| Bobby | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Emilio Estevez |
| Produced by | Anthony Hopkins John Ridley |
| Written by | Emilio Estevez |
| Starring | Harry Belafonte Nick Cannon Emilio Estevez Laurence Fishburne Heather Graham Anthony Hopkins Helen Hunt Joshua Jackson Ashton Kutcher Shia LaBeouf Lindsay Lohan William H. Macy Demi Moore Freddy Rodriguez Martin Sheen Christian Slater Sharon Stone Mary Elizabeth Winstead Elijah Wood |
| Distributed by | MGM, The Weinstein Company |
| Release date(s) | November 23, 2006 ( March 3, 2007 (DE) |
| Running time | 120 minutes |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Bobby is a Golden Globe Award-nominated historical drama film written and directed by Emilio Estevez. The film features an ensemble cast and is a fictional account of the lives of several people present during the final hours in the life of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, candidate for President of the United States, on June 5, 1968.
Bobby was released in New York and Los Angeles on November 17, 2006; wide release followed on November 23, one day after the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Robert's brother. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a seven-minute-long standing ovation. It received mixed reviews from critics, but nevertheless was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture.
Plot and characters
Bobby is a fictional account of events at the Ambassador Hotel on the day Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. The film recreates the ambience and themes of 1968 and invokes the hopes killed with Kennedy, by portraying this day-in-the-life of 24 fictional characters. It uses the ensemble plot device of the 1932 film Grand Hotel to tell the story (a film that is referenced in dialogue).
Anthony Hopkins stars as the retired but ever-present doorman at The Ambassador Hotel. Harry Belafonte plays his retired friend, with whom he engages in games of chess.
Lindsay Lohan and Elijah Wood appear as a couple opposed to the Vietnam War who get married so Wood's character can avoid being sent to Vietnam and possible combat duty.
Emilio Estevez (who also wrote and directed the film) and Demi Moore play married entertainers on the downside of their careers.
Sharon Stone plays a beautician married to the hotel's manager (William H. Macy), who clashes with his food and beverage manager (Christian Slater), who oversees a chef (Laurence Fishburne) and busboys (Freddy Rodriguez and Jacob Vargas). Other hotel staff portrayed are two phone switchboard operators, (Heather Graham and Joy Bryant).
Helen Hunt and Martin Sheen (Estevez's father in real life) portray married socialites and Kennedy campaign donors staying at the hotel.
Joshua Jackson (Emilio Estevez's co-star in the The Mighty Ducks trilogy), Nick Cannon, Brian Geraghty, and Shia LaBeouf play Kennedy staffers and volunteers; the latter two vie for the affection of a waitress played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and are willingly distracted by a drug dealer (Ashton Kutcher). A Czechoslovakian reporter (Svetlana Metkina) finally gets the campaign staff to grant her an interview with Kennedy, but he dies before she can interview him.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack is primarily a compilation of music from the 1960s. The two newly recorded tracks are "Louie Louie", sung by Demi Moore, and "Never Gonna Break My Faith", written by Bryan Adams, Elliot Kennedy and Andrea Remanda, and sung by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige.
Reviews
Michael Medved gave the film Bobby three stars (out of four) calling the film "intriguing but imperfect." Medved added that "I can confirm that director/writer Emilio Estevez gets most of the feelings of the occasion right. But, the melodramatic, multi-character format proves somewhat uneven and distracting." Medved is unique amongst film critics in that he (at the time, a young Kennedy campaign volunteer) was present in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel when Senator Kennedy was assassinated. [1]
This movie got a seven-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. Lou Lomenick of The New York Post gave the film Bobby one star (out of four), saying that it was just another rip-off of a much better film, 1975's Nashville.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine ranked Bobby as among the worst movies of 2006, giving it one star (out of four) and calling it "trite fiction" and a work of "insipid ineptitude".[2]
Awards
- Nominated for a Golden Lion, 2006 - Emilio Estevez
- Won Biografilm Award - Emilio Estevez
Hollywood Film Festival
- Won Best Ensemble Cast
- Won Best Breakthrough Actress - Lindsay Lohan
- Nominated for Best Motion Picture - Drama
- Nominated for Best Original Song (for "Never Gonna Break My Faith" by Bryan Adams, Elliot Kennedy and Andrea Remanda).
- Nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards
- Won PFCS Award for Breakout Performance of the Year (2006) - Behind the Camera (Emilio Estevez)
Historical accuracy
While Bobby is a work of fiction, the film contains some historically accurate representations. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated after midnight on June 5, 1968, in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel following his California Democratic primary election victory speech. In addition to Kennedy, five other people were shot, all of whom survived. Some valid political elements of his candidacy are shown.
The title role is almost entirely played by RFK himself. Spliced between, throughout, and within many scenes, is a patchwork of archival footage, radio broadcasts and photos of his presidential campaign along with other images and sounds of the Kennedy family, news broadcasts, and other media clips from the 1960s.
A few characters draw on the stories of real people. Tim Fallon (Emilio Estevez) and Virginia Fallon (Demi Moore) may be based on José Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney respectively. Both of them were present at RFK's assassination. However, most characters and their entwining plots are fictitious, representing late 60s archetypes. The five bystanders shot are all fictional.
Bobby does not attempt to present the RFK assassination exactly as it occurred, nor does it attempt to explain the murder. The five real wounded bystanders are not portrayed, nor are most key people who were present (George Plimpton, Rosey Grier, Rafer Johnson, Andrew West, James Scott Enyart, Thane Eugene Cesar, David Sanchez Morales, Paul Sharaga, Sandy Serrano, etc.) There is no treatment of Sirhan Sirhan's background or motives, whether he acted alone, nor anything to support or refute alternate or conspiracy theories to the assassination.
External links
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