they describe at the end being in a cinema, the crowd jumped up and went.
YYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
It was wholesome. :)
@@JustWasted3HoursHere If Robocop2 were made today, Nancy would have definitely become the next Robocop.
@@DocMicrowave if robocop 2 was made today it would be as bad as the reboot of robocop...
George's reaction to 'B*****s, leave' was priceless XD What an entrance! Great reaction, guys!!
Starship Troopers is what y'all need to watch next. In the past 20 years Verhoeven's turned from bombastic action to artistic drama. Black Book is an exceptional WW2 spy thriller he made in 2006, highly recommend.
'Do you want to know more?'
I agree: Black Book is great. Verhoeven's other films are a bit uneven. I do like Starship Troopers though I think it misses the ideas from Robert Heinlein's book by a wide margin.
good old starship troopers. a bomb.. and then 20 years later... Genius! wheres the fuck'n sequal? and i mean the REAL one. not this low budget shit. I'll never understand why they never made another.
@@jonasfermefors Starship Troopers doesn't miss the point of the book, it's a conscious caricature of the ideologies the book is based on.
@@OctaBech Doesn't that mean that it at least has a different point?
Peter Weller is an immensely underrated actor. He should have been the lead in more movies
He's also highly educated. He's got a PhD in Roman/Italian Rennasaince Art.
Loved "Buckaroo Banzai"!
Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!
"It's very videogame-ish." Because video games have been... borrowing from Robocop since 1987.
Peter Weller said the concept behind Murphy's face being just "pasted" onto Robocop's metal skull was based on psychological research that said a person would eventually go insane if they didn't see a human face looking back at them in their reflection. I remember reading an article (I think the title was "A Human Face") in a popular psychology magazine in the mid eighties that basically said the same thing, though it was more about the need to see a a face, not necessarily your own. Something that has stuck with me after all these decades is the case cited by the article of a prisoner held in prolonged solitary confinement who flattened out the foil wrapper from a candy bar so he could have even a distorted reflection of a human face to look at.
Interestingly the anime and manga "A.D. Police" had a story, "The Man Who Bites His Tongue," about a cop who is turned into a cyborg (that somewhat resembles Robocop) designed to fight renegade androids. He gradually becomes insane and suicidal because of the effects of living inside a metal body with no tactile sensation and his growing dependency on the stimulant drug his creator gives him to keep him functioning.
"effects of living inside a metal body with no tactile sensation and his growing dependency on the stimulant drug" Damned if you do, damned if you don't. No feel vs feeling nothing but pain. People will do anything to get rid pain getting hooked on their own drugs trying to get by and survive just the same. Once pain gets past a certain level just thinking becomes hard, it can make ya crazy where cutting things off yourself just to get rid of that pain makes sense. I'm not at that level yet but I'd be fine with no mirror ever... I'd think a face is more for other people, uncanny valley freaks them out.
This is also an issue with some patients after cosmetic surgery, they look in the mirror and don't recognise the face looking back at them
Robocop 2
This is still one of my favourite 80's action movies. Rob Bottin (the genius behind the effects in The Thing) had a hand in creating the special makeup effects here. I'm not surprised as they still make you say WTF 35 years later, especially the guy melting from the toxic goo being hit by the car.
Best body splatter ever!
Y'all's reaction to "Bitches Leave", fantastic. George just immediately cracked up and Simone took the time to be appalled before laughing.
This film is basically Paul Verhoeven's interpretation of 1980's America. His other notable films are Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers. They're all extreme satires of many different subjects and viewpoints. RoboCop's primary weapon is a heavily modified Beretta 93 9mm burst fire handgun and the "Cobra Assault Cannons" are Barrett M82 .50BMG rifles. There are crossovers with The Terminator franchise
You forgot Showgirls...notable because of the massive collective WTF that was had by all after it came out. LOL
Murphy's Baretta is also a weapon in Far Cry Blood Dragon and Far Cry 4. It's fantastic!
Guys how bad were US in the 80s? Every "future" movie city was a wasteland
@@JacopoBasanisi The 80s started about 15 years after white flight to the suburbs from most US cities, leaving very little tax base to keep things going. Throw in Hep-C, HIV/AIDS, and the Crack epidemic and most major cities in the US were an absolute dumpster fire starting in the late 60s and didn't really start to turn around until the late 90s/early 00s.
@@bigfella6898 Oh ok so you are saying this kind of movie was accurate
There's great documentary called Robocop Villians, and Kurtwood Smith said there that in the script when Robocop arrests him, he must have said "just give me my phone call" and he told Verhoeven, what if I spit blood and say "Just give me my f-ing phone call", to which Verhoven smiled and said "You want to spit blood? Yes! This is sick! I Like it!". So, yeah, Verhoeven is all about it.
Hey, I know you 😉 Неожиданно
It's not really a documentary, just a featurette on the DVD/Blu-Ray. But yes it's there. Also there is a spot where Kurtwood and Miguel Ferrer talk about the 'bitches leave' scene, specifically how Verhoeven and his DOP Jost Vacano kept nonchalantly saying it to each other, including imitating their accents. If George lost it so much just hearing it here.. he'll die from laughter seeing that clip.
That is amazing, the actor really understood the character.
Red Foreman asking a dude if he can fly is still my favorite villain moment of all time.
Brutal piece of satire that will unfortunately probably always be relevant in America.
I always wondered what Topher Grace thought when they met. "This is my dad?"
It IS indeed young Red Forman from That 70's Show. He also has young Leyland Palmer from Twin Peaks in his gang xD
So glad you guys finally watched this. This movie rocked me to my core as a kid. Along with being young & dumb, it was my first R rated movie. To make it even worse, my dad was a young cop like Murphy when I saw this movie. He stayed a cop for over 30 years. This film is forever seared into my brain, & will always be one of my all-time favorites.
Me too. Saw it as a kid, my dad's "Police" but radio mechanic/installer.
I saw it in the theater when it came out and couldn't believe a family with 2 young children were sitting behind me. The kids were really chatty and I was dreading they'd talk though out the movie, but they were apparently dazzled into silence by the violence, blood and gore 😛
Yes, that is Kurtwood Smith, a.k.a. Red Forman from That 70's Show, as Clarence Boddicker.
A lot of Verhoeven's films are intentionally over-the-top and satirical. I'd recommend Starship Troooers next. It got panned upon release but has earned a more positive reappraisal since then, and the film satirizes American militarism, fascism, propaganda, and "forever wars".
Starship Troopers aged too well to say the least.
"Bitches, leave." continues to be one of the greatest movie quotes in history.
George laughing at Clarence's entrance made my day.
This reaction was HILARIOUS! Your reaction to the "Bitches leave..." scene had me rolling!
I always liked the attention to detail in this movie...
Like when Murphy arrests Clarence and reads him his rights while throwing him through the glass, the recording starts when he told him that everything he says can be used against him...
That was Red Foreman, the dad from that 70’s show haha. And now it makes sense why he was so feared by everyone in the shoe, including the cops lmao
It just makes me wish there was some point in Robocop when he calls somebody a "dumbass". 🤣🤣🤣
He's *also* the president of the Federation in Trek 6! (Probably only I care about that, tho.)
In my totally not canon headcanon, this was what Red's life turned into after Eric left the house and Kitty passed/divorced him. Nothing left to lose, he turned to crime and ruthlessly rose through the ranks, carving a swath through all those "dumbasses"
@@jennifervalentine8955 Oh...that is good. LOL
Peter Weller was picked because he was thin enough to fit in the robo suit.
Shooting was a nightmare, The suit fought Peter every step of the way. It was almost to the point where they were seriously considering scrapping production. the very 1st scene they ever filmed was Robocop catching the car keys, and because of the rubber on his hands peter couldn't catch the keys they kept bouncing off, something like 100 takes and everyone was so frustrated and angry they were all about to quit and scrap the movie.
Peter actually brought in Moni Yakim from the Julliard school. he was a master of mime and movement and worked with Peter to learn how to move in the suit. it's why Peters robotic movements look so spot on.
The funniest thing about this is the actor who plays Clarence played Red Forman in That 70's Show, which just makes all that character's threats to insert a foot in a part of his anatomy so much better.
"Oh, it's like in the beginning" - It's not just that shootout. It's the whole movie that's mirrored. "What's your name? Murphy", two baddies on two different windshields, ED-209 blowing a fuse/getting blown up, etc.
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me!" remains a great line years on.
Also you guys debating who would win in a fight: Robocop of Terminator takes me right back to schoolyard conversations i had as a kid.
Frank Miller wrote a Robocop vs Terminator comic that answered the question.
Screw Attack did an analysis of this death match. In short, Robocop can easily overpower a hydraulic press which is quite literally what killed the Terminator. Winner: Robocop.
@@zairac2564 Robocop is almost as stationary as a hydraulic press too. lol Terminator can just walk around but is the machine that smart?
one of my all time favs!
I love how Murphy's voice changes from robotic to his human voice, as he gains his humanity back.
I love that both of you acknowledge the cyberpunk elements this movie has in it so early on. Not enough people realize that this is one of the earliest and most cyberpunk genre movies made. I’ve always held the belief that Robocop is set in a cyberpunk world that hasn’t become a cyberpunk world *quite* yet. Pretty much the only other sci-fi Verhoeven movie worth watching is Starship Troopers, his take on a war film in a way. Hollow Man is technically a sci-fi film by him too, but I’ve never seen it and heard it’s kind of rapey, but I could be wrong.
Verhoeven is also responsible for "Total Recall".
@@DecemberGuy77 He is! But they've watched that on this channel already.
@Latest Obsession true, forgot about Metropolis
6:40 the bullet proof vest never let the bullets fully penetrate in him. What I recall.
as a Detroit native, this offends me. Their depiction of the city is FAR too nice...
Yeah, I lived in downtown Detroit for a couple years & never recognized any areas of Detroit from this movie. Same with ‘The Crow.’
I did recognize lots of spots from ‘Out Of Sight,’ since a lot of the establishing shots were filmed by my old place.
Right? Hardly ANY of it's on fire.
They didn't even want to film this in Detroit. They filmed it in Houston lol
@@EJHaviland Dallas actually.
@@smarmosaur You are correct! I must have had my Texas cities confused.
Peter Weller is not your stereotypical 80's actor. He has an MA in Roman and Renaissance Art, a PhD in Italian Renaissance Art History and has taught classes in Ancient History at Syracuse University.
He hosted a really cool show on the History Channel called Engineering an Empire. The show explored/examined engineering and architecture from ancient civilizations.
Peter Weller was genius in this role. The way he turned his body then his head, etc. He did an amazing job acting robotic
The doctor in the scene after Murphy gets shot to pieces was a real doctor. According to the voice over commentary on the Criterion DVD i've got, the writer/co-producer (Ed Neumeier if I remember correctly) asked that doctor if it was possible that Murphy would still be alive after what happened, because a lot of people thought there was no chance. Apparently that doctor said yes, he'd seen people shot up similar to that before and they were still alive - not in any kind of good shape obviously but still alive, absolutely!
Well, he apparently only lived long enough to be classified as brain dead, thus allowing them to harvest his body.
Reclaiming his name and humanity at the end is a such a satisfying ending.
All of Verhoeven's stuff is worth watching, with over 50 years of filmmaking behind his belt, and covering three distinct periods of creativity: his early Dutch movies, the wild run through Hollywood, and his current set of Euro blockbusters (including ELLE and BENEDETTA). Also, don't knock SHOWGIRLS until you've tried it. That film is truly an amazing thing to behold, and as much fun as one can have legally with pants on.
in the 80s, after watching "Robocop", I searched for the "Nukem" board game in every store and you can imagine my disappointment when I found out it wasn't a real game 😭
Notice how, as Murphy regains his humanity the mechanical sound of his voice fades away leaving a warm natural tone.
My recommendation for a Paul Verhoeven sci-fi would be "Starship Troopers." However, if you are a fan of Heinlein's novel upon which it was based, it is very different.
Peter Weller later became a professor of history at Syracuse University. Students there got to learn Roman history from Robocop (or maybe Buckaroo Banzai, but Robocop is cooler).
I honestly can't understand how people like that book. And I like Heinlein, quite a bit. But that piece of fascist trash, which he literally wrote to protest the US ending nuclear testing, is just terrible.
Verhoeven's satire of it, though, is a masterpiece. IIRC, he said of it, "I wanted to give the fascists their perfect world, and show them that all that it was good for was killing fucking bugs".
Even people who like the book, grudgingly like the movie. It's pretty funny to watch them twist themselves into knots trying to reconcile the two facts by pretending the movie is fundamentally different from the book, but all they can come up with are minor details and omissions of specific pieces of tech, none of which impact the substance of the narrative. There are lists of "differences" on some of the fan Wikis. I've read them. They're very amusing.
@@michaelccozens The real irony is that all the things that Starship Troopers the book was criticizing are the things that are now destroying society. That book was right on the money. Verhoeven tried to make fun of it, but the movie was a flop and the underlying truth of the message still shone through, despite the attempt at satire. The "woke" left has just about pushed society to the breaking point with their lies and degeneracy, and what will you feminine soi-bois do when things finally break down, and the natural order of things is restored? What will a low-testosterone pseudo-intellectual like yourself do when masculinity, honesty, courage, and honor once again become valuable in life, and your lies, hypocrisy, and Neo-Marxist fantasies go out the window? It's coming soon. Everything you believe in is lies, and everything you hate---masculinity, the genetic inequality of human beings, the fundamentally hierarchical nature of human existence---is the truth. As is typically the case with SJW types, the reason you hate the inegalitarian truth is your subconscious knowledge of your own inferiority. With lefty males, this usually stems from a lack of masculinity and all its virtues, leading to a character defined by cowardice, moral corruption, and fearful hatred of biological reality. There's a reason SJW males tend to be so feminine, and SJW females so unattractive. Egalitarian ideologies (classic Marxism, cultural Marxism) are always the most appealing to the inferior. But such ideologies are false, and contrary to the laws of nature, which is why they will always fail. The ideology that you fear the most is the truth, and it's the future. That's why people like you are getting more and more scared all the time. Don't you know the truth will always win in the end? It's almost time. Stand by for the return of the patriarchy and the rule of the evolutionary elite.
@@michaelccozens The word "fascist" get thrown around carelessly and often demonstrates that the person accusing someone of being a fascist is ignorant of political/economic philosophy. Even Paul Verhoeven doesn't get it; he has said that his take on this movie was influenced by his childhood experience of WWII in the Netherlands, which evidently taught him that fascism is military + good-looking uniforms. This is fine for a child, but not very good for an adult wanting to comment on fascism.
So what is fascism? Let's start with Mussolini, who coined the term. His definition was "Everything for the State, nothing outside the State, and nothing against the State." When we move northward and look at the 25 point manifesto of the NSDAP, we can see that is simply Communism in one country, instead of world-wide revolutionary international Communism; the difference is enemy is not the rich (or middle class - the bourgeoise, or the yeoman farmer - the Kulaks), it is the foreigner. During the time leading up to Nazi control of Germany, the NSDAP and the Communists were not ideological opponents, they were rival parties competing for votes by promising to have better socialism than the other. Fascism, therefore is the apotheosis of government such that the state replaces all other sources of authority, maybe also with a side of ethno-nationalism.
The novel "Starship Troopers," is, in essence, a mediation on government. What Heinlein puts forth is a liberal democracy with limited suffrage. In his Federation, the right to vote or hold office is not a consequence of existence, but something earned though the willingness to sacrifice one's life for the polity. Federal Service is both entirely voluntary and individually accommodating. Heinlein writes that the government will find some form of service that the hopelessly stupid or the severely disabled can do so that *everybody* has the opportunity to earn citizenship. There is no indication that the state controls the economy, prescribes where people can live or what people can do for a living. Other than the right to vote or hold office, "civilians" have no social, economic or legal disadvantage to citizens - Rico's family is wealthy and are in no fear that this wealth will be arbitrarily confiscated by the state, there are private institutions, such as Harvard, and private businesses, such as his father's. Nobody is prohibited from criticizing the government or the political system (as shown by Rico's father and that scientist who examined Rico after joining the military. There is no conscription, and there is no punishment for dropping out of military service. The society isn't even particularly militaristic; note that while the military is the means by which one can become a citizen, one only becomes a citizen *after* completing military service. While the legal system is more punitive than ours, it is not a police state - people get fair trials and they have fewer police than we do. There is no ethnic discrimination (unless, I suppose, we count the ethnicity as "human," in which case the Federation is unapologetically "nationalist.")
None of this is fascistic. The government is not totalitarian - it is not really even authoritarian. There is no apotheosis of the state. Whether or not this is a good and/or sustainable political system is up to the reader, but what it is not is fascism. In the film, Verhoeven actually gets most of this correct (meaning true to the novel). The only difference that I can remember is the arbitrary sentencing of the criminal shown in the film. I cannot remember if it is in the book, but in the film, the Federation isn't even expansionist. The war started with the Arachnids essentially nuking Buenos Aires (Geneva in the novel) in a surprise attack. According to the film the only possible provocation was "Mormon extremists" settling in the "Arachnid Quarantine Zone," where they were killed; however, far from retaliating against the Arachnids, the Federation blames the human settlers, presumably because it wanted to avoid conflict (as shown by establishing a quarantine zone in the first place and advising its people to stay away). Thus the "fascism" that he is criticizing is having a military that fights wars, and that military having uniforms reminiscent of those of the Third Reich. To the extent that Verhoeven was trying to make a satirical critique of "fascism," he failed. Contrast this, for example, with his pseudo-cyberpunk (cyberpunk adjacent?) Detroit in Robocop; if Verhoeven's goal was to paint a picture of a corporate-controlled society filled with violence and lawlessness as a terrible place to live, he succeeded. Nobody wants to live in Robocop's Detroit. However, even according to your own description, people would not mind living in Starship Troopers' Federation. To be fair, Verhoeven had the example of the actual shithole that was (and still is) real Detroit to draw upon for the former, and only the presence of foreign soldiers in smart uniforms occupying his country before he was old enough to understand and/or be interested in political philosophy for the latter.
@@bigtechisbigbrother8690 It's always amusing to see that people like you are thinking they would belong to the ruling class in a system you have described. The truth is, you wouldn't. The most you would reach is to be a small cog in the giant machine of the state - somebody who can be substitued without anyone noticing you are no longer there. The only way you could be more if you are a psycopath, an immoral killer who has no problems if he have to shoot a toddler in the head. And if you really are that kind of person... you have no place in today's civilization, you belong in a mental institute for life.
@@hanng1242 bro all of that just to say "You're childish. Educate yourself."
The choice to pick a lean guy for an action movie was simply due to have him fit into the Robocop suit. They picked Peter Weller because of his iconic jaw line which would be the only human part visible in the Robocop suit.
For another Paul Verhoven sci fi movie, people already recommended Starship Troopers. I also highly recommend that one. Just make sure to not miss the satire and critical undertones. Starship Troopers is one of the most misunderstood movies because many people took it seriously or just saw it as a popcorn action flic. Like Robocop, there's a much deeper layer below that over the top action.
I'd also give Robocop 2 a chance. While it's nowhere as iconic and great as the first movie, it's still a very watchable and entertaining sequel. Everything after Robocop 2 (including the TV show) was simply milking the franchise and isn't worth watching imho.
To be precise, they built the suit around the actor they chose but they figured when they cast the part that if they went with a big, beefy, Schwarzenegger type he'd look chunky and not at as much of a bad-ass once you put him in the suit.
@@karlmortoniv2951 My answer wasn't intended to imply the suit was pre built. Obviously, it has to be custom built to perfectly fit the actor. What I meant was they chose a rather slim actor so he would look good in the finished suit which would inevitably add quite some bulk. A bigger actor would have resulted in a comically massive cyborg which wouldn't have fit the tone of the movie they were going for.
@CYB3R2K30 I have mixed feelings about the remake. While I liked some aspects of it, I completely disliked the 'he only thinks he's in control' part. On top of that, Robocop is one of my all time classics which simply don't need a remake. They could have told the same story with a completely new 'hero'.
@@HrWisch I think we’re both saying the same thing. I didn’t mean to call you out or anything like that, but I have a memory of Verhoeven and maybe the producer talking on a commentary track about how slender Peter Weller was and how this was a factor in casting him.
Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's my guilty pleasure. But I have a soft spot for Robocop 2. While it was nowhere near the masterpiece the first movie was, it stayed true to the story of the first movie (picking up things like the police strike they were talking about in the first movie). On top of that, Robocop 2 was self aware and they didn't take themselves too seriously which resulted in a lot of funny scenes. Like Ghostbusters 2, it's nowhere near the original. But as a sequel and if you don't expect another 'perfect' movie, it works well enough for me.
The remake couldn't pull that off for me. I'd rather watch Robocop 2 than the remake.
25:05 If you were wondering why Dick Jones' arms are so super long when he falls out of the window at the end it's because that was filmed as a stop motion doll and because it was quite small, being close to the camera gave them a longer appearance because of the wide angle of the lens. It still looks really weird though.
@@carn9507 Indeed. In fact I think we appreciate stop motion even more because we subconsciously understand the HUGE amount of artistry and patience that went into making it (not that CGI is easy necessarily, but the computer does do a large amount of the work). Interesting tidbit about stop motion: When they were designing Jurassic Park they considered stop motion but tests did not live up to what Steven Spielberg saw in his mind's eye. Computer graphics were fairly new but the modelling and animating software was even newer (this was years before even the first crude Toy Story came out), so they thought they'd be forced to use stop motion regardless. Someone came up with the idea of building a rig that a stop motion artist (Phil Tippet, stop motion legend) could manipulate, while the angles of all the joints would be recorded by computer and then the software would interpolate the 'in-betweens' which removes all of the jerkiness of typical stop motion. This is why, to this day, Jurassic Park looks as good or better than many movies coming out almost 30 years later.
Starship Troopers is a must see. It's everything you loved about this movie and more.
You need to see “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension.” Peter Weller is in that, along with John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum and Clancy Brown with a bunch of awesome 80’s character actors.
8,000 thumbs up!!!!
Buckaroo Banzai end titles (credits) (good quality) th-cam.com/video/8MqJ3iGBdOo/w-d-xo.html
"Which one was yes, go ahead and destroy Russia... or number 2?"
' & of course,
"It's not my damn planet, monkey-boy!"
@@hughdavidvisor1769 John Big Booty
Great reactions, guys! Yes, Simone. That was Kurtwood Smith (AKA Red Forman) playing Clarence Bodikker.
i'm always really blown away by peter weller's robot performance. his robot mime movements make you totally believe that he's some robotic beast (the sound effects enhance it so much too)
22:00 Its actually a Barrett semi automatic 50 Caliber rifle with explosive rounds. You can buy these! :D
Another vote for Starship Troopers by the same director a great fun film
In an old interview with Kurtwood Smith (Clarence Boddicker) he stated that of all his character's lines of dialog, "Bitches, Leave!" was his favorite.
If you're interested in how Paul Verhoeven takes on the Middle Ages, his film "Flesh and Blood" starring Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh is highly watchable.
Another great Basil Poledouris score, too.
Flesh and Blood....Best middle age movie ever, 2nd Ladyhawk...
I love Flesh + Blood. That was really film that introduced me to both Verhoven as a director and Rutger Hauer as an actor.
The plague sequence alone gave me nightmares as a child. I had just read about the black death and seeing it depicted in such a visceral and over the top way really hammered home how brutal it could be.
While not Paul Verhoven, another good dark ages movie is "The Name of the Rose". Sean connery is awesome.
16:17 Oh, you definitely have to watch the clip where Miguel Ferrer and Kurtwood Smith talk about that particular line! It's hilarious!
Most people concentrate on Verhoeven's big-budget Hollywood movies, but his early films made in his native Netherlands are overlooked and some are pretty good if you have an interest. 'Soldier of Orange' is an historical movie about students in the Dutch Resistance vs. the German occupiers. 'The 4th Man' is a very creepy horror/thriller with some great twists.
I haven't seen Soldier for decades but I remember it as being a very good film. The first thing I remember seeing both Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbe in.
Krabbe is also in 4th Man, along with Renee Soutendijk, who was also in Verhoeven's 'Spetters'--one gets the impression that the Dutch film industry was a relatively small community.
@@WUStLBear82 It still is. Budgets are small and there's a limited market so good actors have a hard time going full time. That said, some great movies were made here.
I refuse to believe there are people in this world that hasn't watched this movie as kids, but I guess that means I'm officially old now.
One of the big reasons Peter Weller was cast was because of his chin, cheekbones, and jawline. And that is Red Forman
And that he was skinny. Which allowed him to wear the bulky suit without being too bulky. Even so, he lost a TON of weight through sweating, because of how hot that suit was.
"Starship Troopers" is a must if you liked this. "Would you like to know more?"
George’s reaction to Clarence’s famous one liner had me rolling 😂
This was one of the best of Paul Verhoeven's films. From the title, it's like, "Really?". When I saw it on opening day, I was blown away. It's one of my favorites.
- 3:36 - The old man that is the Chairman is Dan O'Herlihy. A sci-fi movie of the 80s that he did that I LOVE is 'The Last Starfighter' with Robert Preston. That one has a lot of heart and is a Steven Spielberg movie that Spielberg had nothing to do with...it just has the same feel as a lot of his films. In that film, O'Herlihy is covered in prosthetics...but the voice is unmistakable!
- 3:51 - Bob Morton was played by the late Miguel Ferrer. He was the voice of Shan Yu in 'Mulan', and was a great character actor who was also Hollywood royalty...his father was Jose Ferrer (Best Actor Oscar-winner for 'Cyrano De Bergerac' (1950)...the first Hispanic actor to win an Oscar. His mother was singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, best known today for the film musical 'White Christmas' with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen (1954). His cousin is George Clooney.
- 6:10 - "He kinda looks like Mr. Foreman..." BINGO...That is Kurtwood Smith aka Red Foreman from 'That 70's Show'! In the 80s, he kinda played unlikable characters, but did so with charm. One of my favorite performances of his was as Robert Sean Leonard's father in 'Dead Poets Society' with Robin Williams.
- 22:45 - You must watch this video for an answer, George (and it's rather humorous!)... th-cam.com/video/Jmqa99Ar1Hs/w-d-xo.html
- 26:42 - In the sci-fi genre..."Starship Troopers'. It's a lot of fun! Also, a really good erotic thriller that Verhoeven did is 'Basic Instinct' with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas, it put Stone on the map as a bankable actress for a while in the 90s. You'd have to shadow or blur out A LOT of stuff, but it keeps you guessing till the end!
Thanks!!!
I like to think that this movie and That 70s Show take place in the same universe, and the kids just eventually drove Mr. Foreman so crazy that he turned into a crime boss.
Bruce Willis was also an 80s action star that was not as expected like Peter Weller
The nail... it was not the nail, it was the bone 😳 I watched this movie when I was around 17 and didn't remember that detail! This movie is brilliant and even the special FX aged well. But the thing I love is the way the narrative sets the whole world where the story happens. Great video as always!
I remember watching this movie in the theaters. I live in Michigan but just not Detroit, Michigan. It's fun to see how far videos have advanced in the last 20 years. Great reaction! Can't wait for your next one.
I'd buy that for a dollar
Was that The Benny Hill Show only Americanized? I just know I'd watch it.
14:52 -- The device that Robocop has in his hand was known as a "data spike". You would insert it almost like a key into a data port and physically turn it for read and write.
Or like Wiz and Boomstick said it best, *OR FOR RIPPING OUT THROATS! JUST LOOK AT THAT THING!* *"No wonder Detroit is falling apart. All their USB flash drives double as shivs."*
I was 9 when the is came out and it never gets old. The theatrical release has a little less gore. You didn’t see Murphy’s arm get blown off and the head shot wasn’t as graphic. You guys need to watch the Honest Trailer on YT for this movie. It’s hilarious!
@@ThreadBomb Beautiful.
Peter Weller is in some other great movies, as well. Screamers and Buckaroo Banzi come to mind.
"Who would win, Robocop or Terminator?"
That was the inspiration behind a video game and a comic book back in the 90s.
If you want sci-fi and Verhoeven, you should definitely check out Starship Troopers - it's brilliant.
RoboCop: Haven't we done this before?
Terminator: I have no record of our previous encounter.
Robocop: We have met, I'm sure of it.
(MK11 Intro dialogue)
The “cobra assault cannon” was based on the actual Barrett .50 caliber rifle, with some parts pieced on it.
Saw this movie as a kid (the 80s!) When the toxic waste scene happened it freaked the shit out of me. It haunted me for several years there after. Despite that Robocop was one of my favorite and a lot of kids favorites movie. When ever we go to rent movies, I always asked to get that one or commando…..again it was the 80s! 😂
17:54 I do believe that the pistol is a rapid fire low caliber gun, so his bullets don’t go through the bad guy and hit someone behind.
However a cool feature they don’t really say but kinda imply is that when he “holsters” the gun in his leg, his leg is automatically reloading the pistol.
Starship Troopers next. Keep the Paul verhoeven train rolling.
Judge Dredd personified! Loved the fact they got a dance professional to come in to help with robos movements to make him i guess less humann?
The 80's was a different era. The thing about late 90s babies and millennials is they want a deep dive into everything and just can't except a great story for what it is. They want to know who, where, what and why and the why behind the why🤦🏻♂️.
Thanks for checking in Simone. Some dental work, nothing crazy XD Love the intros.
This is very much based on the Judge Dredd comics - a number of Robo’s lines are direct Dredd quotes.
Also the practical effects in this are great - ah the days before cgi.
@XyZ313 Absolutely agreed!
Good observation, Simone! That is Mr. Foreman from That 70s Show.
Trigger warning (graphic): Just so you know there have been cases where self-inflicted gunshot wound victims survive, worst I've heard was a guy who used a shotgun, he was missing the front of his face and only died hours later at the hospital, not saying murphy did survive, but it's possible
That scene where the prototype robot goes berserk is just amazing. Those blood splatters are brutal.
This movie was one of the bloodiest movies at release. It had to be edited multiple times to not receive an X rating (NC17 didn't exist yet).
This was also the first Rated R movie I ever saw. I was 11 years old. It was a shock at just how brutal and gory it was. I assumed all Rated R movies were just as bad. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they weren't.
As for other Verhoeven movies.... eh... they are hit and miss. Starship Troopers is great, if you go in understanding it's satire. Showgirls? Yeah, definitely CineCringe material. That movie was soooo long and the only movie that can make boobs boring. Basic Instinct and Hollow Man were "meh" for me, but the former was pretty infamous.
I was 11 as well, and my older sisters took me to this movie with them. I have no idea why my parents didn't mind me going.
It was also my first R rated movie, & to hit me even harder my dad was a cop for over 30 years. He was a young cop like Murphy when this movie came out. It rocked me pretty hard at that age & it’s forever seared into my brain. It’s still one of my all-time favorites.
I believe this the unrated cut.
This was also my first R movie. I was 9. I saw it at a drive in as part of a double bill with Spaceballs.
Yea this has to have been one of the earliest R movies I had seen too. I got physically ill at the torture/killing of Alex and had nightmares of that and just the loss/gradual regain of humanity for him over the course of the film. It was less crime thriller and more horror to me at the time.
I watch youre Channel for two houres how and i have to say "great editing".You watch it and talk about it but all the Important Moments are clean to see...great Work👍
Yes! One of the best sci-fi action films of all time... and it just ages better and better.
When That 70's show first came out I immedetially went "Oh shit! Your dad is the bad guy from Robocop!? You better never fuck up Foreman!"
Can you fly, Bobby? 😆
@@Valentin_I Right before he got Eric's friends to leave by saying "bitches leave"
@@hbq3000 😆
I saw this when I was about 10 years old not knowing how disturbingly graphic it was. The melting man in the toxic waste traumatized me for awhile. But looking back at it now it’s just kind of funny to watch cause it’s so ridiculous.
That is Mr Red Foreman in his first main big role. He loved this role
The first VHS I ever got as a gift was Robocop. I was 8 years old. My mother thought it would be fine as there's no sex in it. The 80's were a weird time
And? She was right, wasn´t she? 😀
@@Mikesupr1 Yes. But then again I think she overlooked the doing blow off a hookers cleavage scene
There is a quick topless bit early on...but no romantic stuff.
It is Mr. Forman from That 70's show. Kurtwood Smith has a lot of roles under his belt.
Another sci fi classic from Paul Verhoeven released in 1998. Starship Troopers. Fun over the top action sci fi with plenty of satire to go around.
Peter Weller or Ray Wise, looking back on the success of Robocop for an anniversary edition disc said he was just glad they were able to make something that was interesting and the fact that it became so iconic was just "gravy on the cake...gravy on the cake?" getting his metaphors mixed up during the interview.
A great movie. Fyi It is the actor who plays Mr Forman :) .You should also see Starship troopers from the same director. The Director also did Total Recall.
They already did Total Recall. 😉
But I firmly stand behind the Starship Troopers suggestion. 😊
Such a fun movie. 👍
@@JanGaarni I know they did Total Recall. I only asked them to watch Starship Troopers and only mention that Total Recall which they watched was made by the same director.
@@totomomo18 ah, gotchya. 😊
I was actually watching Robocop the other day and decided to do some extra behind the scenes research. The explosion at the gas station was so massive that residents in the city who could see the flames in the sky thought something had really blown up and a bunch of people called the fire department.
2:47, the stop motion animation effects were done by Phil Tippet, whom later win Best Visual Effects for JURASSIC PARK.
I have never recovered from the line *"Murphy had a wife and son, what happened to them?"*
Not *_"I_** had a wife and son..." **_"Murphy_** had..."*
Is this fella/gismo even Murphy, or not?
Such a classic 80's action movie! :)
Peter Weller ( Robocop) is actually a college professor who teaches history, he’s been lead in other movies but this one is his most famous.
Kurtwood Smith ( the one you kept calling BTK) actually is Mr. Forman from that 70’s show, he also has been in a lot of movies.
The cobra cannon you where talking about is a real rifle, it’s actually the Barret .50 cal. Technically it’s a sniper rifle for long distance shooting ( it holds the record for longest kill shot from a U.S. marine from over 1.5 miles away, at closer range it will put a slug threw a semi engine block, threw the cab, out the back and into the trailer before loosing enough power to slow down) it’s a big gun lol
OCP was one of the inspirations for Shin-Ra in Final Fantasy VII. You have a very clean, sterile corporation contrasting with a very grungy and crime-ridden city. Kind of like Midgar. In fact, Final Fantasy borrowed a few ideas from Robocop and redesigned them, like ED-209.
Final Fantasy has lifted half of their material from extant fantasy and sci-fi. I guess Square Enix changes just enough to not get sued on a regular basis.
Clarence is absolutely Red Forman, and the "I'd buy that for a dollar" guy is the actor who played Mick in Rocky.
Everytime a Robocop mock news ended I'm expecting a "Would you like to know more?!"
I think unmasked Robocop is my favourite practical effect ever... Hell, probably my favourite special effect of any kind.
Aside from all the detail (particularly in the transition from stretched skin to the back of the head) t's a perfect balance of horror without being so grotesque that you struggle to empathise with Murphy as a character.