Paul Verhoeven Film Restrospective - Total Recall

Philip K Dick is a writer whose stories have influenced some of the best sci-fi films of recent years, from Blade Runner to The Adjustment Bureau, with Minority Report in between. Total Recall was the second big Philip K Dick adaptation, being based on his story We can remember it for you wholesale and ties with Blade Runner as the best.

Total Recall had been in development for over 10 years before Paul Verhoeven became attached. Earlier attempts saw Patrick Swayze in the lead role before production fell through, while David Cronenberg was also interested in directing a version before he left to make The Fly. Arnold Schwarzenegger then became interested in starring and, being a huge fan of Robocop managed to persuade Paul Verhoeven to direct.

It's hard to picture it but at the time Arnie wasn't yet the huge star that he was to become. Before this, he'd had reasonable successes with both Predator and Commando and was well know as the cyborg in The Terminator, but Total Recall was to be the big one. Despite having one of the largest budgets ever seen at the time, the film would go on to be both a massive critical and commercial success, cementing Arnie's status as the biggest star on the planet.

This success is fully deserved. In only his second Sci-Fi film, Verhoeven has created a classic that is not only really great fun, but one that also requires you to think as you watch it. Although Total Recall can be viewed in 2 different ways, I've always watched it at face value, where the events in the film are real and reasonably straight forward. Arnold has had false memories implanted and upon realising this, travels to Mars, gets the girl, kills the bad guys and saves the entire planet. However, the other way of perceiving the film is that it is all a dream. Nothing weird happens to Arnie until he starts to have false memories implanted, and everything that happens to him afterwards is suggested to him by the team doing to memory planting. Even the imagery of the films climax appears on monitors in the surgery room.. Also, half way through the film, a doctor walks into Arnie's hotel room and lays out the plot for the rest of the movie, again suggesting that everything which occurs after the initial memory implant all takes place in the heroes head. It's this level of duality and hidden meanings that typifies Verhoevens films, but this is the first time any of it forms such a huge part of the plot

Also being typical of Verhoeven, the director doesn't shy away from showing the realities of violence, when firing a gun in a crowded subway station results in the horrific death of an innocent bystander. Another shocking yet memorable image occurs on the surface of Mars when, devoid of any atmosphere, Arnie's head horrifically expands, his eyes bursting out of their sockets. Rob Bottin, who created the iconic Robocop costume also created the animatronic effects for this and many more amazing images throughout the film.

Other than Arnie, the film also features a great cast of supporting players, the most noticeable being Sharon Stone in a role that finally allowed her to say goodbye to a string of poor B-movies and finally have a taste of stardom. She is genuinely great in this film and looks amazing. Verhoeven was so impressed, he cast her as the lead in his next movie, Basic Instinct, which turned her into a global superstar. It's unfortunate that the films she made after Basic Instinct were such duds.

Despite playing against type as a bad guy for the first time in Robocop, Ronny Cox did such a great job that he plays a near identical role here, while Michael Ironside plays the film's other main baddie. Michael Ironside is one of those great character actors whose face constantly appears in TV shows and B-movies, usually involving him losing and arm or two. That is a strange craze that began with Total Recall, and after Verhoeven recast him again in Starship Troopers as another character who horrifically loses both arms, he would go on to repeat the trick in both Guy X and the excellent The Machinist.

When reviewing Soldier Of Orange, I considered it to be Verhoeven's best film, but after watching Total Recall again, I realised I was wrong. For the few people who haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend the film as it is quite rightly regarded as one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. Coincidentally, rather than letting the man make a new film, this is the second Verhoeven film in a row that is getting the remake treatment, with Colin Farrell in the lead role. This is strange as it's the only time I can think of that they have remade a film that is based on a book, rather than re-adapting the book itself. Despite advances in technology since this film was made, I doubt the remake will be anywhere near as good as this version, especially as it's being done by Len Wiseman, the hack behind the Underworld movies and Die Hard 4. On the plus side, it may very well make some people realise just how good a job Verhoeven did, allowing him to make some new films.

IMDB currently gives Total Recall an impressive 7.4, but I'd have to give it a far higher 9. Great fun that requires a certain amount of intelligence, and outside of Terminator, remains Arnold Schwarzenegger's greatest film.

Paul Verhoeven Film Restrospective - Robocop

Robocop is perhaps Paul Verhoeven's best known and most loved film. It was both a cult classic and a huge hit, and instantly placed the director into the Hollywood mainstream. It spawned 2 increasingly poor sequels, a short lived TV show, and a kids cartoon. How anyone would think a shockingly violent movie would make a good kids cartoon, I will never know.

Despite how well known this film is amongst the masses, it's a film that I wasn't that familiar with. Not that I wasn't familiar with the film itself as there are so many moments that have entered our culture with parodies and riffs on sight gags throughout programs such as Spaced and The Simpsons. It even remember a hit hop-hop record by Silver Bullet, constantly sampling the lines “You think you're pretty smart, huh! You think you can outsmart a bullet?” and “You have 20 seconds to comply”. I was very aware of the film and the moments that live on in infamy, it's just that I'd only ever seen it once, when I was very young, and couldn't remember anything about it other than those famous moments.

So, at last, I've finally sat down and watched it and I'm extremely glad I did. Robocop is an amazing film that could have very easily turned into a pile of crap. For proof of that, you only need to watch it's 2 sequels (How Irvin Kershner could make both one of the best sequels ever made in Empire Strikes Back, and one of the worst in Robocop 2 is beyond me. It does suggest that Empire was just a fluke.) or any other cyborg killing machine movie out there.

For the few people who haven't seen the film, it is, as the name suggests, about a robot cop. After being horrifically killed in the line of duty, Police Office Murphy is turned into Robocop. It's that simple description of what the film is about, as well as it's title, that put off any director approached to make this film. Even Paul Verhoeven himself threw the script away after reading just the first page. It's only because his wife picked it up and read it that she managed to talk him into directing it. The reason he did make this film was because it was so much more than that simple description. Yes, it's an action movie about a robot cop, but it's also a really funny comedy and there are moments in this film that caused me to laugh out loud. It's also a satire about the Reagan era as well as an analogy on Christ. It's this hidden level of complexity that Verhoeven does extremely well in his Hollywood films and how they work on different levels. When I get to Starship Troopers, I'm sure to refer to the Nazi symbolism that exists in that film, and I've already talked about the religious symbolism in his earlier films. The Christ analogy in Robocop has been well documented elsewhere and is talked about in the DVD's special features, where Murphy is symbolically crucified during his death, replacing the nail through the hand with a shotgun blast. He is then resurrected as Robocop and can be seen walking on water during the films climax. One trick that Verhoeven didn't do for a change was to picture Robocop with a halo around his head, but I supposed using that trick 4 films in a row would have been pushing it a bit.

But it's not just the symbolism, hidden depth and meaning that makes Robocop so great as the film is just so darn entertaining. A lot of that is down to Peter Weller's acting and movement. In order to get the movement right, they hired a mime artist to help Weller, and it shows. When he simply walks, there is a certain grace to his movements, most obvious when he turns corners as his body turns and his head slowly follows. The best example of this movement comes during a shoot-out in a drug factory. There is a certain air and grace to his stance as he fires his gun that makes the scene resemble a ballet. It's quite extraordinary to watch.

Unusually for a Verhoeven film, there isn't much nudity in this. The only nudity that does exist in the film is a quick flash of some breasts in the Police locker rooms, and that is to highlight the fact that in this militaristic state, they are beyond such sexual reactions. Verhoeven himself has admitted that this didn't come across too well in this film, so it's an idea he tries again in Starship Troopers during a communal shower sequence.

Instead of gratuitous nudity, this film gives us gratuitous violence, except, is it really that gratuitous? It's extreme, I'd admit, but one thing Verhoeven hates is unrealistic violence in films. If someone gets shot, then you need to show the realities of that shooting, and the reality is that there would be a lot of blood. To have someone fire a stream of bullets into a crowd without any innocent bystanders getting shot, or even not showing any blood or bullet holes is just irresponsible in his eyes. I remember being shocked and sickened during the boardroom scene near the start of the film when ED-209 utters those immortal words “You have 20 seconds to comply”. Now I find the scene funny.

Finally watching this film now is quite timely for 2 reasons. Firstly because there are plans to mount a Robocop statue is Detroit, where the film is set. That is seriously cool and helps illustrate just how successful this film was. How many other films made such a mark that they erect statues in it's honour? I can't think of any, but if you can, please post them in the comments.

Secondly, there are currently plans to remake the film, although that could very easily be a bad idea as, like the sequels, it will have a hard time matching both the satirical wit of the original, or be able to get away with the shocking violence that it portrayed. Robocop's success was a one-off. A complex cocktail of perfectly measured ingredients. If you try and make a new cocktail and get any of those measurements wrong, you can easily be left with a disaster.

IMDB currently gives Robocop 7.6, which I can understand as a lot of people are put off by the violence and the fact that it's about a robot cop, but I have to give it considerably higher. It's a modern classic movie that had no right to be anything more than a cheap b-picture and that is down to Verhoeven's inspired direction. Personally, I'd rate it as high as a 9. Is Robocop that good? Well, as the man says, “I'd buy that for a dollar.”