Bobby (Widescreen Edtion)
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Movie Reviews of Bobby (Widescreen Edtion)
Movie Review: A time of shame and sorrow
Summary: 4 Stars
Robert F. Kennedy was adored by the masses when he won the primary for the Democratic party, on his way to becoming the president. Then, like his presidential brother, he was gunned down in public. (That was WAY before I was born, so much of what I know comes from books)
Emilio Estevez doesn't exactly focus on that in "Bobby." Instead, he creates an elaborate "Grand Hotel"-style plot, focusing on the people who surrounded Kennedy on the last day of his life. The movie is a little scattered throughout the first parts, but Estevez yanks it together in time for the inevitable, tragic denouement.
The entire movie takes place on one day: June 4, 1968. The place: Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel. And there's as much drama out of the campaign as in it: For example, the manager (William H. Macy) is cheating on his smart beautician wife (Sharon Stone) with the switchboard girl (Heather Graham), but takes some time out to fire a racist supervisor (Christian Slater) because the guy won't let the black and Latin employees vote.
The doorman (Anthony Hopkins) and his pal (Harry Belafonte) play chess and talk. A lounge singer (Demi Moore) is struggling with alcoholism, a young girl (Lindsay Lohan) is marrying a guy she doesn't love (Elijah Wood) to keep him from going to Vietnam, and campaign workers drop acid. Their stories are only loosely intwertwined -- until Sirhan Sirhan arrives.
Estevez has created a movie that Tries To Have It All. It tackles racism, war, love, voting, women's rights, and the adored icons of an era. It also stars just about every kind of actor: veterans, Bratpackers, ex-sexpots, MTV stars, party girls and accomplished young actors.
In fact, "Bobby" spills over with plot and characters, and for the first two thirds, it seems that there is almost too much of EVERYTHING. But Estevez captures the you-are-there ambience, with crisp suits and longer dresses, neat hair, period music and the occasional baseball reference. For a day, you ARE in Los Angeles in 1968.
And he has a knack for creating a sense of foreboding and sadness, which hangs independently of the characters. Yet in some scenes where Kennedy is supposed to be speaking, the shining eagerness that you see in the audience's faces is enough to bowl you over. It captures the hope that was present during that era, and afterwards died quickly, as hope usually does.
The enormous cast makes it hard to single out one, but there are several good ones: Laurence Fishborne and Freddy Rodriguez as cooks who discuss the racism they struggle with, Macy as the manager who struggles to regain his lost youth by an affair, Stone as his faded beauty of a wife, and Wood's bittersweet, ironic portrayal of the young groom.
Kennedy himself is a nebulous figure -- most of what we see are archival clips, which show the young candidate's charisma and power. Although "Bobby's" take on him is rather naive, it does leave you wondering how he might have changed the US, had he lived.
"Bobby" is high on ambition, and Estevez manages to create a truly poignant, thought-provoking film. It has its flaws, but it also captures a shocking moment in American history.
Movie Review: An earnest and idealistic film for our times
Summary: 4 Stars
Bobby is Emilio Estevez's comeback from obscurity with an earnest look back at the fateful night Presidential-hopeful Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 1968. Instead of focusing on the man, Estevez creates a mosaic of characters and shows how the events of the day impacted their lives. Kennedy does appear in the film but mostly in the form of archival footage much like Senator Joseph McCarthy in Good Night, and Good Luck. It makes sense because what actor today could do the man justice?
Estevez mixes his large cast up in a Robert Altman-esque stew. To his credit, he has assembled an eclectic cast of actors, some of whom have been out of the mainstream consciousness for a few years (Helen Hunt and Demi Moore), some young, up-and-comers (Freddy Rodriguez and Shia LaBeouf) and established veterans (Anthony Hopkins and Martin Sheen). The one glaring bit of miscasting is a hammy Ashton Kutcher as a spaced out hippie who sells LSD to two young Kennedy campaigners.
Estevez establishes the social and political climate early on with a montage of actual historical footage which also sets the idealistic, nostalgic tone. He draws some strong parallels between 1968 and now by showing how the United States was (and is now) embroiled in an unpopular war in a country far away by a government clearly out of touch with its people.
The film makes a very definite point via archival footage of Kennedy speaking that, like back then, we need to fix the problems in our own country before we can fix the problems in others. However, like in '68, the existing government doesn't want to do this because it isn't in their best interest - they're too busy making money in foreign wars. Estevez clearly wears his political beliefs on his sleeve but we need these kinds of socially and politically conscious films, especially since Oliver Stone was defanged and stopped making his own unique brand of agitprop. It's just a shame that Estevez wasn't more forceful like Stone used to be.
In these cynical and jaded times, it is nice to see a film like Bobby get made. Sadly, even with a star-studded cast it still didn't get better distribution and it needs to because its message is relevant now more than ever. Bobby yearns for the same kind of civil rights movement that helped affect change in the 1960s to rise again today. We need films like this because they are a reminder of how the average person can make a difference. Let's hope it enjoys a second life on home video.
"Bobby: The Making of an American Epic" is a making of featurette. This film is clearly a labour of love for Estevez as evident in the passion he conveys in this extra and this is also apparent in the cast and crew who all speak admiringly of the project and not in the usual, superficial way that you see in most featurettes of this kind.
"Eyewitness Accounts from the Ambassador Hotel" is a panel discussion with four people who were in the hotel the night that Kennedy was killed with one of them even wounded by one of the bullets. They speak about what they were doing there and share some of their experiences.
Finally, there is a theatrical trailer.
Movie Review: Has anybody here, seen my old friend Bobby?
Summary: 4 Stars
Emilio Estevez' BOBBY is crazy and uneven, and some of it I still haven't figured out, but I wound up liking it more than I should.
As you know, a dozen or so stories wind up intersecting each other inside Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel, in June 1968, the day after Warhol was shot in New York by Valerie Solanas. A wave of violence and assassination, inflamed by the ongoing war in Vietnam, had engulfed the USA in a drowning tide of blood, while the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. seemed to dissolve at one blow our hopes for nonviolent resistance. In this atmosphere many felt that Bobby Kennedy was America's last best hope. This aspect of the movie is well done, as is the ins and outs of the campaign trail and the hard work performed by RFK's staffers. What's bad is some of the "symbolism" the movie employs, it really makes you groan sometimes. Lawrence Fishburne has it the worst I think, as a pastry chef in the hotel kitchen who has learned to keep his "eyes on the prize," a man with his own sense of inner dignity and a great recipe for Cherry cobbler. When he hears that Freddy Rodriquez as a Latino busboy has to work a double shift under orders from tough, weary, wisecracking boss Christian Slater, Fishburne commiserates and declares that Freddy is the "once and future king," transferring to Latinos all the racial anguish felt by blacks up to this moment of handover. When he writes the words "once and future king" on the white glazed kitchen wall you know it won't be long before the words are spattered with blood.
Even worse perhaps is the seemingly unending dialogue between Harry Belafonte and Anthony Hopkins as two old codgers, apparently reprising the duller parts of Harold Pinter's NO MAN'S LAND with their dreary memories of days gone by. The whole audience groans whenever the camera takes you to the hotel lobby chairs where these two have parked themselves for a chat. Awful, just awful! I never did understand who or what Martin Sheen and Helen Hunt were playing. Were they wealthy Democratic supporters? Art collectors? Mental patients? Or were they in the conspiracy to assassinate RFK?
Heather Graham was good but then her part melted away to nothing. When she reappears looking shocked at the end you can barely remember who she was in the picture. William Macy, Joshua Jackson, Sharon Stone (looking bizarre stretched out, like Elastic Man), Demi Moore, Lindsay Lohan, even Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Elijah Wood, were all very good and you could see why they must have all taken big salary cuts to play these juicy roles. Best of all Brian Geraghty perfectly embodies the late 60s look as a Kennedy staffer trying to score dope from Ashton Kutcher, while Shia LaBoeuf as Geraghty's pal is perfectly hilarious tripping on acid, stripping down to reveal the most delectable part of his anatomy just like we all did back in the day. You don't need a gym body, Shia, you're sitting on something much more real.
Movie Review: Still a Raw Nerve, an Unhealed Wound
Summary: 4 Stars
I avoided this film for two years not just because I assumed it would fail to live up to the importance of it's topic, but because that topic is still difficult for me to deal with. The story takes place just a week past my 16th birthday, but for me (and almost everyone of my age that I know,) it's as though Bobby was shot last night. When I see footage from the Ambassador ballroom, or when I see film of the funeral train... the tears quickly well up. Four decades later, I choke up.
In reading the many Amazon pages of reviews for this film, you can get a feel for the age of the author. I wouldn't expect anyone under the age of perhaps 12 at the time (or not yet born) to react the same way to this film as those of us who remember the night in vivid detail. And to those too young to really feel this film as we older folks do, three quick points...
One, many reviewers don't like the fact that there are so many seemingly unrelated personal stories woven together into this film. I understand the complaint, it's the "Nashville" syndrome and I'm no Robert Altman fan.
But it makes absolute sense here to show a dozen or so simultaneous tales leading to a common conclusion - because it drives home the fact that Bobby's campaign spoke so eloquently and intimately to such a wide range of social classes and demographics, and that his death shattered them equally. On the day after Bobby finally passed away in his hospital bed, I remember noticing that even Republicans, even conservatives, even those that supported the war, even "grown-ups" and my high school teachers were just stunned with shock by what had happened... that there was a fog of unreality and disbelief that people seemed to wander through aimlessly for a few days...
Second point - there's a small scene after Bobby is shot where a young man throws a chair against a lobby wall. This rings true (as does everything in the final twenty minutes of the film) as it hints at what was to come, the rage we all felt, the fury, the visceral disgust at our government for continuing an obscene and pointless war, the inconsolable pain and the desire for revenge that many of us had. The Weather Underground was born in the hearts of many of us that night.
Finally, in terms of Mr. Estevez' ability to draw the best out of his cast and the dedication with which they approached their roles (for this was obviously each cast member's personal tribute to Bobby...), the look on William H. Macy's face as he watches the ambulance drive away says it all. Macy, a supremely gifted actor, moves deeply in his heart to a place that most actors don't always manage to go.
If you're too young to remember that night yourself, trust me.
Look at Macy's face, watch him try to cope, to hold on, look into his eyes.
That's exactly what it felt like when we heard... that Bobby... had... been shot.
Movie Review: "Never Gonna Break My Faith"
Summary: 4 Stars
I'll be up front with you, Dear Reader: I am not a history buff. I'm not even in tune with many current politics. My political views are formed by seeing snippets of politicians and world leaders on the ten o'clock news... or AOL(!) I am, however a movie buff. When I first heard about the never-ending, extremely diverse list of actors, "would-be" actors, celebrities and "A-list" veterans who populate this film, I was intrigued. I love movies with large, ensamble casts. I love historical fiction. I cannot stand most action-adventure, romantic comedy, gangster/cop, drugs/crime/violence fare. Here was a movie for me...or at least one worth a look.
My views on 'Bobby' are comprised mostly of the same views that other Amazon reviewers take, so I'll keep it brief...
'Bobby' is not about Robert Kennedey in the strictest sense. The focus revolves around fictional guests and workers at the Ambassador Hotel, from sun up to sun down, on the day Bobby's life was taken in the hotel kitchen. Long before that final, inevitable scene, we are introduced to ordinary citizens dealing with sociopolitical issues of the late sixties, as well as its characters' personal battles with inner-demons...or battles with each other. Some might scream: "Melodrama!" And they would be right. But look closer; no, 'Bobby' is not about Bobby, rather a reflection of the hopes, fears, and attitudes of the era...and how for a brief moment in time, a politician appeared to have what it takes to change this country for the better.
Every star in this celluloid sky shines brightly, even when the dialogue turns awkward, or states the obvious. The artful photography captures a rather authentic looking day in Los Angeles, 1968. Some of the costumes are over-done, and Emilio tries to throw in everything but the kitchen sink...("Wait, there's a scene with the kitchen's sink!") And the acid-dropping scenes? Didn't anyone tell Mr. Estevez that those belong in another movie? Still, I hate to quibble too much about a film with such an overall moving message.
While I will not reveal any of the fictional outcomes, I must mention the speech, voiced-over by Bobby himself, played as the shots fire out and chaos ensues. It's called 'On the Mindless Menace of Violence.' In it, Mr. Kennedey first addresses the perpetrators and victims of the strife that was so prevelant in our country at the time. He then turns the focus towards the rest of us, challenging us to look at our beliefs and standards. By the time it played through, I was a blubbering basketcase. It's a bittersweet reminder of what could have been, had Bobby lived...and what still could be, if we would look for the similarities among us, rather than the differences.