Okay, that's the last "RoboCop 2" you're going to see...
So in our last episode, C-Murderer regaled you with a bevy of reasons he likes RoboCop and thinks you should too. Hopefully in the intervening days and weeks while you were salivating over your keyboard, hoping to find part two of the post, being frustrated that all you got was a half-assed "back after these messages" claymation photo from the late 80s, you took the time to Netflix the original RoboCop, caught it on Spike TV, or went to Rapidshare and downloaded it so you could catch up and be ready for part 2.
If not, you blew it. Or, maybe you're like C-2d Degree Murder and remember it well enough that you needn't.
Either way, let's get to the meat: RoboCop is an analogue for Jesus Christ.
Making films that are analogous to the story of Christ is certainly nothing new (see also, The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), The Matrix, The Green Mile, Superman, Cool Hand Luke, The Passion of the Christ), and literature loved it first (see also, The Old Man and The Sea, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Grapes of Wrath, The Bible). The story of Jesus is well-known, obviously works in a Judeo-Christian culture such as our own, and provides ample storytelling space. In a world where a good majority of people are trying to live their life by Christ's principles, it's not surprising that their artwork reflects that (or a critique of that, on the other end of the spectrum). This is what art should do: work out the things we believe, ask questions about why we believe them, and contextualize them for modernity and posterity.
Wow, that got a little bit heavy, C-Assault with a Deadly Weapon. No more ecclesiastical philosophy please, just tell me, "How does it apply to "Robot Cop: The Movie"?"
A breakdown:
1. Murphy is crucified.
- Early on in the film, Alex Murphy and his partner Lewis are rendered helpless by the gang of villains we follow throughout the film. Led by Clarence Boddicker (RoboCop's Pontius Pilate, so to speak), they knock out Lewis and trap Murphy. In a most gruesome death, the gang empty their shotguns into Murphy's body, killing him. The first wound, however, is to Murphy's hand, which is blown off by Boddicker's shotgun. This clearly stands in for Christ's stigmata. After the shock of this wound, the shooting commences, with Boddicker delivering the fatal shot to the head.
- Murphy has now been crucified and sacrificed by the Detroit Police Dept.
Robocop - Murphy's Death
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2. Murphy is resurrected.
- After unsuccessful efforts to save Murphy through medical means, he is laid to rest (into the proverbial cave, so to speak). Through technology (and the plan of a slimy Omni Consumer Products exec/yuppie), he is resurrected to become the first "RoboCop", who is then touted as the savior of Old Detroit. One man (who's not so much a man as a machine, mind you) will patrol the streets and save the city.
Albrecht Durer's version of Christ in Limbo (1510) is actually much scarier than Paul Verhoeven's. Has woodcutting ever been creepier?
3. RoboCop is persecuted.
- This one may be a little more tenuous, but when RoboCop becomes an outlaw later in the movie (as he tries to arrest an exec at OCP, his dastardly creator), he is hunted down by the Detroit Police Department. Perhaps this is a reference to the persecution of Jesus himself, the early Christians who were persecuted, or is simply a reference to religious persecution in general, or perhaps it just makes RoboCop our Christ figure also fit into Joseph Campbell's monomyth a little better, as he must fall before he can prevail (see also, The Rape of Persephone, Beowulf, The Odyssey). Tying in mono-mythic structure to a man made Christ figure in an American action/sci-fi movie made by a Dutch director who lived through a Nazi occupation of Holland is thus not that much of a stretch, now is it?
*Author's note: (ca. 1994) with thanks to Mrs. Sheila Reynolds' sophomore English class at Franklin High School.
4. RoboCop literally says, "Dead or alive you're coming with me."
- Sure, in the context of the film, this seems like innocuous action dialog from a robot cop, but now with your new-found "RoboCop as Christ" analysis, don't you see where they're coming from?
Not to be confused with this 'Dead or Alive'.
5. RoboCop walks on water.
- I know, it seems so obvious now...but the first time you saw RoboCop you were all, "Holy crap! What a kick ass movie about a guy that becomes a robot cop and totally kicks the ass of rapists, devilish white collar criminals, and that dude from "That 70s Show", while having the baddest-assest gun in town that fits in a holster inside his leg!" So, you probably missed the religious iconography. No big D, that's what I'm here for:
- During the scene where RoboCop finally kills Boddicker/Pilate (by stabbing him in the neck, which could either be a reference to the piercing of Jesus' side by the Roman soldiers or to the homo-eroticism rampant in all action movies; unlike the real Pilate who may have killed himself after being exiled to Gaul under the reign of Caligula), after that act is completed, he turns to walk away.
Now, it's not all Being There walk-on-water-ism, and it's not even The Car's Uh-Oh, It's Magic walking on water, but it's there.
The file name for this picture is "Favorite-Stabby-McStab-Victims"...I love the internet.
- Author's note: I cannot find a clip of this online, so you're just going to have to Netflix that muhfuggah to see it yourself...which you should anyway, now that you know how much MORE awesome the movie is.
So there you have it. Hopefully, you can now appreciate RoboCop on a more intellectual level, and not feel bad or shy away from defending your love of this sci-fi/man-made-Jesus gem. Either way, it makes for good conversation, assuming you're hanging out with people that will listen to you go on and on for 30 minutes about this kind of stuff pretending to be interested...like my friends do.
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