Bobby

Today I brought a film recently that no one I know has even heard of, much less seen. I had seen Bobby on one of the flights during my oh-so extravagant, lavish, and symbolic of of my immeasurably wealth European trip of which The 18 Cup was part of. I watched it twice because it was so good (and because I had watched Rocky Balboa once already – a film quite underrated in my opinion). I have waited for some time for it to come out on DVD. It was a November 2006 movie, I saw it early 2007. A dash under a year after the cinematic release and it finally comes out …

During one of those annoying tutorial ‘introduction’ games at university, one of the questions was to state your name, degree, and the last film we saw. In another attempt to show off my ridiculous and supreme wealth, I decided to tell everyone that the last film I saw was Bobby on a flight from Europe – the actual truth. This turned into a small discussion (as it was a history tutorial) in which I praised the film, and someone else who knew about it (though hadn’t seen it) said they planned on seeing it on DVD when it came out. I wonder if he managed to remember these many months later.

It’s a film about the last days of Bobby Kennedy’s campaigning (before he is assassinated) however not about Bobby per se. It’s about characters who were affected by the shooting -one lookers, well-wishersother people who were also shot, co-campaigners, etc. Something like 22 characters are involved here – and most of them reasonably big name stars (Elijah Wood, Sharon Stone, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, Ashton Kutcher,Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen).

It’s a very interesting attempt to tell many stories, but is a very ‘busy’ film. I don’t hold that against the film – it’s theme is to show how millions were swept under the Kennedy-mania that was going to herald social change and revolution across America. And it is a definite attempt to show how America was devastated by the assassination. The level of emotions in the last five to ten minutes is quite high – and so it should be. The whole film is a build up to the final moments. Characters hopes, aspirations, and despair are all built up, and clash when that fateful gun fires.

The acting is superb. Sheen, Macy, Hunt, Hopkins, Graham, and Fishburne are the strengths of the film. That’s not to take away from the rest, but there five are the best. It’s not common to be able to pick out five actors in a film and say they are better than double again others, but it needs to be done. Hopkins is Hopkins – and in this smaller role, he’s great. Macy I’ve always considered an under-recognised actor, and again shows his strength. Fishburne has a fantastic speech in the film – and it is really one of the many faces of change that Kennedy was supposed to bring about. Graham and Hunt have very different characters, but both pull them off. Sheen, too, is great. I hadn’t seen him in The West Wing at this point, so he was an unknown to me then really. But I was very impressed.

So, if I can, I recommend seeing Bobby if you can. If you’re not too cheap, go and rent it from a video store (if they have it – it didn’t have a very wide cinema release here). I told you, St. Ives Correspondent, that you would like it, so I’m happy to lend it to you over your coming holidays. Anyway, go and see it.

Thomas.