By Leslie D. Soule
RoboCop‘s connection to the city of Detroit, Michigan, is that the film shows a Detriot of the future. Thus, a statue of its main character, RoboCop, has now been unveiled in the city. However, the Detroit of the future that it portrays, is not exactly flattering. As writer Rob Beschizza explains, the film from 1987 shows, “a blighted landscape where cops and robbers alike are pawns of the giant corporation redeveloping it.” Wikipedia has an even less-flattering description of the city’s portrayal in film, stating, “Critics pointed to Detroit’s portrayal in the RoboCop films as a ‘lawless hellscape’ run by an evil corporation, reinforcing the city’s image as ‘Hollywood’s default example of urban decay’.”
The RoboCop reboot film came in 2014. In addition, there are RoboCop sequels, including RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, and a handful of theatrical RoboCop films that were part of a TV miniseries cut into sections, including: RoboCop: Dark Justice (2001), RoboCop: Meltdown (2001), RoboCop: Resurrection (2001), and RoboCop: Crash and Burn (2001).
The statue is 11 feet tall and 3,500 pounds. It stands in front of the FREE AGE film production company. RoboCop was played by actor Peter Weller in the original 1987 film. Weller himself seems to approve of the idea of the statue, as in 2011 he created a video for Funny Or Die, jokingly calling out mayor Dave Bing of Detroit for calling the RoboCop statue “silly”. That video is called “RoboCop Speaks To Detroit”:
In 2011, the project began with a tweet from a Detroit man, of a photo of the Rocky Balboa statue in Philadelphia, wherein he tagged mayor Dave Bing and suggested that RoboCop would make a great ambassador to the city of Detroit. Fans then worked to make this idea a reality, gathering support via Facebook and via a website called detroitneedsrobocop.com, and funding the project via Kickstarter, raising $50,000 to get things started.
The statue faced controversy following the George Floyd protests in 2020, with critics questioning whether erecting a statue of a police officer would be a good look for the city.
The statue has faced multiple delays, with the original unveiling having been planned for 2014 – location issues, the pandemic, and the owner of Venus Bronze Works being diagnosed with colon cancer, all contributed to the project being extended out this far. Another issue that came up is that RoboCop’s likeness is owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and all legal hurdles with that, had to be cleared as well.
Now that the statue is in place, it has gained widespread support and a welcome ceremony is being planned, hopefully including an appearance by Peter Weller.
Original article
Comments