MovieChat Forums > Cop (1988) Discussion > One thing that makes the movie look terr...

One thing that makes the movie look terrible now

posted 11 years ago by Diss_Oriented
9 replies | jump to latest

I don't think I saw a single computer in the whole movie. I certainly can't remember seeing one in the police buildings, anyway. I mean, this movie came out in 1988. Surely by that time the cops in LA would have computerized a lot of their records and stuff like that?

Every time you saw Woods sitting at his desk he just had a lamp and a whole bunch of paper and everyone else sitting around him seemed to be the same. And he had to "request" items of evidence/files from his buddy, when he would have been able to access a lot of stuff on the computer.

This movie has a flawed story (although a very interesting and entertaining one IMO) but I just realised that's a huge reason why this looks so dated. I realise the computers they had then would be horribly dated now, but at least they're still computers, which gives the movie at least a layer of modernity. The police station in this movie looked like it belonged to the 1960s or earlier.
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[–] Steve_2 10 years ago

I don't know, bureaucracies are kind of resistant to change, and some departments didn't get computers for a long time.

[–] pablo-taylor 10 years ago

Bizarre criticism...

[–] Hab_Anagharek 9 years ago

Completely agree, and I would go on to say that it's small-minded

[–] jrcanary-1 9 years ago

I think it's set in 1983. At least that's when the book came out.

[–] PatriotsRchamps 8 years ago

I disagree with the OP. I think this movie is pretty accurate. In the 1980s, it was rare for an individual person to have their own computer. There were, however, computer rooms in schools and colleges that looked like the one depicted in this movie. And I assume that police stations likewise had similar computer rooms.

Also, you might be interested to know that cop shows on TV in the 1980s never showed a detective with his/her own computer. So, this movie is consistent with police station depictions of that era in film. Whether or not Hollywood was accurate, I can't say for sure because I've never personally seen the inside of a police station.

[–] filmklassik 8 years ago

Not true. Computers play a vital role in Woods' investigation. He is seen asking for and receiving computer printouts of lists and data throughout the movie.

[–] Lava-Rocks 7 years ago

If every cop in "Cop" had a computer, they would all be playing Pong.

[–] Jones70 (6195) 4 years ago

Lol I thought they made it work.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16155) 2 years ago

Well they couldn't help but work with the technology available at the time.