"Your move, Creep!" To those who have been following the drama in Detroit (a clash between disciples of Paul Verhoeven and the Dave Bing administration) it appears that, despite a rejection from city officials, a grassroots movement to build a statue honoring ROBOCOP has received the necessary funding. Perhaps it will stand tall beside the Rocky statue in Philadelphia, the 'Bronze Fonz' in Milwaukee, and the statue of Leatherface and Dennis Hopper, mid-chainsaw duel, that I hope exists somewhere in the backwoods of Texas.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Verhoeven and Motor City enthusiasts rejoice!
"Your move, Creep!" To those who have been following the drama in Detroit (a clash between disciples of Paul Verhoeven and the Dave Bing administration) it appears that, despite a rejection from city officials, a grassroots movement to build a statue honoring ROBOCOP has received the necessary funding. Perhaps it will stand tall beside the Rocky statue in Philadelphia, the 'Bronze Fonz' in Milwaukee, and the statue of Leatherface and Dennis Hopper, mid-chainsaw duel, that I hope exists somewhere in the backwoods of Texas.
This has been on the news a lot here in metro-Detroit. I hope to god that this is built. Instead of fighting a grassroots movement for something harmless that might actually attract tourism, maybe the Dave Bing administration can try to fix Detroit's broken education system and rampant crime. Hell, RoboCop wasn't far off in it's prediction of what Detroit would look like today.
ReplyDeleteWait a minute... You mean there isn't a statue of RoboCop in Detroit already?! I'm booking a flight as we speak – the motor city is about to get an ass kicking. Though, technically, they should also erect one in Dallas, Texas, considering that's where the movie was actually filmed. For that matter, they should also erect a RoboCop in Cairo: put a stop to that shit right now. And for the hell of it let's put an ED-209 in D.C., opposite Lincoln.
ReplyDeleteBoy I sure do love me some ROBOCOP. Whenever I stroll through a battered steel mill I get that warm fuzzy feeling that somewhere nearby is a half-man-half-machine using baby food for target practice. The best thing about Verhoeven's police procedural documentary (aside from the line “Bitches, leave!”) is that the tragedy that befalls Alex Murphy can be directly rooted to his female partner not backing him up, because she was too distracted by the male anatomy. Thats right, the destiny of RoboCop, leading all the way up to his real life statue some 24 years later, and this very blog discussion, began with a black guy's dick.
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI'm not from Detroit (though I grew up a Rust Belter), and in the grand scope of things the Robocop statue is pretty trivial, but the idea that the administration thinks that it is in 'opposition to the sort of message that Detroit should be sending' is fairly ludicrous considering the sort of imagery the concept of 'Detroit' generally conjures amongst media and laypeople alike. If ROBOCOP became the first thing that people thought of when they heard "Detroit," that might very well be a victory for public relations!
Space Cadet,
I'm all for an ED-209 statue as well- it could growl at passersby, and randomly exclaim "Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply!" at befuddled tourists, leading to pants-pissings and spit-takes galore!