RoboCop the Remake – let’s get stuck straight into it, shall we?
If you’re reading this then I’m assuming you’ve listened to this week’s episode where I tell Lucy all about the movie I should’ve covered as part of the bonus content for our Disability Technology series back in October (instead I covered James Bond’s Dr. No – you can read it here:
Dr. No Bonus
But it was genuinely not until I started reading up about the 1987 original RoboCop movie that I even realised there’d been a remake. I guess I was busy doing other things that year?
As with most remakes the 2014 version of RC uses basically the same premise but updates it just enough to interest a contemporary audience. Although the new version, RoboCopy if you will, addresses the same kinds of themes and issues as the original it does take a different approach to the narrative and, perhaps, offers a slightly more sympathetic approach to disability…?
Don’t get me wrong there’s still all the same issues about bodily autonomy of disabled people and the icky re-humanising/re-masculinising himself through revenge that the first movie served up. But it does appear that how Murphy felt about this loss of autonomy and his desire to reclaim his figurative manhood and literal personhood, was dealt with a bit more sensitively.
To catch you up on the few key differences before Murphy gets suited up, he and his family get a lot more screen time prior to the incident that disables him and the incident itself is a single explosive attack – literally, he gets car bombed. The corruption and questionable ethics of your favourite Omni Corporation remains to some extent, although the focus is perhaps turned a little more towards issues with policing and government corruption. The other security/law enforcement tech that Murphy is pitted against is also updated to include drones and AI that in reality Murphy can’t keep up with, even with all his prosthetics.
And that’s one of the key points they tackle in this version of the movie, the way that robotics and cybernetics absolutely out pace human abilities. It reminded me a lot of the two sides of the AI conversation we had as part of the Disability Tech series – on the one hand AI is very efficient at fulfilling some tasks, whilst on the other hand it utterly fails to understand the complexities of humanity. And that’s essentially the problem with Murphy, he’s too complex and his humanity inhibits his ability to be an effective and efficient RoboCop. So the big boys over at Omni Corp decide to switch his brain off.
It’s a pretty horrifying concept when you think about it, and utterly undermines the whole point of the RoboCop project as it is pitched to the public; machines with human minds to keep the peace, verses robots to enforce the law and dole out justice. Murphy’s brain is temporarily unable to make decisions or navigate that aforementioned human complexity, and instead it’s used to move the arms and legs of the RoboCop prosthetics.
Like in the original movie it’s recollection of an important relationship with a female character that starts calling Murphy’s mind back and eventually puts him back in control, although from how the science is presented in the movie this actually seems physically impossible without some on-the-go neuro-surgery, like as someone how has had times in their life when they have desperately, angrily wished with all their heart to have control over a part of their body they can’t control it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth to see that Murphy can regain full control over his body with the exertion of a bit of will power and action-hero grunting.
I think my other issue with this movie was something that passed me by a bit whilst actually watching it but that’s crept up on me in the last few days – the depiction of the doctor who firstly creates Murphy’s RoboCop prosthetic and then later fucks with his patient’s brain in order to keep him from being able to make decisions for himself. Played by Gary Oldman, Dr Norton is first sold the RoboCop project by his pals at Omni Corp as a life saving endeavour. He’s already working with patients with limb loss and at first pushes back saying he doesn’t want to be involved in the development of security assets. But he’s promised more funding for his other posthetics work, a much more worthy project – or so it’s portrayed to the audience anyway – but it doesn’t take long for him to sell out his ethics entirely and take Murphy’s autonomy away entirely. I was actually pretty impressed with this scathing commentary on the American medical system actually, and it sits well alongside the other tongue-in-cheek socio-political comments the rest of the film is making – however, as someone who has talked to plenty of disabled guests about how little they feel seen or understood by medical professionals the fact that this happens but that Norton still gets to redeem himself at the end by being the one to help Murphy reunite with his family (basically by helping set him free) it just didn’t sit great with me. I don’t think setting someone free after you’ve held them captive should be enough to get you forgiveness.
So what am I saying about this version of RoboCop? I mean I’ve written a lot of words but I don’t necessarily feel like I’ve said a very great deal. I was impressed with the movie, the visuals held up despite being almost a decade old and the story definitely explored some more complex issues relating to the disabled experience. But ultimately it still sort of says it’s OK to treat us like objects, because if we’re worthy we’ll break out of it. I wouldn’t buy that for $1.
labledpodcast.co.uk 