BOBBY
Fatal Shots Heard Round The World, June 5, 1968
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Bobby"
By Omar P.L. Moore/November 21, 2006
The late former New York Senator and Attorney General in 1964. Headstone,
which lies close to older brother John's resting place.
(Photos from: Geocities)
June 5, 1968. The Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California. 11:35
p.m. A victorious Kennedy speaks.
With
violence rife throughout the United States, racial and economic tensions far
past breaking point, and the Vietnam War at a dangerous apex, New York Senator
Robert F. Kennedy stepped into the breach and declared that it was time for all
the wounds and divisions within and without America to be repaired.
Many of the country's citizenry from all walks of life supported him -- he was
the last of a troika of what many Americans regarded as the country's
quintessential political princes of peace: John F. Kennedy (1920-1963), Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968) and "Bobby" Kennedy, as he was affectionately known by millions.
The California presidential primary took place on that June day and Bobby fought
off a stubborn challenge from Senator Joseph McCarthy to take the prized Golden
State.
Victory was imminent. The American presidency was
looking assuredly as if it would end up in a Kennedy's hands again.
How do you do? An acting legend is
greeted by a giant of his time: Anthony Hopkins is greeted by Harry Belafonte,
actor, activist and humanitarian, in Emilio Estevez's "Bobby", which opens on
Thanksgiving Day in America. (Photo: Sam Emerson/Weinstein Company)
Emilio Estevez, up to this point wonderfully sets the stage for the untimely
tragedy that would yet again reverse the tide of American history in arguably
the most turbulent decade of the second half of the 20th century. He
directs 22 actors, some well-known, others not so well-known, as they portray
ordinary people who have the common problems of adults. One couple is
about to get married, another couple is on the verge of tatters, with only
material objectification delicately holding them together, and still another is
coping with success and its alcoholic downsides, while a fourth couple struggles
with a spouse's infidelity. These are just several of the stories that
Estevez, who wrote and directed "Bobby", effectively pieces together. The
passion of the actor-director for the subject matter and the zeitgeist of 1968
far exceeds any initial flaw in the acting or in the actors involved,
whom in this film sometimes appear as if they are larger than the characters
that they are playing. We at first seem to think that several of the
film's ensemble performers -- all of whom are very good here -- are simply in
front of the cameras as Hollywood stars acting as opposed to naturally being the
characters that they inhabit -- a sort of forced caricature -- but by the
one-hour mark, the film's performances grow stronger, and the star factor dims
considerably.
Emilio Estevez, who directs "Bobby" also
has a small role as Tim Fallon in the ensemble film, alongside onscreen wife
Demi Moore, who plays cabaret entertainer Veronica Fallon. (Ashton Kutcher
also appears, in a memorable role.) Shia LeBoeuf (glasses) is hysterical
as a campaign volunteer who takes a detour via a drug trip with his fellow
volunteer played by Brian Geraghty. (Photos: Sam Emerson/Weinstein
Company)
Interwoven around the myriad everyday events that take place within the
Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where the 22 people are staying or working over
the two days in which the film is set, are various pieces of actual
television news footage from CBS, featuring Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace as
they comment on the California primary, and of the senator himself as he criss-crosses
the country making his way towards one of American political elections' biggest
prized states, engaging with the people on whom he has made a tremendous impression, making speeches about the need to heal. Like other well-made political
history
dramas, "JFK", "Malcolm X", "Thirteen Days" among others, it is difficult to
watch "Bobby" without thinking about the present-day state of the world.
While "Bobby" is a piece of entertainment, if a viewer comes to watch this film
on the big screen and is not thinking about the present-day implications of what
is happening in the world and society around them, then their removal and
disconnection from the affairs du jour would be established (and Estevez would
not have done his job -- or at least the viewer would be in the wrong movie
theater room.)
However, that is not the case. Several distinctly younger audience members
seemed to understand the dimensions of "Bobby", and Estevez keeps things moving
in the style that the recently-departed Robert Altman would be proud of.
Heather Graham, Martin Sheen and Helen
Hunt cheer Bobby Kennedy, in a re-enactment of the prelude to the Democratic
presidential candidate's victory speech at 11:35p.m. on June 5, 1962, inside the
Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; Laurence Fishburne and Freddy Rodriguez in a
warm, touching scene in the film. (Photos: Sam Emerson/The Weinstein
Company)
"Bobby" is compelling as it tracks the characters in the Ambassador Hotel, the
place which would be 42-year-old Bobby Kennedy's last before being assassinated by
24-year-old Sirhan
Sirhan, just after making his victory speech.
Some of the very best interactions in "Bobby" are between Harry Belafonte and
Anthony Hopkins, two grand and legendary elder statesmen of their professions:
acting, activism and humanitarianism (Belafonte) and acting (Hopkins).
Helen Hunt and Martin Sheen (the director's father) are particularly good as
well as a couple whose hopes and dreams for the future are framed by material
emptiness, depression and doubt. Also noteworthy are Lindsay Lohan (whose
career as a serious actor is on the right track), Freddy Rodriguez ("Harsh
Times") as a Mexican cook in the Hotel's kitchen who gives away his prized
tickets to what would be L.A. Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale's record-setting
scoreless innings streak in the baseball game that the Dodgers would play at
home, not far away, on that night -- to Laurence Fishburne's head chef character;
Christian Slater, as a racist culinary manager who tries to deprive his Mexican
employees to vote among other things; and Nick Cannon, who steps into the film
as an ardent Kennedy campaign organizer, a young man sometimes overawed but
never overwhelmed by the demands of his job as he tries to help make sure that
Kennedy wins the California primary.
The music soundtrack recaptures the sounds of the times, and some of the best
ones can be heard in "Bobby", including The Supremes' "Come See About Me",
Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her", Hugh Masekela's "Grazing In The
Grass", Marvin Gaye's "Ain't That Peculiar", Los Bravos, "Black Is Black", and
Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence", which plays beautifully and
hauntingly over news footage of unrest in America and overseas. Aretha
Franklin and Mary J. Blige team up, along with the Boys' Choir of Harlem for
"Never Gonna Break My Faith", an excellent song which plays over the end
credits. (Franklin also did an amazing song for the closing credits of
"Malcolm X".)
Nick Cannon and Joy Bryant on the possibilities
of love, perhaps? Sharon Stone and Lindsay Lohan converse in "Bobby".
(Photos: Sam Emerson/The Weinstein Company)
The direction is woven together as if these 22 people are connected, and that of
course, is no accident. The editing (Richard Chew) is also very good, and when the moment
of tragedy comes "Bobby" is grounded in authenticity and palpable sorrow.
The film and its characters ground to a violent, stunning halt, and Estevez
captures time standing still in a convincing way. In a moment of prophetic
irony, the April 5, 1968 speech made by Bobby Kennedy -- "On The Mindless Menace of
Violence" -- delivered the day after the assassination of Martin Luther
King Jr., plays over the calamitous events of June 5, 1968.
Until then, the film weaves from one situation to the next, some of them funny, others
serious, still others fond, tender and intimate.
In "Bobby", Emilio Estevez has crafted a special film with special performances.
Copyright 2006. PopcornReel.com. All Rights Reserved.
"Bobby" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for
language, drug content and a scene of violence. The film's duration is one
hour and 55 minutes. The film opens across North America on Thanksgiving
Thursday, November 23, and continues its run right now in New York City and Los
Angeles.
The film happens to have been released wide across America just one day after
the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Robert's older brother John.