key architect of conservative Christian activism. This
activism was at its height during the 1980’s and con-
tinued into the twenty-first century. Robertson never
claimed the political prize to which he aspired, the
presidency of the United States, but he had a pro-
found impact on the American political process by
persuading many conservative believers that they
should be active participants in this process.
Further Reading
Boston, Rob.The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat
Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition.
Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996.
Harrell, David Edwin.Pat Robertson: A Personal, Reli-
gious, and Political Portrait. San Francisco: Harper
& Row, 1987.
Robertson, Pat, with Jamie Buckingham.The Autobi-
ography of Pat Robertson: Shout It from the Housetops!
Rev. ed. South Plainfield, N.J.: Bridge, 1995.
Timothy L. Hall
See also Conservatism in U.S. politics; Elections in
the United States, 1988; Falwell, Jerry; Moral Major-
ity; Religion and spirituality in the United States;
Televangelism.
RoboCop
Identification Science-fiction action film
Director Paul Verhoeven (1938- )
Date Released July 17, 1987
RoboCop, a violent social satire on big-business capital-
ism, features a cyborg police officer seeking revenge while
tr ying to regain his own humanity in gritty, near-future De-
troit.
At the time of its release, Orion Pictures’RoboCop
was one of the most graphically violent American
films ever to make it to theaters. The Motion Picture
Association of America originally gave the contro-
versial film an X rating, but Dutch director Paul
Verhoeven trimmed enough graphic violence to earn
it a strong R rating. The film was a box-office success,
grossing almost $54 million in the United States.
The film is set in a futuristic, dystopian Detroit
where crime, drug abuse, and unemployment are
pervasive. The city employs the megacorporation
Omni Consumer Products (OCP) to take over the
police department, replacing traditional patrolmen
and methods with new, high-technology weaponry
to cleanse and eradicate “Old Detroit” and to create
a utopia called “Delta City.” Police officer Alex J.
Murphy (Peter Weller) transfers to an exceptionally
dangerous precinct in Old Detroit and is viciously
killed by a gang of thugs on his first assignment.
He is officially dead, but OCP finds him to be a
“prime candidate” for its experiments, and it fuses
his body with cybernetics to create the cyborg Robo-
Cop. RoboCop inflicts swift justice on the lawbreak-
ers of Detroit, and crime is reduced to a standstill.
However, soon RoboCop begins dreaming of his for-
mer life and discovers that his killers are working for
the president of OCP. He ultimately turns against
both his murderers and his creators, killing them all,
and regains a semblance of his former identity.
Verhoeven brought toRoboCopa European sensi-
bility previously unseen in American action films.
RoboCopis not only an incredibly violent film but also
an intelligent social satire, especially toward the
overarching economic policies of the time, known as
Reaganomics, which resulted in a recession in the
early 1980’s and in a drastic reduction in social ser-
vices. The villains in the film, members and employ-
ees of OCP, represent big business, and the down-
trodden denizens of Old Detroit clearly represent
the middle and lower classes. RoboCop acts as a
champion for the common people, overthrowing
the evil empire of OCP, and as a liaison between
technology and humankind. There is also a current
of criticism running through the film regarding
new technology’s trend of dehumanizing individu-
als and eroding conventional social structures, of
which RoboCop himself is a prime example.
Impact RoboCopraised the bar for shocking and
graphic violence in American cinema, formally
launched Verhoeven’s career as an American direc-
tor, and spawned two less successful and poorly
received sequels, neither directed by Verhoeven:
RoboCop 2(1990) andRoboCop 3(1993).
Further Reading
Duncan, Paul, and Douglas Keesey.Paul Verhoeven.
Los Angeles: Taschen, 2005.
Van Scheers, Rob.Paul Verhoeven.Boston: Faber &
Faber, 1997.
Alan C. HaslamSee also Action films; Blade Runner; Consumer-
ism; Cyberpunk literature; Film in the United States;The Eighties in America RoboCop 833