A serious conversation about Robocop
QUESTION : what percentage of people alive on the planet today recognise Robocop?
QUESTION : what percentage of people alive on the planet today recognise Robocop?
One of the reasons the movies of Paul Verheoven are so well remembered is because the were part of “Peak Hollywood”. Peak violence, peak nudity, peak pre-CGI effects…
…and peak audience numbers. For a period through the 80s and 90s, helped by the VHS cassette, Hollywood had almost complete hegemony over global mass culture.
Hollywood movies were seen worldwide. They had almost no competition. The internet didn’t exist yet.
And Robocop is one of the most famous movies of Peak-Hollywood.
Part of that fame is because of the amazing stop-motion work of Phil Tippett. The entrance of ED-209 into a corporate boardroom is such a potent sequence that almost 40 years later it still blows away most of MARVEL’s muddy, indistinct CGI.
But Robocop as a satirical vision of an America owned and operated by Omni-corp is brought to life by the vision of Paul Verhoeven.
Olga Yakimenko is a filmmaker who grew up watching badly dubbed Hollywood movies on bootleg VHS. The Verhoeven Paradox featured Olga’s insights into Verhoeven’s Hollywood blockbusters. Now the FULL interview with Olga is available for Science Fiction community members.
