Bobby (2006)

From what I've gathered on the internet, this film got mediocre to bad reviews. I'm not surprised that the establishment decided to knock this one around a bit because in today's world, films that are direct and passionate don't do so well. They were for another time.

But I liked Bobby. I actually didn't know too much about the presidential hopeful, though I did see an A&E program about Sirhan Sirhan, Robert Kennedy's assassin. The film is depicted as a tapestry of characters as we have seen become en vogue in Crash and Magnolia. We follow nearly 24 hours of time though about as many characters at the Ambassador Hotel on the day Bobby was shot. The cast is loaded - many of them friends of the film's writer, director and actor Emilio Estevez. The cast is also very talented, though I wasn't too taken with Kutcher or Graham. Stone, Jackson and Moore greatly impressed me more than usual. All the others were superb.

I find the film does an excellent job of transporting us back to a time when America was in a state of hopeless turmoil on numerous fronts: Vietnam, consumerism, drugs, fame, racism and mistreatment of immigrant workers, etc. And really, the US has simply continued down these paths of destruction and the same things plague the country, but in a greatly magnified sense.

The film adds one element of hope: Robert F. Kennedy, the presidential hopeful and younger brother of recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy. The film presents the younger Kennedy as the crux of recent American history, the man it all hinged on because so many had put their hope and faith in him to change all that was wrong in the world. And perhaps this is where people turn on the film, as though it is unfair to make this the turning point in America that never happened. I feel as though he works as a great symbol.

I found the film to be very honest and beautifully shot. Some characters were more compelling than others, but everyone was supposed to be the average person. The costuming and hair were really fun. The soundtrack was invisible, which I like.

Bobby is a compelling study of the human condition and I recommend it to you.

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