Action stations! Blockbuster movie season comes to Triskel

If you mention Paul Verhoeven to a group of film fans, each one will respond differently.

For many, he is an icon of the 1980s, famed for his epic futuristic action dramas Robocop and Total Recall. Others may be more excited about the critically panned Showgirls, which later became a cult classic and found an audience in the LGBTQ+ community.

Of course, there will be those familiar with his early work, made in his home country, the Netherlands, where he first plied his trade and received an Oscar nomination for Turkish Delight in 1973.

However, it was the films he made in America that really brought him to prominence in the industry. These films are set to be celebrated by the Triskel Cinema this August.

After making a slew of successful films, Verhoeven left the Netherlands in the mid-1980s and headed to Hollywood. His early work was often violent and sometimes distasteful, and working at home no longer afforded him the opportunity to make big films. Hollywood was a different beast.

The first film in Triskel’s programme is Verhoeven’s first Hollywood film, Robocop. Made in 1987, it is more relevant today than ever as it follows the story of a part man, part robot designed in response to the growing number of police fatalities in the not-too-distant future.

The robot is made from the body of Murphy (Peter Weller), a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. Once resurrected as a cyborg, Murphy is plagued by memories of his human life and is hellbent on catching his murderers.

Violent, compelling, and satirical, Robocop became an instant classic which has been remade but never equalled. It is pure 1980s in tone and aesthetic, but with AI now so prevalent, it is a cautionary tale.

Loosely based on a Philip K Dick short story, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, Total Recall was Verhoeven’s next big American success story.

Released in 1990, it is set in 2084 and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas, a construction worker who experiences strange dreams each night.

Despite living a happy life with wife Lori (Sharon Stone), Douglas can’t shake his dreams, so he goes to Recall Inc., which specialises in providing its customers with virtual holidays by placing programmed implants in their brains. It sounds like a great idea: no fuss, no packing, and your brain gets to take a holiday.

What is meant to be a virtual trip to Mars turns into a real-life fight for survival in this bloody, funny, and satirical sci-fi action film. Verhoeven throws everything into this one, making it one of the defining sci-fi films of its era. It was nominated for many awards and helped solidify Schwarzenegger’s star power.

1992’s Basic Instinct was a real eye-opener. It introduced steamy sex scenes into mainstream cinema, causing quite an outcry. San Francisco Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is investigating a gruesome murder when he comes across Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a novelist who had written a similar type of killing.

Instead of thinking it might be a copycat killer, Curran becomes fixated on Tramell and is determined to prove she is the murderer. He doesn’t want to bring her to justice; Curran wants Tramell, who uses his desire as a weapon. Is she messing with his head, or is he using his authority as a policeman to lure her into his bed?

It was bold, daring, and played with boundaries. A film like this could never have been made today, but in 1992, audiences could not get enough of it, and it is regarded as one of the best erotic thrillers ever made.

There is so much to say about Showgirls that it is impossible to devote just a few paragraphs. When it came out in 1995, it was panned by critics and laughed at by audiences. It was so bad that it won several Razzie Awards, which reward terrible films rather than the best. Verhoeven, typically bold, turned up to collect the awards. Such is the conversation about it that a documentary about the film, You Don’t Nomi, became a huge success.

This sex-laden drama has atrocious dialogue, unsexy sex, and some very controversial scenes. For all that is bad about it, millions adore it, and the film has found a special connection with the LGBTQ+ community who relate to the outcast characters .

Elizabeth Berkley plays Nomi, an exotic dancer in Las Vegas who sets out to be the star attraction, engaging in plenty of sex to get there. There has always been a question: did Verhoeven intentionally make a bad film? Is it a satire, a commentary on America’s lust?

The final film in the series, 1997’s Starship Troopers, was another to suffer harsh words from critics. Like Showgirls, it has also become a cult classic.

Set in the future, Starship Troopers imagines a world under attack by arachnid aliens, where a military regime has taken control to rid the world of the beast. Young people are encouraged to enlist and join the fight, but really, there is little choice. Enlistment is all but compulsory.

We follow young adults Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, and Denise Richards as they join the fight in a film that is total irony. In 1997, it was seen as a joke, but fascism and its propaganda don’t look too funny in today’s ever-right-leaning world.

Paul Verhoeven - The Hollywood Years runs throughout August in Triskel cinema, see triskelartscentre.ie