Reflection to Robo Cop

The last time I saw this movie I was 8 years old. In heinsight, it probably wasn't very good parenting for parents to allow a youngster to watch a movie this violent. Nevertheless, at that age I couldn't really admire the film; all I could think was that Robo Cop was cool looking and had a big gun. Now, after watching it at a much older age I can take this film to be much more.

The concept of Robo Cop is close to the story of Frankenstein. Like Frankenstein, a dead man is resurrected and given life. In this new life form he stronger and more advance than the man that created him. The difference, however, is that Robo Cop is a force of good, while Frankenstein was a pure evil killing machine. Robo Cop acts as a force of good because it is what he was programmed to do. However, his character also causes him to excel in doing good. For a creation, Robo Cop exhibits a lot of human characteristics. Perhaps the most interesting is how his former self shines through his mechanical being. For example, the scientist claim they've whipped his memory clear, yet Robo Cop still exhibits a lot of the human things he use to do. He still twirls his gun and repeats his catch phrases such as "Dead or alive you're coming with me". In time he comes to remember his name and his past life. This is a very interesting concept. It's as if the director is showing us that no matter how much you try to convert a man into a machine, the human side will always show.

If Robo Cop were truly a machine, then he would only follow what he's been programmed to do. Yet, we see that although Robo Cop looks like a machine, he is actually human. Had Robo Cop been pure machine he would've never been able to arrest Dick Jones because of Directive 4. After the first attempt, Robo Cop would've shut down and stop in his pursuit against Dick Jones. Yet, his human side pushes him to go onward and act as what he was in real life: an officer.

Aside Robo Cop himself, a lot can be said about the concept of the film. As stated in lecture we can see a lot about the transition from modern times to post modern times. OCP is so fed up with the city and crime that it hopes to build a completely brand new city. This relates to the idea of the machine taking precedence over mankind. To everyone at OCP, there is no real concern about the city or its citizens. Everyone only cares about the “old man’s dream”. The old man, doesn’t seem to care about the people either. All he cares about is his “dream” coming true. The old man’s dream is a machine. The dream is a massive creation, a brand new city; something new that the world has never seen before. He hopes to create a utopia. Delta City is nothing more than a project that OCP wants to become true. Robo Cop was created so that this project could get going. Robo Cop had nothing to do with actually saving Detroit.

Robo Cop’s central theme is that man can become so enwrapped in creating that it’ll sometimes put the creation before the machine. Yet Robo Cop brings hope. Robo Cop shows that even though the machine can be put before man, man can still triumph. As we see, although Robo Cop is a machine, in the end his human side shines through and saves the day.