When was the last one of those, I wonder. Was Dirty Harry the first?
That came out in 1971, and probably deserves credit(?) as at least the first modern one. One could argue that a fair number of Westerns though featured a brand of law enforcement that was one step maybe away from vigilante justice.
Parallel to the vigilante cop stuff was the plain old citizen vigilante flick, too. Where vigilante cops worked more or less within the system that was presented as broken, common citizens who acted as vigilantes usually did so along side a running indictment of the police as ineffectual, corrupt, or both. Bronson’s Death Wish movies starting I guess in 1974 or so were pretty much the iconic form, though the best of the genre (or genre adjacent) like Taxi Driver were far better films.
Judge Dredd?
I was actually kind of thinking the same thing, although it’s even more fantastical than Robocop and it’s been a while since I saw it. I mean even Robocop is a tight fit into that genre.
I feel like The Birth of a Nation was the template for “See what these criminals get away with? The law ain’t workin’! We need a hero to buck the system, take matters into their own hands, and mete out true justice to save us from these undesirables run amuck!” It even features the corrupt politician character that’s exploiting the situation for their own gain!
Interesting line from there to where we are now in that context.
Damn, I had not considered the KKK as the predecessors of the “rogue cop/citizen does what must be done in a system soft on criminals” genre but in retrospect it’s obvious. I have never actually seen Birth of a Nation.
Robocop isn’t that though. It’s more, cop dies, figures out the criminals are just part of the system, it’s capitalism that’s the problem.
Yes, Robocop is subversive like that. Unlike the other movies we’re talking about Robocop does not break the law in pursuit of justice. Robocop is pointedly hamstrung by the law (and coding!) and must work within his bounds. He was never a rogue cop.
As for the rest of the genre, I’ve never before thought of The Birth of a Nation in this context, but now that I have, I can’t get it out of my head. Thanks, Robocop game thread!
When the Hays Code was in force, movies made in Hollywood (and most other places, the US was generally not more restrictive than other countries) could not portray the contemporary police and legal systems as fundamentally broken or ineffective, and even after it went away it took some years for the vigilante/rogue cop archetype to take shape.
Dirty Harry, Death Wish and Robocop are the same in that sense.
Yeah, after Robocop and Starship Troopers I want to see a Verhoeven-directed Death Wish. Probably end up something like Falling Down.
Yeah, great call; 1915 or whenever, D. W. Griffiths, the Klan saving the day because Union occupiers were looking the other way or actively helping to undermine Good White Society…yep, fits.
Quite true. I did not mean to imply that RoboCop was an example itself of vigilante cops, more that it borrowed tropes from that genre. When the protagonist says “Your move, creep,” he’s echoing things like Callahan’s “Do ya feel lucky, punk?” but in this case he’s drawing as much on his police authority–or the authority of the law–as much as the threat of violence. Eastwood’s character is effectively saying “fuck the law, worry about me.”
I understood the line or reasoning. No worries. I think the original rabbit hole of asking what the earliest example of the rogue cop movie was interesting in its own right.
I sincerely meant thanks to the thread. I’ve seen The Birth of a Nation and studied it for film and cultural reasons and despite its awful racism it’s just one of those landmark movies you kind of can’t ignore. Despite that, I’ve never once viewed it through the lens of the action cop genre. What a crazy revelation from a Robocop shooter game discussion!
See, I keep telling people video games are educational!
Bleh, they’re using the ugly Robocop 2 version of the OCP logo.
I wonder how, or if, they’ll explain that Robocop can run now.
Comics Code, too.
On topic: Cautiously optimistic!
But strangely enough, vigilantes were always common in comics.
Still have no idea why this game is being made. But it’s as ultraviolent as the movie.
Shut up more Robocop is always awesome. (Yes, I liked 2, AND 3, AND the show, AND the cartoon.)
Terminator Resistance was great. So I hope this will be also great. Even if Weller aint quite as Robocop-ish as he used to.
If that’s actually Peter Weller, they need to replace him with someone who can do a better impersonation of 80s Peter Weller. His voice in Robocop was a huge part of the character. The entire point of this game is the nostalgia cash-in, so if they don’t get the nostalgia right they may as well not even bother.