Focus Features

Paul Verhoeven

Paul Verhoeven was a child at the height of World War II. When he was 6 years old, the area where he was living was bombed by British aircraft targeting German V2 rocket installations. His parents had gone missing in the conflagration.

As Verhoeven recalls: "My parents found themselves in the middle of that inferno, but miraculously survived by taking cover under a viaduct. I think I would have experienced that whole period, my whole life, differently if my parents had been killed in that bombardment."

Since that time, Verhoeven has experienced war dreams: "It's always bombs, fire, broken glass, bodies and chaos, but everything goes all right. I see myself running around with a short carbine, hopefully on the side of the good guys, and firing at the enemy. Streets collapse behind me and houses explode, but I effortlessly jump on and off a train. Nothing can touch me. I realize, of course, that it's all because my parents returned unscathed from those smoke clouds."

These dreams were transformed into cinematic flesh in the exploits of Robocop, the Starship Troopers and Quaid in Total Recall.

Verhoeven returned to World War II in Soldier of Orange (1977) and then nearly 30 years later in Black Book (2006). War is also the terrain for his medieval epic Flesh+Blood, whose working title was De Huurlingen (The Mercenaries) and whose intended English title was God's Own Butchers. Flesh+Blood pretty much encapsulates Verhoeven's work – films of violence and sexual intensity.

After Flesh+Blood – which won Holland's Best Film and Best Director awards – Verhoeven headed off to Hollywood to make RoboCop.

RoboCop was the summer hit of 1987. The screenwriter, Ed Neumeier, believes that its success was due to the fact that "the film just happened to come along at a time when crime was becoming a big problem in America. People were very frightened. I didn't realize that when I was writing this character; I thought I was making a satire about Reagan's America. But the audience locked on to it because RoboCop was a guy who was going to shoot down criminals in the street. FINALLY. Even my old Catholic aunt loved it."

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Paul Verhoeven

Paul Verhoeven was a child at the height of World War II. When he was 6 years old, the area where he was living was bombed by British aircraft targeting German V2 rocket installations. His parents had gone missing in the conflagration.

As Verhoeven recalls: "My parents found themselves in the middle of that inferno, but miraculously survived by taking cover under a viaduct. I think I would have experienced that whole period, my whole life, differently if my parents had been killed in that bombardment."

Since that time, Verhoeven has experienced war dreams: "It's always bombs, fire, broken glass, bodies and chaos, but everything goes all right. I see myself running around with a short carbine, hopefully on the side of the good guys, and firing at the enemy. Streets collapse behind me and houses explode, but I effortlessly jump on and off a train. Nothing can touch me. I realize, of course, that it's all because my parents returned unscathed from those smoke clouds."

These dreams were transformed into cinematic flesh in the exploits of Robocop, the Starship Troopers and Quaid in Total Recall.

Verhoeven returned to World War II in Soldier of Orange (1977) and then nearly 30 years later in Black Book (2006). War is also the terrain for his medieval epic Flesh+Blood, whose working title was De Huurlingen (The Mercenaries) and whose intended English title was God's Own Butchers. Flesh+Blood pretty much encapsulates Verhoeven's work – films of violence and sexual intensity.

After Flesh+Blood – which won Holland's Best Film and Best Director awards – Verhoeven headed off to Hollywood to make RoboCop.

RoboCop was the summer hit of 1987. The screenwriter, Ed Neumeier, believes that its success was due to the fact that "the film just happened to come along at a time when crime was becoming a big problem in America. People were very frightened. I didn't realize that when I was writing this character; I thought I was making a satire about Reagan's America. But the audience locked on to it because RoboCop was a guy who was going to shoot down criminals in the street. FINALLY. Even my old Catholic aunt loved it."

One of the interesting aspects of the film was RoboCop's suit of armor, which was designed by Rob Bottin.

Verhoeven's biographer, Rob van Scheers describes what happened when Peter Weller first saw the suit:

'Weller had practiced at home in New York with an American football outfit. In this he had been assisted by Moni Yakim, Professor of Movement at the New York Juilliard School, but neither of them had counted on the suit being so heavy. After 12 hours of lugging, fitting and measuring, Weller would not come out of his trailer. Verhoeven was asked to go and see him; he went immediately, in a thunderous rage. But when his eye fell on the robot, his anger instantly evaporated. With a huge grin and cries of delight, he walked around the machine man, looked at him from different camera angles and spontaneously gave the designer a kiss. "This is great!"

This blissful moment lasted exactly 30 seconds. "Well, I hate it," the man in the suit itself snarled. The actor explained that he had planned to move very loosely, but now he felt like a monolith, "I look like a goddam robot – I look like Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still and I don't want to look like Gort. I'm not going to make a fool of myself." Verhoeven explained that it was not his intention to have a “floating ballerina” in his film. The idea was for RoboCop to move in an angular way: "Trust me, it's going to be terrific." But Weller was not convinced. 

However, Verhoeven understood that there was some ground for Weller's complaint about the suit. At the advice of his wife, Moni Yakim was flown in and Weller was given the weekend to practice his movements.

Peter Weller: “Moni said, ‘Listen, we'll slow everything down. We'll let the weight of the suit work for us.’ That turned out to be a brilliant idea because this made RoboCop much more pathetic. Because I started to walk on the ball of my foot, instead of on the heel, his step changed. He was no longer a streamlined, ultra-hip man of steel, but a somewhat unsure, more human character. And so Paul sculpted his film around this sad metal creature.”

The last word goes to Paul Verhoeven: "I would drive to the set early in the morning when it was still cold and misty, and I could hear Peter Weller as I arrived. Clad in his RoboCop suit and completely made-up, he would be playing his trumpet, sitting there half-hidden in a corner. Lyrical, heavenly notes played by the sad robot resounded between the twisted steel. I often watched in silence."

Extracts taken from Paul Verhoeven by Rob van Scheers translated by Aletta Stevens (Faber & Faber, 1996).

Essential Viewing: Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange, The Fourth Man (the character played by Renee Soutendijk is very much a dry-run for the character played by Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct - both of them modeled on the look of Kim Novak in Vertigo), RoboCop, Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers.