Yes, really. And that little smile he gives - perfect way to wrap up the movie. I actually did an analysis of Robocop's reveal on my channel if you want to check it out.
Murphy's "death" scene is easily the most disturbing violence I've ever seen in a movie that wasn't straight-up horror. And even by horror-movie standards it's well beyond what most of them show.
@@MMoer Sadism ? Paul Verhoeven himself said that he made the killing of Murphy so violent because to him the resurrection of Murphy as Robocop was synonymous to the resurrection of Christ when he read the script for the movie. And he added that for a resurrection there had to be a violent death first.
Robocop paints such a broad canvas in its brisk running time. The pacing and direction is breathless. This, Total Recall and Starship Troopers are definitely his best American films. As for Kurtwood Smith, he is a pacifist, so he had to dig deep with his performance. I can't recall who suggested it, but Clarence wearing glasses was to give a more direct comparison to Heinrich Himmler, as Verhoeven recalls the horrors of WW2 from his childhood. The biting satire was brought to greater heights in Starship Troopers. Glad you made it through!
I was just thinking since this guy is a criminal Kingpin, surely he could afford some sophisticated tech to improve his eyes, if not surgery. I think Robocop was a bit underfunded, that last effect of the guy falling from the building was pretty poor, and it did seem like many of he scenes could have been fleshed out a bit more.
I don't remember This, who starred in it? Just kidding. The reviewers who trashed Showgirls didn't realize it was so bad on purpose, another Verhoeven satire.
@@shallowgal462 Yeah, I watched it once and it's safe to say it's not for everyone. But Verhoeven was sporting enough to collect his Razzie award in person. I think it's had a reappraisal in recent years however. Robocop will stand the test of time however. I'll buy that for a dollar!
Stephen your comment is so spot on. Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers are the perfect trilogy. Verhoeven is one of the best action directors ever, just look at how much is communicated with rapid visual cues instead of dialogue. In Starship Troopers this method reaches perfection. Also, pacing is relentless, these films have 0% fat, anything not moving the pace is jettisoned in editing, you end up watching a two-hour movie and think only half an hour has passed. As for the extreme violence, it's just part of Verhoeven's hyper-active direction, everything looking hyper-real and exciting.
@Cheepchipsable look at when most of this was made. Most of the robot effects were stop motion. That effect where he fell was a super early computer effect. When this was made computer disc's used 3.14mb space
Robocop is not just a movie about a robot, it's a cynical vision of consummer society and large companies! The OCP is not just greedy, they preselected the best candidates for the Robocop program, sended them where they have the more chances to die, and changed the first who was shot into a cyborg! and yes, the actor who portayed Clarence Boddicker is the one who played the father in "that 70's show"!
Seeing the thumbnail alone, I'm thinking, “Well, that could be in relation to a number of scenes.” This is such a fun eighties film. My favorite character in it is Clarence. Kurtwood Smith is so great in the role.
It's probably easier if you select the scenes where she wouldn't react like that. There's probably about 5 mins and the rest of the runtime she'll be like the thumbnail. 🙃😃
The true theme of this film is the resurrection of the human soul. Peter Weller gave such wonderful humanity to Murphy in the beginning which is gifted to the audience who want to see him reawaken. Then when the machine starts having visions you are like "YES! COME ON MURPHY!". Even to his voice modulation when he takes off the helmet for the first time. His voice softens as the programming begins to disappear. All the way to the end when he's asked his name, to which he replies, "Murphy". THAT is resurrection. This is a truly mythic movie.
Actually if you pay more attention to the film, the modulation subtly dumbs down from the onset of the nightmare he has before he hunts down his murderers. When he first shows up in the police department as robocop, his voice is heavily modulated, even echoes. Then the echo drops off when he takes down emil in the gas station. It sounds more like he's talking into a can. By the time he gets Clarence Boddicker, there's a slight reverb in his voice, but the modulation is way weaker. By the time he confronted Jones, all he had was a dampened tone to his voice before the E.D.209 comes to play. Then his voice is normal just monotone when he first removed his helmet. By the time he caps Jones through the window, his voice is no longer monotoned, and more alive, added further by the fact when asked his name, he "smiles" and says "Murphy" all that is the reclamation of his humanity through the film.
@@markiv2942 exactly, at some point during the final showdown with boddicker, you can even see murphy walking "on" water. the amount of symbolism and messianic imagery is very high and very well integrated
So the redemption arc of the movie is about a robotified man reclaiming his humanity after it was stripped away. In a lot of dystopian settings like this one, things are usually bad not so that they can be fixed by the heroes, but to be essentially charicatures of things in real life in order to criticise and satirise them. Stories in such settings that end with a victorious note tend to end with small or personal victories, not a victory over the dystopia’s status quo.
To be fair he would have been dead had it not been for the RC program. He regained his humanity, but what would the future hold for him? He did have a victory over a manger in the conglomerate, but the conglomerate still lives, just waiting for the next guy to do something similar.
The contrast between how Kurtwood Smith plays Boddiker and his other roles is hilarious. He's a lovely, gentle person who looks (as you said) like a dentist, playing an absolute maniac. It's a great role.
All of the roles I can remember him in, he's always played a badass. Even in That 70s Show, he was the one dude no one messed with.....except for Kitty.
I was 13 and my brother was 11 when we were dropped off at the theater. I can't remember what movie we were supposed to see but we both decided to sneak into Robocop as it looked much more fun. It was one heck of a thrill ride for us and and experience I"ll never forget. The 80s were definitely a less supervised time.
I remember basically no one cared even if you bought a ticket for an R-rated movie when you were underage back then. The same rules were in place as now, but they weren't generally enforced. I remember buying tickets for R-rated movies with no problem at all when I was like 14 and 15, and looked like I was 12.
Lol my mother took me (12) and my brother (10) to see it in a double header with Predator... You should have seen the look on my teachers faces when they heard me telling other schoolmates about those 2 movies... I soon realized, I should save that talk with the guys for recess...
It was violent because of Paul Verhoeven, not because of the 80s. Just think about the horrormovies back then. Halloween for example would be pg 13. The only difference they go pg 13 today. They want kids to watch something like deadpool. And today no kid can rent it in blockbusters.
11:50 Fun fact: The script intended to have Robocop shoot past the woman’s head and hit the thug. When preparing to film the scene, the director noticed that the actress’s legs were spread, and…well… Ballistic impromptu neutering!
I grew up watching the edited-for-TV version. The worst of the violence was edited out, and all of the swearing. So you had classic lines like "mother crusher", "I used to call him... airhead", and "Ladies - leave!" There were even scenes specially shot for it, e.g. the car swerved round Emil rather than hitting him.
I also grew up on the made-for-TV version. I think we recorded it off TBS, back when it was "The Super Station". Most of the edits were obvious, even to me as a kid. But one that threw me off was the one where RoboCop goes into the warehouse. When he says, "Come quietly or there will be trouble.", in the TV version, the guy on the stairs replies with, "Yeah. *Cocks shotgun* For you!". I didn't know that was an edit and honestly thought that was the actual line. So when I finally watched the official VHS version, I was caught off guard when it was different. It made me laugh so much that I had to pause the movie. Ha ha.
I’ve seen this multiple times throughout my life, I’m in my late 30s now…and to be truly honest, the guy liquefying after red foreman hits him is the ONLY part which still makes me queasy…I find myself having to look away whenever that scene comes up in reactions…
Two things: 1) For someone that was totally unprepared for this movie you had a good reaction to it. Ty for watching to the end. :) 2) Just an FYI, all that remains of Alex Murphy is his brain, eyes and spinal cord he has no physical heart, lungs or other tissue to injure. (This is revealed in Robocop 2) Everything else is armor and circuitry.
Except for Dick Jones' arms when he's falling from OCP Tower. Or, as RedLetterMedia said, not enough people get thrown through glass. [Cut to: 5 shots of people being thrown through glass]
Not yet. She has yet to earn her girl scout badge for John Carpenter's THE THING. Uh-oh. She heard me call her a girl scout. She's fast-walking over here. Shhh. SHHH! Nothing! Nothing! I said nothing!
Cassie... i was waiting to see your first reaction to the 80s gore and you did not disappoint. Your jaw drop at 5:17 with the slow "oh..... my gosh..." at the end of the scene had me rolling. The shock value was PERFECTO!
I watched this movie with a much younger friend, when Emil hit the toxic waste she yelled "Oh, he's going to get SO much cancer!" I laughed and said "Oh no no, this is EIGHTIES toxic waste."
During one of the explosion scenes, the explosion was a little more powerful than it was expected, so Ray Wise or Kurtwood, Smith standing on his assigned mark, was hit by a small piece of flying debris. In compensation, he was given extra "stunt pay." He said that after that, he would try to stand a little bit closer when they shot explosions so he could get extra money.
I studied abroad in Italy back in college and Peter Weller (Robocop) was one of the teaching assistants. He loved to talk about the Renaissance and his other movie roles but did not talk about Robocop.
According to Peter Weller, the concept of putting Murphy's brain inside a metal skull and putting his flesh and blood face on the outside was based on a psychological study about the need to see a human face. I remember reading an article in Psychology Today or some other psychology magazine published for the general public in the mid 1980s which talked about that exact subject.
@@ckobo84 That's interesting. There's a medical school library just a few blocks from where I live. I might do a search for any psych or neurology articles about that.
It's interesting how humans cannot accept a humanoid robot that doesn't look at least a little human, but are subconsciously freaked out by one that looks entirely human.
@@chrismaverick9828 True. There was a pretty clunky movie (that I still have a fondness for) called "Creation of the Humanoids" that makes that same point in an unfortunately clumsy heavyhanded wat.
15:45 I knew that guy (the gas station attendant). That was Dallas based actor Spencer Prokop. He told me that his "audition" consisted of he and the casting director chatting about their mutual love of the Batman comic series "The Dark Knight Returns". 🙂🙂🙂
One of my favorite directors and favorite movies of all time. I love the satire, gore, villain, hero, music, action, everything in this movie is just awesome. Sad to see the sequels (just like Starship Troopers) never came close
One of my favourite films of the 80s - when you watch it in the 80s, you get what is Satire, what's over the top etc, and that some of the gore is for look away fun - but could be hard to have that context watching it now.
It's interesting that Cassie recognized Murphy regaining his humanity but couldn't appreciate it because he didn't get a fairy tale reunion with is family. As someone who struggled to regain my humanity after the Vietnam War without my family because some were ashamed of me while others were afraid of me (except for my youngest sister who was, unfortunately, in no position to do anything), I think Cassie ought to broaden her thinking. Regaining my mental stability and my sense of self enough to get off the street, stop self medicating with alcohol, and start the climb out of the gutter wasn't fairy tale, wasn't glorious, but it was a huge battle and a huge triumph that turned my life around and saved my soul. If someone thinks that's not good enough, they need to think again.
Agreed. Some of Cassie's reactions are quite naive, always expecting a finite/fairy tale conclusion. Her comment "Are they going to fall in love?" made me shake my head and laugh... I thought "Really??"
@@bmw128racer Part me wants her to grow up and learn to understand the human race warts and all, but another part of me wants her to stay innocent and naive.
@@fanofallmetal No one is saying anything is "wrong" with her. Everyone is unique obviously. But when you make your living putting yourself out there for all to see, and get a lot of money for it, you have to be able to accept peoples discussions of you. And Cassie is extremely kind hearted, and a good person. But she's also very naive and ignorant to things outside of her narrow worldview. And I don't mean that as an insult. Many people are this way, especially when they're raised the way she was probably raised. But it can lead to some embarrassing reactions and personality traits.
@@AdoreYouInAshXI "when you make your living putting yourself out there for all to see, and get a lot of money for it, you have to be able to accept peoples discussions of you" That's just bullshit! What you are saying is that you reserve the right to be nasty to anyone public facing. No one has to accept your opinion or criticism of them in any circumstances. You are free to give it, but they don't have to look at or acknowledge it. Money doesn't buy you the right to people's attention. That's a Karen attitude. Also, if you think that being raised wholesome and kind leads to "embarrassing reactions and personality traits" then you are just a very mean person with a bitter outlook.
I remember sneaking into the family room when I was 6 and my parents rented this. It left an impression on me. :D Definitely one of my favorite movies as an adult.
Interesting fact.. When this movie was first filmed it was rated X due to the amount of violence, the movie had to be fully edited to tone down the violent scenes to make it rated R so that it could be shown on theaters. Always loved this movie. Thank you for this reaction.
the only reason Murphy died was because he happened to fit a psychological profile and OCP transferred him to a high crime area in hopes he'd be killed, which helps sell the narrative of a 'need' for a solution to the crime problem (ED-209) but also that his body would be theirs for the taking for the Robocop program
Would've nice if this had been a sister episode for double freakouts. Anyway, this movie has so many layers, even if it's not for you, once you really look at it past first impressions. It's a nearly perfect movie, pound for pound.
The movie was indeed over the top. Back in 1987 we were shocked (and also laughing) at the extreme gore and violence. It was like an old time comic book style movie, ridiculously extreme characters, situations and actions sequences. I KNEW the ultra violence would probably turn her off, hahahahahaha, it definitely was NOT a film for her, but it was a product of it's time.
If you could handle the gore in Robocop, you might be able to handle The Fly (1986). It may be a sci-fi body horror, but it's also kind of a tragic love story. Highly recommended.
@@TheUberlisa Yeah, that sounds about right. It has a lot more depth than it gets credit for and it has always boggled my mind why it's not more talked about. Also, it won an Oscar for best make-up and features, in my opinion, the best performance of Jeff Goldblum's career.
Emile’s death was so gruesome, to this day, it still shakes me to the core 🤣. I love watching folks that have never watched these movies before and seeing their reactions. I’d like you to review and see your reaction to “in the mouth of madness”, “aliens”, or the 1984 version of “the thing”.
This was probably my sixth Verhoeven movie, after seeing Turkish Fruit, Soldier of Orange, Spetters, The Fourth Man and Flesh & Blood. Paul Verhoeven as a 7 or 8 year old boy in Nazi-occupied Netherlands was forced by Nazi-soldiers to walk on a street past the dead bodies of executed resistance fighters and look at them. All Verhoeven's movies have a kind of metaphorical streak about the cruel brutality we humans can bring out to others. His last set of movies Zwartboek, Elle and Benedetta are in Dutch and French, so less well known than his Hollywood movies (he made Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Starship Troopers and Hollow Man after this movie). There's always a weird streak of satire and tragedy, even in his more 'romantic' movies.
That film changed me as a person, my sisters boyfriend lent it me, I still remember him walking in with his mobile phone and passing me the tape, after the film I honestly feel it changed me.
"What with a capital W?" "He's like Baymax.... but with guns." I hereby announce the existence of Cassieisms. She needs to make tshirts. I can't get enough!
Masterpiece! Even since you became one of us action fans you were brave to watch this, Cassie! I know this movie is shockingly violent. But it’s a satire hidden behind scifi. The director always has a deeper meaning just like Total Recall and Starship troopers. Great actors, great special effects (even ED 209, last stop motion before CGI) and generally amazing. RIP Miguel Ferrer (Bob Morton). Remember: some stuff are not for privatization like the police! That’s my main message taken away from this.
19:41, Cassie this had me laughing good, because that's how I felt when I saw this movie for the first time. Robocop is the breadcrumbs of action movies from the 80's. Nowhere near as good as The Terminator or Predator. I just love how you go out of your way to appease your kernels in the outro. You are one of a kind, Cassie.
Yes! Clarence Bodecker is played by Kurtwood Smith, who also plays Red Foreman in That 70's Show. He's a better actor than people give him credit for. When he is with the cocaine supplier, I would have loved to see him channel Red and say, "If your boys don't put those guns down, I'm gonna put my foot in your ass!"
Sometimes I like to remind people, and myself how much better the video and audio quality have gotten. I grew up watching this movie on my dads recorded VHS tape. Movies didn't use to look like this. They did an amazing job "restoring" or "upscaling" or whatever they call it with this movie
The base line for this movie is the bad guys have already won OCP owns everything and they wanted a frankenstein's monster to guard their property. Turns out the monster was more human than the villains who made him.
Its supposed to be a satire in a dystopian future. I watched it as an 9 year old kid with my brother (our aunt that lived in the US got it for us in Betamax when she came to visit us, i suppose she didnt know what it was about ) and were shocked and a little bit traumatized at first! but then it became a classic. We had this movie and "Lost Boys" which we also liked a lot.
😂 greatest demands ever in a police negotiation. “First, don’t fuck with me I’m a desperate man. I want some fresh coffee…and I want a recount, and I want my old job back no matter the results….”.
The scene where Murphy was gunned down was filmed at the former Wheeling Monnessen Steel Mill outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That location was torn down years ago after the company filed for bankruptcy. However most of the movie including the OCP headquarters was filmed in Dallas, Texas. Those movie locations still exist today.
This movie, has a prophecy included, which is currently being fulfilled, not only in the United States, but throughout the world, and is the emergence of private army. As the O.S.P, something that is clearly shown in Robocop's sequels
My dad bought this movie on VHS when i was 5, Murphy's execution and the guy melted by toxic sludge haunted me for a while >.< . Loved the Robocops ''1st night'' in town tho
Verhoeven had a very distinct visual action style of directing. His films are unmistakably his. From Robocop, to Basic Instinct, to Total Recall, to Starship Troopers. They have a vibrancy and over the top feel that are very enjoyable and seem to jump out of the screen.
@@CorwinPatrick Maybe you're confusing Verhoeven with Joel Schumacher who directed Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. I wouldn't say he "killed" the Batman Franchise I actually liked Batman Forever less so Batman & Robin but loved the art design and very Neo Noir Gotham with that animated series timeless look where police drive around in 1930s style cars wearing classic police outfits but the writing was pretty bad. Verhoeven had nothing to do with any Batman film.
Also the line where lois saying to murphy i am a mess and murphy responds don't worry lois they'll fix you,they fix everything! Having an even deeper meaning speaking also about the mess & chaos the big ones creates trying to fix everything in the end!
Yeah I've seen a bunch of reactions and I just don't understand why so few see the sadness in this film. I mean when he goes back to his home..very sad, some seem like they don't even understand it. Brilliant film.
This film works on so many levels, made by a real filmmaker, an absolute masterpiece. It's funny, gratuitously violent, action-packed, and has real heart. Verhoeven says it's a film about the human soul, also a christ alagory, the crucifixion of Murphy by Satan, and then his resurrection, even having him walking on water at the end.
Not only is this a great sci-fi film but it had some of the most hilarious and biting social commentary I’ve ever seen. I’m thinking specifically of the newscast, the commercials interspersed during the newscast and that awful, cheesy sitcom they all watched with the stupid catchphrase that all the characters just mindlessly react to.
In fact, most of those social predictions were made way back in the 1950s in SF stories like "The Marching Morons" and "The Space Merchants", by classic authors such as Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth, and Robert Sheckley. It was meant to be satire of contemporary trends though, not actual predictions. Who would believe such crazy things? By the way, before inflation, the catchphrase was "Would you buy it for a quarter?" (The Marching Morons). Pretty sure these works of social science fiction were also much of the inspiration for the movie "Idiocracy".
One thing that Cassie (& many others) may have missed about this movie happens at the very end of the closing credits, in the fine print about copyrighting. The final statement concludes with "...civil liability & criminal prosecution by enforcement droids". ED 209 even showed up at the Oscars demanding a statuette when the film was nominated for a tech award, but a faux Robocop was there to shut him down.
The dark comedy in Robocop certainly isn't for everyone. But for me, toxic waste Emil is one of the funniest bits in cinema history, from Ray Wise's perfect horrified reaction to Emil's face to the gory pratfall of being liquefied by a car. It's just chef's kiss.
Absolutely, but it can make you sometimes question yourself if you're alright in your head or not. Like in the Evil Dead remake when the girl jams the chainsaw through the last deadites head, me and my wife were laughing our asses off in the theater but nobody else was lol, we thought it was hilarious.
You may be interested to know that the director chose Murphys murder scene to be so over the top violent because he wanted the "human" Murphy to be remembered, as opposed to just being the guy who died and was turned into a robot.
In the commentary the director had a viewing for potential investors (if I'm remembering correctly), and after that murder scene they told the director it was the most horrifying/disgusting thing they had ever seen. Very accurate at that time.
That's a good way to describe it. I think it might have been a better experience for her watching it with Carly. Robocop will always be an 80s favorite to me.
In some ways it probably even feels more dark watching Robocop now then it did in the 80s. The line between public services and privite business has never been more muddied. The way OCP is involved with the military and police is....foreboding.
I've seen Robocop, the violence is a bit much for me these days so I passed on watching this video. The movie does touch on a lot of issues, such as the military industrial complex for one.
I remember watching Siskel & Ebert's review of this film and they were raving about how funny it is, yet many comments under the video from people who grew up watching it kept saying "Since when was RoboCop a comedy?".
Ah, July of '87. I was in summer school, retaking geometry because I'm an idiot at math, and it was just too hot to go to school that day, so I ditched and bought myself a ticket to ROBOCOP. Instantly became one of my favorite films of all time, and remains at the top to this day. Perfection.
This film spawn so many one liners. Everybody went nuts about Robocop at school. Going around saying "I 'd buy that for a dollar "🤣 one of my favourite films of all time 👍
@@raelshark then that song came out. 21 seconds to comply, I guess you think you're pretty smart heh think you can outsmart a bullet. Man I❤️ the 80's!!!
It's actually a cool way to describe him that way I always said his like Iron Man and judge dredd rolled into one both of which were the source of inspiration for the creation character in real life man
It's strange. I think we relate and feel more for characters that fall just outside the uncanny valley showing human emotion than humans giving the same scenes. Bamax, Wall-e, the toys even from toy story that fall way outside the dip. Robocop falls directly into the uncanny Valley once you can see his face, and he becomes more of a scarred human hero than a robot. They had to give him more of his humanity back to make this work. Lots of this movie worked on very fine lines.
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me!" Fun Fact: For the attempted rape scene, writer Edward Neumeier originally had RoboCop shoot past the victim's cheek, hitting and killing the rapist. While getting ready to shoot the scene as scripted, Paul Verhoeven noticed that Donna Keegan's legs were spread apart, giving him the idea to have RoboCop shoot between her legs and hit the rapist in the genitals. Edward Neumeier loved the idea and that was how the scene was shot. Also, this is how a action film should be, 102 minutes just telling a story with no filler. Instantly quotable and doesn't treat its audience like fools and it's one of the greatest action films ever made. Plus, the legends Rob Bottin and Phil Tippett doing proper special effects... I'd buy that for a dollar!
I really like how she remains very open minded even if the film ended up not being her cup of tea. She still gets invested in the characters and the story.
I have to say it was surprising to not see her flinch and not look at the screen through a lot of the mayhem, probably because she was so shocked but it's an improvement. Now she is ready for the infamous Our Robocop Remake - Scene 27!
@@SmokingOnion It would be one of her shortest videos: No music, just sitting there staring dead eyed looking into the camera for a minute, saying nothing. Finally she utters a curse word and smash to end card.
“This doesn’t exist, this level of scum-baggedness, right? Like, in real life?” I’m afraid this doesn’t even come close, dear heart. There’s cruelty on a scale scarce imagined by most people out there. I’ve never seen a movie even come close to some of the real world cruelty out there.
Many holocaust survivors said that even the cruelty in Schindler's List was filtered, and Amon Goth was far more sadistic in real life. Yet there are people out there who think that one-dimensional villains are unrealistic by default.
The pain of another can cause joy. You see it with the scoolyard bully, who beats his peers for no reason other than endorphins. Then they grow up, and use their smarts, their money, social systems - they find naive people to torment.
Congratulations on surviving the film. Much like Starship Troopers, Robocop is full of political and social satire. What you called cheesy, when you peal back the layers shows that the director is pointing fingers to aspects of our society. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. Yet, for those that make it through the gratuitous violence and gore, there are messages to be understood. As always, a well done reaction.
Yes, it's largely satirical, especially the TV ads. Some of the reporters were real TV personalities of the time. Things like the space laser were a real thing being investigated by the Reagan administration, Strategic Defence Initiative, colloquially known as Star Wars. It's more ironic due to the scale of the building project planned by OCP, when not so long ago they were talking about bulldozing about 25% of Detroit it was so run down.
Robotcop is one of the rare perfect movies. The script is tight with no fat on it. It has layers of story telling and social commentary with out preaching. It also has set up, and pay offs with no loos ends. Tremors, and the Rocketeer, are two other examples. The social commentary is top notch. The tone of the 80s, corporations running every thing. The police and their thankless jobs. TV getting dumber and more crude. Excess, and environmental cues. This is one of the greatest sci fi, and action films ever made.
And something many who didn't grow up in the 70s/80s don't realize is that a lot of inner city areas were pretty crime heavy. Drugs, gangs, arson, all of it. It's why 80s movies always show so much crime in big cities, because that was a reality of the time. Graffiti was a major issue in many cities. It wasn't until the 90s that cities really began to crack down HARD and clean things up, and it took them a decade to do it too. It's an interesting look back into the cultural feeling and reality at the time.
