Somewhere There is a Crime Happening

Another '80s film franchise is getting a reboot.

After the relative critical failure of Robocop 2, and the disastrous box-office failure of Robocop 3, a new addition to the franchise was the last thing anyone was expecting.

Information is scarce at the moment, but many are conjecturing that the new addition may well be a remake of the classic original. Remaking a film like that, which even philosophers have written articles on, may well be a hard task, but if its done well it could be a real smasher. We’ll keep you posted on that one.

I've heard the original was so blood-drenched it's considered art. Think they can do it again? And which actor plays the title role? Is America ready for a woman Robocop?

The X-Rated... [ace] Version of Robocop. Robocop was originally given an X-rating for the bloodiness of the scene (almost exclusively). They trimmed it back, considerably, to get the R-rating.

I remember Siskel and Ebert complaining about the ratings system, and that this was a good movie, and it's an artistic choice, etc., and so the shouldn't be forced to cut the scene just to get the R (or else face financial ruin).

So, since I was a youngish teen, I've wanted to see the uncut scene.

Behold, the magic of the Intertubes.

Strong Graphic, Verging On the Comically Excessive, Violence Warning.

PS: As this clip is not noted as "the X-rated version," it occurs to me it probably just runs on the current DVD, so it's not really anything special.

But who owns Robocop on DVD?

Awesome people do, of course. But I'm not awesome.

And no one argue that this is the theatrical version. I've seen Robocop six thousand times. There's a 0.01% chance I'm wrong, but I don't remember the overhead shot of him being pulped, and the third and fourth shots of him being disassembed by bullets go on for a half-second longer than I remember.

I know this movie. I love this movie.

"What's your name?"

-- "Murphy."

I still cry.

Also, this might have been one of those filmed-to-be-cut scenes. When producers want to go really violent, they'll sometimes film a scene designed to be cut out by demand of the MPAA, so the MPAA will let them slide on other stuff.

In this movie, the torture/dismemberment/murder of Alex Murphy is a really crucial without-this-there's-barely-a-movie scene, so they might have gone overboard with this Pythonesque meaningless killing to get the MPAA to let them do Murphy's awful death as graphically as possible.

Got an X-Rating 11 Times: This making of segment tells the tale. I was wrong; it wasn't just that one scene. Every scene was much more graphic than what was ultimately shown.

If you watch the earlier segments, you'll see that yeah, this movie was as deliberately left-wing as ghengis complained below.

But I didn't mind it all that much. I guess because every action picture of that era (and comic books too -- Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen) was a subversive parody of the Reagan years. It became so much wallpaper. Yes, evil corporate guys, people are dumb and believe what's on tv, yadda yadda yadda. Yes yes, very witty, very sly. Now where are my guns, blood, and killer robots?

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:26 AM

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