Tuesday, June 4, 1968. The entirety of Bobby, Emilio Estevez's
modernized biopic about the assassination of presidential candidate
Robert Kennedy, is eclipsed in the span the day that changed the face
of American politics. The film touches on controversial issues of the
day including draft dodging the War in Vietnam, the ramifications of
post Martin Luther King Jr assassination racism, and open use of LSD;
all with a supporting cast that reads like an A-list celebrity party.
The movie brings unlikely stars to the screen and pairs them such as
Elijah Wood and Lindsay Lohan (the draft-dodging bride groom), Nick
Cannon and Joshua Jackson as campaign leaders, Shia LaBeouf and
Ashton Kutcher on an LSD trip, and Helen Hunt and Martin Sheen, etc.
Long story short, its got a wicked cast supporting an intense
political tale of the US presidential race that had media coverage
and hype that parallels modern times. Beginning to understand the
underlying themes of the movie, it is clear that Estevez combined all
the elements of the late 1960s that drove Americans to the pollsa
war stealing their sons and daughters by the draft, the radical
movement on Black rights and equality in the workforce to build so
much tension it hurts. While the movie spends most of its time trying
to set an ambience of frustration and social unrest, it spends
embarrassingly little time on each character that you cannot really
feel how they all connect until the final ten minutes. This is the
spoiler of the whole review, by RFK ends up getting shot and dies.
The political nature of the plot is enhanced by the voiceover of
Kennedy's actual speeches, snippets that not only connect you to the
story, but draws on empathy and loss for what could've been. It shows
the radical ideals that many people embody a certain drive to put a
stop to change, much of which is apparent in modern day American
politics. The parallels with the late 1960s to today's day and age
shows that we have hardly progressed over the past 40 years, and
Estevez writes the biopic in such a way that its hard to miss. Aside
from the on the side romances and few funny scenes, it is very much
so a film to make you think instead of laugh, something of a rarity
in Hollywood today. With enough archive footage to declare it a
history lesson, the movie combines so much real dialogue and voice
over sound bytes that you feel as if you are actually at the rally
and on the campaign trail. Without sound overly dramatic, the
realistic nature of all the culminating events is almost
foreshadowing of things to come if politics continues on its weary
course of action. The film was nominated for a string of awards, and
undoubtedly snatched Ensemble of the Year in 06 from the Hollywood
Film Festival. The movie is not a feel good biofilm. It is not a
heart-wrenching love story. Bobby is the epitome of a heroic
political figure in a world of disrepair, cut down before he had a
chance to shine and cause some change to the system. Nothing can be
said about the extremely well cast actors and their ability to shine
in the film, nor can it be stated that their credentials lead to poor
acting in any individual scene. There is no one emotion to describe
how you feel after the infamous kitchen scene which all but ends the
movie, but it is certain that after listening to Kennedy's final
speech, you can't help but fall in love with Bobby.
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