The first film signed by Verhoeven in his new adopted country, the United States, “Robocop” is a powerful reflection on the excesses of Uncle Sam’s obsession with security. And was a painful experience for his actor Peter Weller. ..
Late 20th century. Welcome to Detroit, city of nightmare, completely out of control. The criminals set the city on fire and blood. The leaders are corrupt and the police officially unable to stem the rise in violence. There is one last chance left: Robocop, a half-man, half-robot cop created from the body of Alex Murphy, a policeman who died on duty…
On a screenplay co-written by Edward Neumeier (to whom we also owe that of Starship Troopers), Paul Verhoeven noisily inaugurated his American period with an ultra-violent action film. To the point, moreover, of having some trouble with the all-powerful MPAA, the organization for classifying films in the United States, which even threatened to place it under the infamous NC-17; or a pure and simple ban on minors under 17, even accompanied. Which would have marked the assured death of the film at the Box Office.
If Verhoeven apparently delivers a film perfectly calibrated for the Hollywood public, it was obviously bad to know the one who was then nicknamed “the violent Dutchman”. Because under the cloak of entertainment hides a fierce satire of his adopted country.
In addition to the parody charge against the consumer society, the filmmaker sketched out a real reflection on the excesses of the security obsession, then in full swing in the America of Ronald Reagan. Questions which are moreover, in view of the current socio-political context, more relevant than ever…
For the filmmaker, Robocop was neither more nor less than a “American Jesus”as he explained in a fascinating interview with the Guardian in May 2022. “Originally, I had refused the script for the film, because it was so far from what I had been able to do in Holland! Later, on the set, I was enormously helped by the fact of ‘having one of the writers, Ed Neumeier, with me all the time, keeping me from messing up.
The production seriously considered giving the role of Murphy to the XXL shoulders of Arnold Schwarzenegger. “But we thought he would be too huge once he put the suit on. We realized we needed someone thin so we could create this robot suit. It was important that he had a good chin – it had to be really pronounced. Of course playing was important, but I can’t deny that the chin of Peter Weller was one of the main reasons he got the role.”
Go for Peter Weller then. Who is going to live in hell. Robocop’s suit was so heavy and hot that he lost up to 3 pounds a day while wearing it. An air conditioning system in the costume was then installed in order to make things more bearable for the actor.
Besides, with a cost between 500,000 and 1,000,000 dollars, the costume was the most expensive in the film. When Rob Bottin’s team made up the actor and put his armor on for the first time, it took him 11 hours…
“On his first day of filming with the costume, Peter walked into makeup at 6am and we were hoping to shoot around 9am. We finally started shooting at 4pm because he couldn’t walk in it” remembers Verhoeven. “In the end, we had to stop filming and work with him for two full days. He basically had to learn to walk again.”