Summary
- Verhoeven felt that the 2012 Total Recall remake lacked the mystery of the original, missing the ambiguity and unique musical motifs.
- According to Verhoeven, the problem with the 2014 RoboCop remake was that it made the leading character too tragic, taking away from the original's blend of tragedy and acceptance.
- Both the Total Recall and Robocop remakes were not as successful as Verhoeven's original versions.
Paul Verhoeven, director of the sci-fi classics RoboCop, has offered his thoughts about the more recent remakes of his beloved movies. A Dutch filmmaker with a long history of screen credits dating as far back as the 1960s, Verhoeven’s second English-language movie, RoboCop, quickly turned him into a household name for American audiences. He would also follow up his 1987 hit with the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall. Both movies would later receive far less successful remakes in 2012 and 2014.
Speaking with 2014’s RoboCop had problems because it made the leading character far more tragic than the version of Alex Murphy first played by Peter Weller. Check out his comments below:
I felt [2012’s Total Recall] had a lot of special effects, but this mystery—is it true or is it not true?—I just didn’t feel that anymore. The interesting thing about the original movie is that at the end, when Rachel Ticotin says, “Well, kiss me quick before you wake up,” you still don’t really know if it’s real. Also, we had a wonderful composer, Jerry Goldsmith. I was so pleased with the piano motifs. Without all that, what do you have?
The problem [with 2014’s RoboCop], I felt, was that he was really aware that he lost all his legs and arms. He knows it from the very beginning. The beautiful thing about the original RoboCop, what makes it not just pure tragedy or whatever, is that he really does not know anymore. He gets a couple of vague flashes of memory when he goes to his old house, but RoboCop is not a tragic figure. Yes, he’s killed in the most horrible way in the beginning. But when we see him again as a robot, he doesn’t feel that. In the new one, because he re everything, he’s much more tragic. We wanted you to accept him at the beginning as a robotic cop. That’s what they did to him. In my opinion, I thought it was a problem to make him more tragic.
Why Modern Sci-Fi Needs To Return To Verhooven’s ‘90s Pulp Sensibilities
Science fiction has a long and varied history in movies, dating as far back as some of the most iconic films to come out of the silent era of the early 1900s. Long before the advent of photo-realistic CGI special effects, audiences were treated to a wide assortment of far-flung tales involving imagined futures and abstract possibilities. While more recent outings have benefitted from the astounding capabilities of modern technology, a string of lackluster remakes, such as the more recent Total Recall and RoboCop movies, reveals there is far more to making successful sci-fi than using cutting-edge special effects.
Total Recall Ending: Was It A Dream? How Much Was Real?
Paul Verhoeven and Arnold Schwarzenegger's sci-fi classic could all be a dream, but the ambiguity as to what really happened is the movie's point
Though many of the practical effects in Verhooven’s movies were still impressive for the time of their original release, what really made his approach to the genre so successful was his vibrant and often humorous approach to storytelling. Perfectly blending social satire and pop culture references with science fiction themes, Verhooven’s versions of the movies may have lacked their successor’s more refined CGI effects, but they were told in an engaging way that allowed viewers to completely overlook some of the more unrealistic onscreen moments.
Never taking his movies too seriously, Verhooven’s approach to movies like RoboCop and Total Recall featured a sense of entertainment and vibrancy that made them some of the finest examples of late ‘80s and early ‘90s sci-fi. By comparison, however, the modern remakes of Verhooven's movies sought to approach the material far more seriously and suffered from the absence of the director’s trademark pulp sensibilities. It is a lesson that other sci-fi filmmakers would do well to take heed of, with the genre currently being defined by increasingly grounded and grittier looks at distant dystopian futures.
Source: Metrograph
Total Recall
- Release Date
- June 1, 1990
- Runtime
- 113 minutes
- Director
- Paul Verhoeven
Cast
Marshall Bell-
Ronny Cox
WHERE TO WATCH
Based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can It for You Wholesale", Total Recall tells the story of Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a construction worker who receives an implanted memory of an adventure in humanity's colony on Mars. Quaid finds his memories playing out in real time, hunted by agents of a mysterious organization as he works to topple the tyrannical regime of a Martian dictator (Ronny Cox).
- Writers
- Dan O'Bannon, Gary Goldman, Ronald Shusett
- Story By
- Budget
- $65 million
- Studio(s)
- Carolco Pictures
- Distributor(s)
- Tri-Star Pictures
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