<
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/19/robocop-actor-peter-weller-on-the-crooked-line-leading-from-ronald-reagan-to-donald/>
"Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 film “RoboCop” is a dystopic masterpiece. Set in a
(then) near future deindustrialized Detroit, Peter Weller's character Alex
Murphy is a police officer who is brutally killed while on duty and then
resurrected as the cyborg RoboCop to end crime in the city. Murphy must
struggle to regain his humanity in the face of the cruelty of the
megacorporation (Omni Consumer Products) that de facto owns Detroit (and by
implication America), the police department and most other aspects of public
and private life. RoboCop is no longer viewed as human. He is a product with a
serial number, an object of capitalist technological “innovation” and a
sociopathic ethos where profits are more important than people and life itself.
“RoboCop” is a direct indictment of Ronald Reagan's America and its 1980s ethos
of unrepentant greed, spectacle and violence. 40 years later, in the Age of
Trump, those hegemonic forces are even more powerful, to the extent that they
are viewed by many as common sense and permanent features of American life and
culture. Verhoeven’s “RoboCop” is now more of a documentary than science
fiction and genre entertainment.
For all of “RoboCop’s” social commentary and entertainment, if not for Peter
Weller’s performance, it would likely be remembered as just another disposable
action film of the 1980s with lots of shooting and explosions about a cop
turned cyborg who fights a giant bipedal robot (ED-209) at the end of the
movie.
I recently spoke with Weller about the legacy and politics of “RoboCop,” his
long career, turn as a Renaissance man, the importance of jazz and his
friendship with Miles Davis. He explains why we should embrace our spirituality
and kindness to survive these very difficult and tumultuous times."
Via Joyce Donahue.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
