Why RoboCop Is The Sci-Fi Film Most Representative Of The 1980s – Looper

One of the most popular subgenres of '80s movies was the buddy cop film.Two partners are thrown together, bicker and clash, learn to trust each other, and finally become a formidable team. Audiences couldn't seem to get enough of all the wisecracks, shoot-outs, and car chases in Beverly Hills Cop(1984), Lethal Weapon (1987),Red Heat (1988), Dragnet(1987), Stakeout (1987), Tango and Cash (1989),and many others.

RoboCop both follows and subverts the formula. Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) gets transferred from his cushy uptown station to the urban hell of Old Detroit. He partners with the veteran Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen), who is initially put off by Murphy's cockiness standard buddy cop stuff.RoboCop departs from the formula by making one of the partners female. Another major difference is that Murphy is shot to death on their first day of work together. Lewis disappears for a stretch while Murphy's consciousness is implanted into RoboCop, but once she recognizes him, they reunite to take down the bad guys that killed him.

Buddy cop movies of the era had little use for female characters, who served as background to the bromance between the male partners. Lewis' competence and professionalism as a police officer, as well as the fact that she is never sexualized or made into a love interest, is one of the many ways that RoboCop was forward-looking while still embracing '80s conventions.

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Why RoboCop Is The Sci-Fi Film Most Representative Of The 1980s - Looper