Bobby
Bobby Is More Timely Than You Think
Evan Pritchard
I rushed out to see Bobby in the company of an older gentleman who knew Senator Bobby personally back in the day. He did like the movie, however there was little to argue about concerning accuracy. The part of Bobby Kennedy was played by himself, with real or tinted footage, and the rest of the characters were apparently real everyday Americans whose lives were fictionalized on the screen, and by the way, all played by award winning actors and actresses, in a cavalcade of stars too long to mention here. Basically, everone is in this movie, and Resonance has it that most of them begged to be in this timely picture that makes a tasteful statement about some of today's most difficult issues. They apparently agreed to be paid scale (minimum wage for celebrity types, not that we'd know) so that they could all play a part in history. What struck me was that there were no cameos per se, all the stars played challenging and substantial parts with about 15 to 20 minutes of on-screen time each, and lots of good lines, the dramatic weight of the moment, one crucial day in the history of America that changed everything, distributed equally amongst all their shoulders, except perhaps the screenwriter himself Emilio Esteban, who played the husband of singer Virginia Fallon. Even he gave himself 10 to 12 minutes after editing, and wrote himself in playing drum traps.
It was a breezy movie in the beginning, happy times, just like we like to remember the sixties, and then began to build in intensity as the lives of the individuals became complex and tangled, much as the sixties did, and for similar reasons. The plot suddenly pulls all these diverse characters together in a room with RFK at the moment the assassin appears, just before the end of the film, and it is one of the most emotionally evocative endings in recent cinema, heart wrenching three hankie real-life drama unfolds and you are a part of it. By then you know all the victims of violence in this story quite personally, and care about them, and care about Bobby because they care about him.
Kennedy's speeches ring true throughout the movie, and we are struck by the almost angelic quality of his voice and the prophetic, unfaltering eloquence of his words as he talks of the same issues we are discussing today, the moral turmoil of war, the recovery from national sorrow, the economy.... there is alot that is truly spiritual about this movie, which some have called a modern "passion play."
As Christmas approaches I hope that many will go see this heart opening movie, and that young RFK (who lived to the ripe old age of 42) will play the sweet-tongued yet ominous "The Ghost of Christmas Past" as in Dickens' Christmas Carol, to perhaps stop us in our tracks and change the courses of our lives, to remind us of the innocence we once shared back in 1968, when at least one candidate fearlessly dared to speak truth to power.
Evan Pritchard
I rushed out to see Bobby in the company of an older gentleman who knew Senator Bobby personally back in the day. He did like the movie, however there was little to argue about concerning accuracy. The part of Bobby Kennedy was played by himself, with real or tinted footage, and the rest of the characters were apparently real everyday Americans whose lives were fictionalized on the screen, and by the way, all played by award winning actors and actresses, in a cavalcade of stars too long to mention here. Basically, everone is in this movie, and Resonance has it that most of them begged to be in this timely picture that makes a tasteful statement about some of today's most difficult issues. They apparently agreed to be paid scale (minimum wage for celebrity types, not that we'd know) so that they could all play a part in history. What struck me was that there were no cameos per se, all the stars played challenging and substantial parts with about 15 to 20 minutes of on-screen time each, and lots of good lines, the dramatic weight of the moment, one crucial day in the history of America that changed everything, distributed equally amongst all their shoulders, except perhaps the screenwriter himself Emilio Esteban, who played the husband of singer Virginia Fallon. Even he gave himself 10 to 12 minutes after editing, and wrote himself in playing drum traps.
It was a breezy movie in the beginning, happy times, just like we like to remember the sixties, and then began to build in intensity as the lives of the individuals became complex and tangled, much as the sixties did, and for similar reasons. The plot suddenly pulls all these diverse characters together in a room with RFK at the moment the assassin appears, just before the end of the film, and it is one of the most emotionally evocative endings in recent cinema, heart wrenching three hankie real-life drama unfolds and you are a part of it. By then you know all the victims of violence in this story quite personally, and care about them, and care about Bobby because they care about him.
Kennedy's speeches ring true throughout the movie, and we are struck by the almost angelic quality of his voice and the prophetic, unfaltering eloquence of his words as he talks of the same issues we are discussing today, the moral turmoil of war, the recovery from national sorrow, the economy.... there is alot that is truly spiritual about this movie, which some have called a modern "passion play."
As Christmas approaches I hope that many will go see this heart opening movie, and that young RFK (who lived to the ripe old age of 42) will play the sweet-tongued yet ominous "The Ghost of Christmas Past" as in Dickens' Christmas Carol, to perhaps stop us in our tracks and change the courses of our lives, to remind us of the innocence we once shared back in 1968, when at least one candidate fearlessly dared to speak truth to power.
posted by evan pritchard at 6:54 PM
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