My review of the movie "Bobby"

[SeattleGirl]

MODS: This is a cross-post from the Lounge. I know movie reviews are usually posted over there, but I wanted to post it in GD too, because "Bobby" is about the last day in the life of RFK. It's a very good movie, with many similarities between that time in 1968 (voter suppression, unpopular war, protests, etc.), and I so I wanted to share it with GD.

(with apologies to Radio_Lady for stealing her movie review subject line).

I got to see an advanced screening for this movie tonight. The movie will be released on Thanksgiving.

"Bobby", written and directed by Emilio Estevez. Starring Harry Belafonte, Joy Bryant, Nick Cannon, Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Brian Geraghty, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LeBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Svetlana Metkina, Demi Moore, Freddy Rodgriguez, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Jacob Vargas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Elijah Wood.

The movie is about the last day in Robert F. Kennedy's life, and also about many of the people who worked at, or were guests at, the Ambassador Hotel in California. What I liked the most about the movie was that while they did have an actor playing Bobby Kennedy, it was only for distance shots, and his face was mostly obscured. Instead, they used clips of RFK campaigning, and clips of him at the Ambassador after the win in California. It was so good to hear and see him again, even if only in old clips.

Most of the movie focuses on the people at the Ambassador prior to Kennedy's appearance. Some parts are funny, as when two Kennedy campaign workers meet up with Ashton Kutcher's character (and I won't go into detail except to say that the part with the litter box was hysterical......). Other parts are kind of sad, such as what happens between William H. Macy's character and Sharon Stone's character. Ordinary people, going through some ordinary, and some extraordinary, things during this day. What I kept thinking was that none of these people had any idea of the horrendous juggernaut headed their way that night.

One of the striking things about the movie, given the times we live in, are the parallels to today: voter suppression primarily based on race, including such things as police roadblocks, missing voting machines, "new" electronic machines, and warnings about hanging chads. Also, there was a very unpopular war (Vietnam), war protests, and an unpopular president (Johnson). There are issues between characters about racism and misogyny. And woven throughout the movie are the words and the voice of RFK, talking about equality, talking about reaching out to those who have less than others, speaking of how he would make those issues the focus of his presidential campaign, a campaign that was cut short.

Most of the main characters end up at the rally with RFK that night, and/or in the kitchen of the Ambassador. The affect that RFK's assassination had on them was evident in their reactions to what happened. Again, Emilio Estevez interspersed shots of the actors with footage from that night. Regardless of what had happened in their lives prior to that moment, regardless of any problems different characters may have had with each other, that moment in time brought them all together.

Two of my favorite characters in the movie are William H. Macy's and Sharon Stone's. He plays the Manager of the Ambassador; she plays the head of the hotel's beauty salon. They don't interact with each other a lot until the second half of the movie, but I liked the characters, especially Sharon Stone's. I liked Laurence Fishburne's character too. Heck, I liked them all -- that is, I liked how the actors played their characters, even if some of the characters themselves were less than good and honorable. In other words, they were human beings.

For those of us who were alive in 1968 and were old enough to remember, it was a somewhat difficult movie to watch, especially the end of it. While you know what is going to happen, it still hits like a brick when it does; at least, it hit me that. And I'm not the only one -- there were a lot of people in that theater, men and women alike, who had tears in their eyes during the last part of the movie. For those of you who weren't' alive in 1968, or who were too young to remember that day, I would encourage you to go see it. In part, to see what it was like that year, that horrible year, but also, to hear the words of that great man, Robert Francis Kennedy.