Verhoeven Club - RoboCop

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Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
One thing in that video review I also found interesting since I am a music buff, is that he says that some of the music has Western themes, but at what point is any of this music Western sounding though?



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Substitute the theme song (score?) into a western scene of herding cattle, galloping across a desert vista, etc.

Listening in my head, I get notes of the “Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner” music.



I just discovered this...

The theme from RoboCop, the main them, is humanity.

From the start are the solemn quiet tones and riffs, are sadness, but underneath there's always a tone with the violins.
Mystery of what's to come.
What is RoboCop?

40 seconds, the machine.
Unbending, emotionless.
Tech.

Then its robotic marches of victory. Laced with the violins throwing in that there's something stirring underneath.
The ghost in the machine, but, its still robotic.
Then more robotic marches. Victory marches.
He works.
And he's doing his duty.

1:50... is changes to solemn. He had an awakening.
He feels sad, but doesn't know what sadness is.

Then confusion, mixed with sadness which becomes pure anger.
But not knowing why you're angry.

The you get hit with the human lurking at 3:11 that hits anger backed by technology and the fiddly violins... then at 3:40 there's a stomping march of the subconscious to 4:15...

Then it's confusion... anger, sadness, human emotion, memories, all up to to 4:31 and then there's the realisation at 4:45.

Then it's the journey and the acceptance.

5:34 is the complete man and machine, as one, the undertones denote he's now in full awareness, and is now on his march to victory after being caged.


Basil Poledouris nailed this movie.




There is a perverse tendency that some academically minded people have in wanting to elevate their guilty pleasures through analysis and criticism, to make more out of it than needs to be made (e.g., "Buffy Studies" in the 2000s). "If I love it this much, it must be good..." -- or maybe there's a cheeseball part of you that loves cheeseball fare. Not all of all pleasures have to be dignified. Robocop may be better than Terminator 2, but it's closer to Roadhouse than War and Peace.



I was just analysing Poledouris' music compared to the themes of the movie

I love Poledouris. The soundtrack to Conan is outstanding.