Bobby (I) (2006) User Reviews

Stories of racism, infidelity, aging, the effects of the Vietnam War, drugs: Why RFK's death was so impactful

[gradyharp · 8/10 · 11 April 2007]

BOBBY as written and directed (and starring) Emilio Estevez is not simply a recreation of the fateful night June 6, 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was shot, though that event is meticulously dissected as the sun dawns on Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel on that day. This film is a series of vignettes of the lives of many people (22 examples shine) whose hope for a better future than that of a country undergoing disintegration on many levels were shattered. It is about 'little people', people with choices whose responses to the death of a hero is devastating.

Racism (Christian Slater vs Laurence Fishburne vs interaction with Freddy Rodríguez and Jacob Vargas); hippie/white collar drug abuse (Ashton Kutcher dealing LSD to Brian Geraghty and Shia LaBeouf, Demi Moore's alcoholism defeating her marriage to Emilio Estevez and career as a lounge singer); aging and the problems of 'useless old people' (Harry Belafonte and Anthony Hopkins); adultery (hotel manager William Macy married to beautician Sharon Stone yet having an affair with switchboard operator Heather Graham); marriages teetering on commercialism (Martin Sheen and Helen Hunt); young political aspirants basing futures on RFK (Joshua Jackson and Nick Cannon); and the extremes to which young men will go to avoid being sent to Vietnam (Elijah Wood and Lindsay Lohan) - these are the main characters we get to know as they prepare for the evening's party for RFK and then suffer the explosive effect of the shooting by Sirhan Sirhan (David Kobzantsev). The power of the film lies in the impact Bobby Kennedy had on all of these people who represent the rest of a nation.

Estevez wisely uses film footage from life to project the speech and presence of RFK: using an actor to depict him would have made the effect less sharp. But in the end, as it seems apparent from Estevez' script, the power comes from the messages in the voice-over of Kennedy's own speeches, words to offer hope and a chance for resolution of the many conflicts that threatened to destroy the US. Would that there were minds with such thoughts speaking today when a leader is so desperately needed! The film has flaws (it would be difficult for a two hour enactment of a well known yet partially fictionalized incident not to). But the message is pungent and clear: we MUST care for each other as a country and forgo the alienation that is so rampant. A very fine film for thought. Grady Harp

Good Snapshot of history

[BCCDiva · 8/10 · 3 November 2006]

I recently had a pre-screening for "Bobby" at my college and I have to say this was a good film. I didn't know what to expect with Emilo Estevez directing, writing and acting. But he pulled it off. To me he wrote a very real movie. He had everyday people with everyday problems. The characters even talked like "real" people, profanity and all. The movie didn't feel like a docudrama and that I think that made it even better. All the stories were complete and made you care about the characters. Most importantly you could tell how important Bobby Kennedy was to all these characters and America as a whole. This movie will be a great movie for high schoolers to see so they can know how life was during that time.(it was like a snapshot of history) I hope this movie does well at the box office. I gave it an eight but I almost gave it a seven. I gave it an eight because the next day my friends were still quoting the movie. That is a very good sign. Esp. if college students are doing it. If you like any of the actors in the movie it is worth a shot.

An interesting, if somewhat cluttered, Altman-esquire film...

[tccandler · 7/10 · 31 October 2006]

This movie suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder... I feel like I missed out on the details of each character.

You may not have suspected that this film is one of the biggest mysteries of 2006. I mean, how on earth did Emilio "Might Duck" Estevez command enough clout to assemble this stunning cast??? I am stumped. Nevertheless...

"Bobby" feels very much like a stylistic copy of Robert Altman's work -- perhaps a lighter version of Paul Thomas Anderson's operatic ensembles. You know the types of films I am referring to -- "Nashville", "Magnolia", "Short Cuts", Boogie Nights" -- the huge casts, varying story lines, interconnectivity, etc.

The events in this film all take place at Los Angeles' famed Ambassador Hotel in the moments leading up to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968. There is the story of the nostalgic doorman who plays chess in the lobby. There is the story of the wasted night club singer. There is the story of a young girl who agrees to marry her friend so he doesn't have to go to Vietnam. There is the story of the racist food and beverage manager. There is the story of the bored married couple. There is the story of the political aides tripping on LSD. There is the story of the hairdresser... the cook.. the thief... his wife... and her lover -- Okay, fine... that's another film. There may even be a partridge in a pear tree somewhere along the way. "Bobby" is a sprawling film that may have jammed a little too much in between the credits.

That being said, the film is a model of professionalism. There are some fine performances. The costuming and make-up is so colorful and vivid as to become a character in and of itself. The editing is the film's highlight, cleverly blending original footage with fictional scenes.

The best performances come from William H. Macy, Anthony Hopkins, Lindsay Lohan & Svetlana Metkina. Hopkins plays wistful better than anyone ever has. Lohan has been called the "heart of the film" by Estevez himself. She gives the film an emotional connection and displays a level of acting talent that will surprise many audiences. Metkina has a few moments that will amuse you.

A few performances stray a little over the top -- Demi Moore is a prime example of that. She breaks the understated tone of the film. Also, the entire trippy scene with Ashton Kutcher struck me as entirely wasted.

The film winds down to the fateful event in the kitchen when Sirhan Sirhan ends the dream of many Americans. The film hints that this particular event may have been even more significant than the assassinations of either JFK or MLK. It hints that the course of the country shifted drastically that night. It hints, somewhat overtly, at the present situation we find ourselves in with world politics. And the words of Robert Kennedy echo sadly in the final chapter of the film.

There is so much crammed into this movie that it almost demands a second viewing. It is not that one can't keep up, but that each character gets so little screen time that it feels necessary to visit them again in order to get their full effect. I think that Estevez shows great promise here, but he may have overloaded his buffet plate -- and who can blame him with so much talent at his disposal.

© Written by TC Candler IndependentCritics.com

Well intentioned miss

[Tony43 · 11 November 2006]

First, let me offer a personal note. I was at the Ambassador Hotel the night Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot, although I had to leave the hotel to perform my own job as a wire service journalist before the Senator came down to the ballroom, so I was not there after midnight when the shooting took place. However, my wife at the time was there and for one moment, was one of those standing over Kennedy's body. I was back at the office working on the Kennedy victory story when word came though of the shooting. It was devastating, even more so for me because we learned very quickly that a woman was among those shot, but there were no ids available and in the days before cell phones, I had no way to reach my wife. It was hours before she was able to get to a pay phone to call me and let me know she was alright.

That all made watching the last few minutes of this film very difficult for me, even though the incident took place nearly four decades ago.

The assassination segment is gut wrenching to say the least, as are the newsreel clips of Kennedy on the campaign trail.

Other positives of the film are the acting and overall direction from Emelio Estevez.

The problem for me with this film was, I could not get a real handle on what it was saying. About 90 percent of the movie gives us capsule glimpses into the lives of people either working or staying at the Ambassdor before the shooting.

We find out the hotel manager is having an affair with a switchboard operator, a bus boy has Dodger tickets he will not be able to use, two college age nerds drop acid for the first time, and a comely young lady is going to marry a boy to keep him from being sent to Vietnam. (I'm not sure that actually worked, as many married men I knew wound up getting sent to Nam in that era. And I met many others while I was in the army.) Okay, the idea was to show us, not just a cross section of 60s culture, but also a glimpse into the lives touched by the assassination. Trouble is, we got a lot of their back stories, but since the film ends with the shooting, we never get to see what impact this terrible night had on them, other than that some, but not all of them, are among the wounded.

Consequently, it is never clear to me what all these stories add up to. For instance, Anthony HOpkins and Harry Bellefonte play a couple of retired hotel doormen who are apparently allowed to spend their retirement years hanging out in the hotel lobby, playing chess. Cute, but irrelevant to the story, since they don't even talk about politics on this, California primary day.

Again, some of these people are apparently fictionalized versions of those wounded, but they all survive and what we never find out is, was this incident life changing for them. And if it was, is it any different for them than it is for any other crime victim? For me, the assassination was and I eventually dropped out and went to Europe for a while. I don't know what happens to the people here and since I got so much back story, I feel cheated. Did the hotel manager and his wife reconcile? Did the boy who got shot get sent to Nam anyway? Did the two college boys become hard core stoners? Did either of them score with the hot lunch counter waitress?

I think this script needed some major adjustments to make the film work for me.

Glorifies Bobby a little too much

[rcoleman-4 · 6/10 · 1 December 2006]

The movie was very well done; however, I don't appreciate Estevez treating Robert Kennedy as a saint. In fact he went so far as to say on an interview that "the death of Bobby was the death of decency." Yes, Bobby was a very popular and influential politician in his day, yet, he was not amazing as he is depicted. Secondly, he would not have won the presidential election in the first place, Nixon still would have won. Nixon destroyed McCarthy, who was neck and neck with Kennedy in the Dem primary. Senator Kennedy was simply a "rock star" politician. He made people feel good about themselves, but his speeches really did not present anything profound. I guarantee if he was not a Kennedy his popularity would not be the half of what it is today. Lastly, it was clear Estevez was making an implicit protest on the war in Iraq. Haven't we've seen enough of those?

My Israeli shot me down

[David_Frames · 6/10 · 1 February 2007]

Estivez has a go at what critics have lazily referred to as a Altmanesque ensemble piece but as I couldn't think of a better adjective I've used it myself but will try to be more inventive with the rest of this review...which is a lie but try and stay with it regardless.

Emilio's ahistoric slice 'o' time takes place in the Ambassador Hotel is the, er, fateful hours leading up to Robert Kennedy's assassination. We're introduced to a body of characters all approaching something of a convenient watershed moment in their lives and/or attitudes. They talk about the verge of a new age or represent, as in William H Macy's case, the older generation flirting with the new in order to buy into some of that RFK inspired optimism. Vietnam is discussed of course, as are civil rights, sexual politics, drugs and so on - in other words its 1968 personified and as they pontificate on the issooees that dominated the period zeitgeist, real footage of the senator is spliced in as he does the rounds on the day of the California primary which he'd win of course, only to have the result cancelled by the assassins bullet.

There's nothing about Bobby thats going to offend anyone but there, as another great orator said, is the rub. Emilio's direction is competent but never inspiring like his subject matter - functional but lacking the magic that pulled you into better political ensembles like the aforementioned Altman's Nashville. The characters are reasonably well sketched but not especially involving and how could they be when the real star of the show, Kennedy himself, makes the drama seem very ordinary as his vocalises the film's anti-war, progressive agenda far better than any set of thin characters could. His footage, well integrated into the film, is the real reason to see it. The final minutes, post -bullets, with Kennedy's assured tones giving us a timely lecture on the futility of violence and the merits of tolerance and understanding as Estevez's characters contemplate his shooting just minutes earlier, genuinely does bring a lump to the throat. It lasts five minutes or so but says more about RFK and the tragedy of his death then anything that we've seen in the previous 100 minutes. Not superb then but Estivez's admiration for his man is well received and presented with dignity.

More about the Hotel

[MikeyB1793 · 7/10 · 30 August 2010]

I have mixed feelings about this movie. A lot of the scenes have nothing to do with Senator Kennedy - so the word fill-in comes to mind. However these scenes are well-done and keep you interested - Demie Moore as a drunk was quite hilarious. Perhaps the movie should have been called 'Ambassador Hotel'. For more about Senator Kennedy see a documentary on PBS. Also as I was watching the movie I felt it would have been more interesting to have a movie on the day after, rather than prior to the assassination. It must have been very traumatic for all those in the hotel who showed up for work the next day. The scenes at the end of the movie are riveting and heart-breaking.

One of the best of the year

[highkite · 10/10 · 10 October 2006]

If you're sitting in the back row of a theater, hiding your tears as the credits roll for a movie, you know it delivered the emotional effect it was aiming for. I was lucky enough to catch "Bobby" at the Toronto Film Festival -- its North American premier -- and what I got was an incredibly beautiful story, cinematically gripping to say the least.

Like in all great ensemble movies, "Bobby" offers a stellar cast, none of whom disappoint. From the neurotic and self-conscious character of Samantha (played by Helen Hunt) to the outspoken, confident Edward Robinson (Laurence Fishburne), there is a vast mixture of personalities that work to provide a complex interwoven plot line. But the most notable performance (and the most surprising) is that of Virginia Fallon. Brillianty portrayed by Demi Moore, Virginia is a foul-mouthed, insecure alcoholic who sways around on screen in delicate form, both heartbreaking and beautiful to watch.

Director-writer Emilio Estevez put his heart into this project. The direction is without a doubt highly impressive. The subtle colorful hues reflect the emotional grip of each scene, and extenuate a modern feel to the film. He puts us head-first in the crowd that witnessed the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, on what would seem to be one of the most heartbreaking moments in American history.

But what really stands out in this movie is not the screenplay, nor directing, nor acting. The emotional intensity is brilliantly brought out through the use of sound. An actual audio footage of RFK is heard in the background as the tense score sways by over the muted dialogue. And what works for this type of film-making is the amount of anticipation it builds up, and even after pivotal scenes, the impact it leaves on the audience.

There is a key scene in the movie in which all the characters prepare to greet RFK when the energy of the entire screen seemingly drips with positivity towards the American society. It's as though we forget the fatal tragedy and give into the thought of this story having a happy ending. We are reminded of classic ensemble films such as "Short Cuts", "Magnolia" and "Crash" and immediately juxtapose that feeling.

Though I do fear that politically this movie may not hit home for a lot of the critics once it hits a wide release, it is definitely going to leave a lasting impression on the majority who sees it. It's a movie that presents a magnificent cast, superb directing, and flawless scriptwriting. An undoubtedly obvious ingredient for the Awards season.

'Bobby' a Contrived Political Melodrama

[Ndirsch11 · 6/10 · 6 December 2006]

When it comes to reflecting on American history, there is always an unfortunate tendency among people to idealize the past and make overzealous claims about the achievements and credentials of our leaders. This tendency can most certainly be found in American history textbooks, where the perspective is always skewed towards inciting feelings of patriotism. We're also told to view history from the perspective of the rich and powerful as if the masses played little or no role in shaping the direction of the country.

This is exactly the problem with 'Bobby', a film which centers on the fateful day in which Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed. The year was 1968: the United States was embroiled in an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam, Martin Luther King had just been assassinated, and Americans everywhere were losing confidence in the priorities of the government. Bobby Kennedy, we're told in the film, brought a sense of hope for the future. As he began a promising campaign for president, Bobby Kennedy, like his brother, was gunned down by an assassin in a senseless act of violence.

The movie is directed by Emilio Estevez, the son of Hollywood liberal, Martin Sheen. Although his intentions are always good and the movie is certainly sincere, Estevez simply tries too hard to drive home the message that if only Bobby Kennedy had lived, then America would have fulfilled the hopes and dreams of the 60's. One of the film's most unsubstantiated claims is the idea that Bobby Kennedy wanted to end the Vietnam War. There's really no reason to believe this since the Kennedy family was notorious for being staunchly anti-Communist. Many might be shocked to find out that Bobby Kennedy was very close to the infamous anti-Communist Senator Joseph McCarthy and even worked with him in the 50's on one of his subcommittees investigating "subversives."

The entire movie suffers under the weight of this misguided need to idealize Bobby Kennedy into an almost saintly figure. Although the movie's primary problem is political, another problem is the decision to make the film solely about the day of Bobby Kennedy's assassination. By confining itself to this single day in history, the film avoids offering us any kind of analysis about the man himself, his career, or his politics. Instead, we're offered a moment by moment account of everything that happened that day at the Ambassador Hotel in California, the scene of the crime. We get all the mundane details about the people who worked there or who happened to be there by chance. Everyone from hotel guests, bus boys, the manager, and even a nightclub singer are included.

With a huge ensemble cast, 'Bobby' is clearly trying to emulate the structure of a Robert Altman film. The film outdoes itself, however, by casting so many A-list actors into one film as to seem desperate for our attention. Here's a short list of some of the stars of the film: Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, William H. Macy, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood, Laurence Fishburne, and Christian Slater. Everyone gives a good performance although few, if any, are given much to do. Bobby Kennedy, for the most part, is conspicuously absent from the film. Instead, the director uses stock footage when it is needed or uses an actor shot from behind or in the distance.

The many characters and subplots don't add much value to the film. The director is simply never able to connect the dots between these stories and how they relate to Bobby Kennedy. There's obviously some grand humanist message here about hope in troubled times. It gets buried, however, because every moment in the film seems staged and contrived. The film also fails to effectively capture this moment in history. Unlike 'United 93', which effectively realized the events of 9/11, 'Bobby' feels artificial. We're too aware of the film's agenda to feel that we are reliving history.

A life changing movie

[maxleigh · 10/10 · 21 November 2006]

This movie has the power to change the world, if people take a moment to think about it. The theater was packed, and all left silent, most very emotional. The message that Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King were giving is no longer being said by our current leaders, and that is a very sad thing. The work they were doing should not have fallen by the wayside when they were assassinated, but it seems that it has. The current message we are getting is quite the opposite. Massive kudos to Emilio Estevez for giving us this message again through his movie. The acting was amazing, the writing perfect, and the direction was incredible. What I took from this movie is that we should all take the time to really think about who we're putting in power and what they will do with that power. Take the time to vote. Without your vote as your voice, you have no power to give. As RFK said "Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events...Each time a man stands up for an ideal...he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Bobby - A Conversation

[moutonbear25 · 7/10 · 9 December 2006]

Frazzled, sitting around in a housecoat at a motel outside of Los Angeles, writer/director/ actor, Emilio Estevez, puts out his cigarette and picks up the phone. He dials the number and swallows nervously while he waits for her to pick up.

Finally, the phone is answered but it isn't her. "Whadup," says the man's voice on the other end of the line.

"Uh, hi. Is, uh, is Demi around?"

"Yeah, hold up." He drops the phone clumsily to the floor. The sound of his bellowing can be heard getting more faint as he walks further away from the dangling telephone. "Baaaaaaabe! Phone!"

Emilio is waiting. He hears the phone being handled.

"Hello?"

"Jesus! Emilio! How the hell are you?" She doesn't wait for him to answer. "What has it been already?" Again, she doesn't wait. "I heard you moved to some motel to become a hermit or something."

"Well, not exactly. I am at a hotel but I'm writing."

"Writing? Wow. That's … Wow. God, you haven't written a movie since 'Men at Work'."

"Yeah, I know. This one's different though, better, much. I'm writing a movie about the Ambassador Hotel, on the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot."

"Uh-huh."

"There's a part I thought you might like."

"A part? Hmmm. Well, who else is doin' it?"

"A few people. Heather Graham, Bill Macy, Helen Hunt, Larry Fishburn, Sharon Stone."

"Wow. Anybody else?" He could tell she was coming around.

"Uh, yeah. Tony Hopkins, Christian Slater, Dad."

"Aw, I love your father. What's the part?" He knew he could tell her almost anything now. It didn't matter. He had her.

"You would play Virginia Fallon. She's a popular singer who frequently plays the hotel. She's a total drunk too." He hesitates for a moment. "And she's concerned that the public doesn't really care so much for her anymore, y'know, because of her … age." He waits for it but it's oddly quiet.

She finally spoke. "I bet you I could get an Oscar out of this. An actress not afraid to play her age, or at least close to it. And a drunk! I'm as good as there!"

"Yeah! There's this great scene between you and Sharon. She is going to play the hotel stylist. She's doing your hair and your nails. You're drunk. She's tired. And the two of you just talk about how nobody wants you when you're a woman of a certain age."

"Yeah, that sounds great but I have the better lines, right? I would hate to see her walk away with my nod."

"Demi, please. You know she's got nothing on you." He didn't know he could be such a convincing liar. Even more so in retrospect, given that Stone is the only actor featured in BOBBY to be getting any Oscar attention.

"Aw, Emilio, thanks. I'll have to check my schedule but I should be good. So, what's the whole thing about?" she asks after the fact.

"Well, it's really about the death of all the necessary social and political change that Bobby represented. The last 15 minutes are gonna have everybody ballin' their eyes out. Bobby gives his speech at the hotel and then gets shot in the kitchen. People won't know what hit 'em. I mean, they'll know it's coming but it's still gonna be rough."

The level of excitement in his voice is like that of a young boy. Demi is familiar with this enthusiasm. She is also wise enough to know to scale it back. "Ok but what about the hour and half that comes before the end? What happens there?"

Emilio snaps out of his zone. "Well, stuff obviously." He hears the defensive tone in his voice. "I mean, there are so many people in this movie and so many hotel guests. It's got so many possibilities for different things going on."

He had not thought about bridging the divide between the centuries for his wide variety of characters. He always thought Kennedy himself would take care of that. Having the cast involved in topical and symbolic plots complicates things. Having them involved in more random, dramatic situations was a lot easier. When he thought of tying everything together in other ways than just through Kennedy's assassination, it made him feel that his script might be weak. He didn't like to think about that.

"Plus I managed to sign that Lindsay Lohan everyone talks about and that guy who played Frodo. There will be so many faces in this film, people won't know where to look. And I'm planning all this moving camera aesthetic. People will be so dizzy, a good dizzy of course. And there are the costumes! I'm thinking big hair for you."

"God, I love big hair. Alright, I'll have my agent call you, on one condition."

"Name it. I really want you in this."

"Can you put Ashton in the picture? I need to separate him from his PS3 for a while. Y'know, give the kids a chance to play."

"I need a stoner drug dealer part filled still. Do you think he can do that?"

"Yes, I think a stoner would be fine," she said flatly.

"Great, than it's settled. One last thing … Do you think you could give Bruce a call?"

"Don't push it, Emilio."

The call now made, Emilio sits back down to the blank page in his typewriter and stares out the window.

A film that helps us understand what was lost in 1968

[f_dodds · 9/10 · 5 November 2006]

"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." June 6th, 1968 (From the last speech Bobby gave) At a time when through out the world we seem to have lost our way and our belief in our political leaders is perhaps at its lowest ebb…. we see a reminder of what we had lost.

The sixties saw the assassination of John, Martin Malcolm and Bobby. As one of the actors says in the film "Bobby …… our last chance". We can only imagine what a different world we might have had had they lived.

When it premiered at the Venice Film Festival (http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/ ) it received a seven minute standing ovation. The film's tagline is He saw wrong and tried to right it. He saw suffering and tried to heal it. He saw war and tried to stop it.

There are some icons of that time and one is the election poster of Robert F Kennedy from 1968 (http://www.rfkmemorial.org/ ).

Bobby is written and directed surprisingly by Emilio Estevez and features an amazing cast of stars. It is a fictional account of the lives of several people affected by and during the final hours of Senator Robert F Kennedy's life on the 6th of June 1968 as he attempted to become the Democratic candidate for President of the US. The film includes Anthony Hopkins playing the former doorman at the hotel where Kennedy was killed; other stars include Elijah Wood, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Christian Slater, Heleb Hunt, Harry Belafonte and my favourite TV President, President Bartlet (Martin Sheen).

"Our gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worth while. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans." 1967 RFK For a generation it was Bobby who represented dashed hopes and dreams of a better world we might have had, which was cruelly taken away. At the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 4th 1968, he left the ballroom after having won the all important California and South Dakota Primaries. He went through a service area to greet supporters working in the hotel's kitchen. While moving through a crowded kitchen passageway, Sirhan B Sirhan a 24-year-old Palestinian, fired a .22 calibre revolver directly into the crowd surrounding Kennedy. Kennedy, who was shot in the head at close range and also six other people were wounded. Although wounded he remained conscious for about 20 minutes where his concern was about others he was heard to say "Is everybody all right?" He was taken to Central Receiving Hospital and then Good Samaritan Hospital for emergency brain surgery. I was at school at the time in Melbourne in Derbyshire and the school put a room aside for any children to watch the news throughout the day to see if he survived lessons were put aside. He died there at the age of 42 in the early morning hours.

With his death the darkness seemed to descend having lost Martin Luther King already that year.

"A revolution is coming--a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough--But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability." 1966 RFK He had just completed three and half years as one of the Senators for New York. He had helped to start a successful redevelopment project in poverty stricken Bedford Stuyvsant in New York City bringing business back into areas of New York they had left years before.

He had an ability to speak to people across divides in US society of the time which were strong. He managed to pull together a coalition of poor -- black and whites, middle class he spoke forcefully in favour of what he called the "disaffected," the impoverished, and "the excluded,".

The film gives a wondrful feeling as if you are really still living that hope.

"Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest " RFK It is my hope that this film will help to inspire a new generation for public service.

Lack of political insight- where is Bobby?

[esra_kilic_05 · 6/10 · 11 August 2007]

The cast is impressive. The mere sight of Hopkins gives an idea of the quality of acting you're about to watch. Hollywood stars appear one after another and each new appearance is a moment of joy. The talk between Stone and Moore on getting old deserves to be seen- Moore seems to be talking about her own career and Stone seems to acknowledge bitterly this sad reality-the entertainment business, Hollywood itself, doesn't cherish "old" actresses.

Yet you will be deceived by the low amount of politics involved in the movie. You soon realize that the title was misleading. Politics are secondary. Even Bobby is secondary. We're lost in personal tragedies: the adultery, husbands desperately trying to support their wives- either alcoholic or neurotic, a marriage that looks more like a sacrifice.

It is not a bad movie as such but it doesn't deserve the title "Bobby". As long as you're merely expecting an entertainment movie, you could even say that it is a good one.

One of the most profoundly disappointing movies of the year

[editor-299 · 2/10 · 18 November 2006]

Another movie that was even more of a disappointment than "The Fountain" is the magnum opus from Emilio Estevez (better known as Martin Sheen's son and Charlie Sheen's less talented brother) about the life and times of the late New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Well, actually, it's about 10 minutes in the life and times of Robert F. Kennedy; the rest of the movie's 112-minute running time is filled with boring, unnecessary fictional vignettes about idiots working in Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel, where the senator was assassinated in 1968.

Why on Earth would someone name a film "Bobby," proposing it to be a homage to the brother of a recently assassinated president coming into his own, and then stuff it with the most banal and uninteresting stories? I have no idea, friends.

All of these tales take place on June 6, 1968, the day of the California primary, in which Kennedy is battling another anti-war dove, Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy, and LBJ's conservative vice-president, Hubert Humphrey.

This little description is about the only real history you will get from this mishmash of a film, which soon meanders off into a wildly-spinning series of unrelated concoctions; very loosely tied to the upcoming assassination. In fact, had it not been for several actual newsreels of Kennedy on the campaign trail, this picture would have had nothing whatsoever to do with his life (and death).

I only wish they would have just spliced these images together and we would have a film to remember. These small clips give more insight and revelation on what Robert Kennedy was and what the country lost than anything Estevez could have dreamed up. Don't believe me? Then take a look at some of the vignettes:

Anthony Hopkins (portraying another old American) is a longtime hotel employee who now plays chess with an addled Harry Belafonte; Estevez (wearing an ascot and carrying a poodle) is the effeminate husband of drunken singer Demi Moore; Heather Graham is a hotel switchboard operator having an affair with aging manager William H. Macy (the biggest work of fiction in the whole movie); Macy, on the other hand fires kitchen manager Christian Slater for racism, but is chastised himself by beautician wife, Sharon Stone, for infidelity; long-winded cook, Laurence Fishburne, lectures everyone on the meaning of life; two Mormon missionary-types, Shia LeBeouf and Brian Geraghty, who work for the Kennedy campaign, buy LSD from Ashton Kutcher; Helen Hunt and Martin Sheen play a middle-aged couple who come to celebrate the primary; and Lindsey Lohan is a woman who marries Elijah "Frodo" Wood to keep him from going to Vietnam.

Who cares about any of this?!

The only compelling story was the one surrounding Mexican busboy, Juan Romero (Freddie Rodriguez) one of the few actual real people portrayed in this film, who ended up cradling the mortally-injured senator. Still, this particular part of the quilt is given as much time as the rest of the ridiculous, made-up stories. Yeah, I really care that Helen Hunt forgot to buy shoes or that Anthony Hopkins once met FDR or that a waitress from Ohio dropped acid once.

And speaking of that, the LSD freak-out scene was one of the most insipid and embarrassing pieces of trash ever slopped onto celluloid. It's something even "Mystery Scinece Theatre 3000" would have gladly passed on. I actually though I was hallucinating while watching it.

Finally, however, after almost two hours of nothing happening, even I was almost ready to take a few shots at some of these people.

In fact, when Sirhan Sirhan finally arrives at the hotel, most of the audience was relieved to see the only likable character who could end this colossal mess. Sirhan should have first gone after Estevez (who seems to direct this film with a circus mallet), though, and spared us from an intellectual and cinematic assassination we may never get over.

Bobby Kennedy was one of the most unique and compelling men of our generation. I can't say I would have agreed with all of his politics had he lived, but he deserved a much better honor than this ham-fisted, unfocused, passionless motion picture gives him.

He's no Altman.

[JohnDeSando · 17 November 2006]

"His passion has aroused the best and the beast in man. And the beast waited for him in the kitchen." Theodore H. White

The film clips of Bobby Kennedy before his assassination are a stark reminder of the Kennedy charisma and the loss to America both brothers' deaths brought. Besides the obvious Crash parallel, Emilio Estevez's Bobby takes a Robert Altman approach to the day of Robert Kennedy's death to show in the hotel the intersecting lives that will be defined by this history.

Estevez has neither Altman's genius for overlapping dialogue nor his creative characterization. The vignettes are about people such as a philandering hotel manager (William H. Macy) and a windy chef (Larry Fishburne), along with an equally surface retired doorman (Anthony Hopkins) and an old and sentimental guest (Harry Belafonte), to name a few. Even Demi Moore as a famous lounge singer and Sharon Stone as a beautician philosophize about growing old. I just can't remember anything they all said or did that was memorable or even relevant to the tragedy about to occur in the Ambassador Hotel.

Perhaps the point is that they are allowed to age with unremarkable lives while this young leader would be shot down never to fulfill his promise of liberating America from Vietnam and the hotel Latino laborers from dead-end jobs.

You have to admit, even these cursory plot points are hardly the stuff to accompany a real-life tragedy. Altman's Nashville depicted the players before a fictional assassination, yet they remain vivid in my memory decades later. All I'll remember from Bobby is how Stone and Moore are aging and how foolish the young Heather was to give herself to Macy's uptight manager without seeing the thousands of men who would love to date her.

"Has anybody seen my friend Bobby? Where has he gone?"

A soap opera of 1968 America

[Chris_Docker · 7/10 · 31 January 2007]

With a cast of more stars than you can shake a ticker tape at, Bobby panoramas 24 hours in the life of the Ambassador Hotel - before Senator (and presidential hopeful) Robert Kennedy arrives and is assassinated.

The time is 1968 and in many ways this movie is a snapshot of the era. Anti-war protests over America's war in Vietnam, Martin Luther King shot, bras being burnt, and people tuning in and dropping out with psychedelic drugs. Our movie takes the lives - and the hopes and wishes - of a cross section of people and presents them as a microcosm of a mood of a nation.

Bobby Kennedy - like his brother JF Kennedy before him - was a charismatic speaker, although relying more on his passion for human rights than clever turns of phrase. The Senator, who in the film is riding high in the California primaries, is played mostly by himself from archive footage. Instead of using trick photography to place the actors next to him, the film simply cuts back and forth to the live action, or occasionally a stand-in will show the back of Bobby's head.

Misleadingly from the title, the movie is about the aspirations of a generation, some of which are symbolised by the figure of Robert Kennedy. The story takes a rambling non-linear soap-opera approach, rather like Magnolia, and most of the characters are linked only at the end.

There is the young lad (Elijah Wood) being drafted and a girl is marrying him so he will be posted to Germany rather than the body-bag factory of 'Nam. There is Sharon Stone, cuckolded wife and beauty salon manager, sharing repressed emotion with a drunken cabaret performer, played by Demi Moore. Two young members of the campaign staff take time out to experience their first LSD trip. The restaurant staff, mostly illegal immigrants, are forced to take double shifts. Everyone we meet is buoyed along by hope as represented in the Senator's anti-war, anti-discrimination rallying speeches.

This is a leisurely, detailed and lovingly crafted movie. To those who lived through or can empathise with the period, it will have great sentimental value. To those who see a similarity between opposition to the Vietnam war and opposition to the Iraq war some 40 years later, it provides a useful historical reference point.

To opponents of the war, in spite of the differences, there are many resonances. Both wars are against a vaguely defined enemy. Both are proving to be wars that America cannot 'win'. Yet for all its emotion, the lionising of Bobby Kennedy is based on promises more than any evidence that he would have been able to halt the war sooner. His brother, JFK, was largely responsible for initiating the war, in spite of his constant halo (alternatively, he was a puppet of the CIA - which RFK might have had to succumb to as well). Both, like George W Bush, were deeply religious, and no doubt the oratory and rhetoric of the biblical traditions helped them in turn to inspire millions with or without supporting facts.

Bobby questions nothing, merely records a fragment in time. But in shoring up the popular mythology surrounding the Kennedys it also pays homage to the modern cult of the emotional soundbyte - which continues to be the bulwark determining how the United States elects its presidents.

Bobby is a beautifully made film, but this will not prevent less patient audiences asking what was the point.

Really Wanted to Love It; Could Only Like It

[Danusha_Goska · 7/10 · 1 December 2006]

Like so many others, I really wanted to like "Bobby." There's so much in Robert Kennedy's bio. Just reading moments from Robert Kennedy's life -- his work for Joseph McCarthy, the assassination of his beloved older brother, John, that apparently changed his life by changing his soul, the moment when he had to announce to a crowd of African Americans that MLK had been assassinated, and his recitation, to that crowd, of the poetry of Aeschylus.

A quote from that speech: "My favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."" I mean, my God. I'm not at all in thrall to the Kennedy as Royalty myth, but this man was charisma; he was history; he was lightening.

So, yeah, I really wanted to love Emilio Estevez's "Bobby." I liked it. But I did not love it.

Sharon Stone is terrific -- please, please, Hollywood, make good use of that woman's huge talent.

Everyone else -- Anthony Hopkins, Ashton Kutcher, Harry Belafonte, Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery -- oops, sorry, that's another all star Hotel movie -- everyone is fine, right down to the cutest little cute dog since "Benjie." There are sixties songs, and sixties themes, and, oh, lots stuff.

But the movie never really grabbed me until the climactic moments, during which a speech by Bobby Kennedy was played over the soundtrack.

The best moment in this movie consisted of material that would probably have been better placed in a documentary about Bobby Kennedy.

The wrong moment and the wrong style?

[Chris Knipp · 7/10 · 9 January 2007]

Emilio Estevez's Bobby is a well-meaning but lackluster Altmanesque piece organized around people at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles up to and just after the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy, who that evening had just won the California democratic presidential primary. Even Altman didn't always succeed, and what he did wasn't easy. That began with the difficult choice of what setting and moment to choose for his interweaving of characters and incidents and voices. It's certainly logical – if a bit naïve – to associate 1968 and the other Kennedy with a more idealistic world than the one we're in now; but Estevez's basic premise is still questionable to begin with: the characters who happen to be at the hotel on that evening aren't going through anything from what we see of them that's especially interesting. A lot of the time it seems the only reason we're watching them is that they're going to be in the hotel kitchen when Bobby Kennedy gets shot. That certainly isn't enough to make us care about them.

Estevez may have wanted to present a microcosm of American hopes and aspirations or show how things went wrong at a pivotal moment; but the writing isn't sharp enough to whip things into a coherent whole – or to provide the many name actors, hard as some of them are trying, with scenes that sparkle or stick in the mind. The movie's pulse rate rarely rises and at under two hours, the movie still feels very long.

It's the few minority characters who generate the most emotion. There's good interaction between a black cook (Laurence Fishburne) and Latino workers (who are never seen doing their actual jobs) including stoical busboy José (Freddy Rodriguez); and one is touched by seeing an "angry" young black Kennedy campaign worker named Dwayne (Nick Cannon) have a brief moment of enthusiasm and recognition that turns to terrible despair when the assassination occurs. Alcoholic women and older men in downbeat or valedictory situations are less well served, perhaps because they emphatically represent no hope or course of action that relates to RFK or the aspirations Estevez associates with him.

To call this "ensemble" acting falsely implies skillful interweaving of subplots such as the real Altman of Nashville, Short Cuts, or Gosford Park could pull off so brilliantly. "Ensemble" doesn't just mean bringing together a lot of name actors. Estevez's characters and their dialogue tend to be stereotypical. He works mostly with pairs of people who rarely connect interestingly with another group. A young couple (Lindsey Lohan, Elijah Wood) marry so the boy won't get sent to Vietnam; two young male white campaign workers (Brian Geraghty, Shia LaBeouf) get high on acid and "waste" their day, thanks to Ashton Kutcher, horrible as a hippie drug dealer (he does Seventies, not Sixties, remember?) A drunken entertainer (Demi Moore) who's abusive with her husband (Estevez himself) connects with a burned-out, boozy beautician (Sharon Stone). Estevez's dad Martin Sheen plays somebody important, helping his wife (Helen Hunt), who's somebody too, buy black shoes. So what? The hypocritical hotel manager (William H. Macy) sleeps with a hotel phone operator and in a spirit of self-conscious liberalism fires the kitchen manager (Christian Slater) for exhibiting racist attitudes. It's clear Estevez cares about the politics and moral contradictions of the time, but most of the time his characters don't seem important or interrelated enough.

One trouble, for his Altman aspirations, is that Estevez doesn't succeed in making the hotel seem like a living organism – as the hostelry does in the kitsch classic and Garbo vehicle Grand Hotel, which he makes the mistake in alluding to. (Partly this is because the Kennedy team have nothing special to do with the hotel.) So much was going on in America at this moment; only a fraction of it got into this picture. The period is evoked well physically but less well in language. A small instance: the bride-to-be says she's "okay with" marrying her young man to save him from combat. But in those days people weren't "okay with" things; things were "okay with" people. She would have said marrying him was "okay with" her. "I'm okay with" is a quite recent pattern of speech.

Actual footage of Bobby campaigning, of his California primary win reported on TV that evening, and of the chaos after the shooting, are skillfully woven in Bobby by Richard Chew; but resolutions of the various subplots are too rushed under the extreme pressure of the intense tragic finale. Bobby's final minutes use as voice-over a speech RFK gave about violence. If this is meant to be an indication of the president we might have had, it fails. At 43 Robert Kennedy, after living in the shadow of his fallen brother, still seemed well meaning but unformed, and here we find him philosophizing rather than providing a concrete program. His speech condemns violence as a culture or way of life rather than seeking its causes; his conclusion that America needs a "cleansing" of this scourge carries an ominous suggestion of possible repression that reminds one of his authoritarian leanings.

To show how a cross section of Americans might have related to this time and this man would have required more space or more depth – and better writing. The tragic, chaotic finale seems a gratuitous payoff that's sad without being meaningful in terms of the whole film. Bobby seems to express a sentimentalized doomsday mentality, as if to say "we had a chance but we lost it." Maybe, or maybe not. If Estevez indeed had a chance here, he lost it too – though you can't blame him for trying.

Bobby is Oscar

[ClaytonDavis · 10/10 · 15 September 2006]

"Bobby" which tells the story of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the little brother of the late and also assassinated President John F. Kennedy, and what was going on 16 hours before it happened. We are thrown back and forth between 22 extraordinary characters and stories. Emilio Estevez writes, directs, and co-stars; he has truly elevated his level of direction and writing. This is coming from the same man who brought us hit and miss films like "Men at Work" and "The War at Home." He parallels us through a journey of injustice, racism, prejudice, adultery, and more. This film much like "Crash" with its unsubtle undertones of encroachment could be the multi-character film that has the "Good Night, and Good Luck feel that speaks assertively to America.

This film leads an all-star cast of some A and B-list actors. William H. Macy plays the manager of the famous Ambassador Hotel (which the Oscars were held at a few times) and Sharon Stone plays his wife and hairdresser of the hotel. Heather Graham plays one of switchboard operators whom Macy is having an affair with. Demi Moore plays Virginia Fallon, the alcoholic lounge singer who is set to introduce the doomed candidate of the presidency. Estevez portrays Moore's husband and manager being tormented emotionally by his wife's addiction. Lindsay Lohan, who has a step now to bring herself into more serious roles, depicts Diane, a young bride to be, who is marrying her boyfriend's brother to keep him from going to Vietnam. Elijah Wood plays the future and very grateful husband. Freddy Rodriguez known for his role in "Six Feet Under" and Jacob Vargas known for his supporting roles in "Traffic" and "Jarhead," play Mexican kitchen staff members who are working a double shift and are in search of equality. Laurence Fishburne is Edward Robinson, an older black kitchen staff employee who is teaching his fellow compatriots about offering more to life than anger. Joshua Jackson and Nick Cannon are campaign managers for the infamous Bobby. Real life father of Emilio Estevez, Martin Sheen is Jack, a depressed older man who marries a younger woman portrayed brilliantly by Helen Hunt. Christian Slater is Timmons the very racist kitchen staff manager who is not subtle about his feelings towards minorities. And veterans Sir Anthony Hopkins and Harry Belafonte are John Casey, a veteran worker of the Ambassador and Nelson, an old friend reminiscing of the old days. And at the end we have a little Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

The movie races against the clock to bring us into all these characters lives and show us about "Old America" and where we've come from. The film has it all, some comic relief coming from Kutcher, your strong political message, the dramatic elements, and the emotional punch that lays the icing on the already multi-layered cake. This is one of the most important films of the year and if justice is served this will be on many critics' top ten lists of the year. I can't explain too much about the film without giving away vital parts but it speaks to America. It shows a history of grave transgressions and how that may seem all behind us it is lucidly vigorous. The mention of Dr. King and his impact on people fighting for equal rights is mentioned quite of a bit and leaves in discernment. Bobby Kennedy was the light at the end of a lot of citizen's dark tunnel. People believed he was going to do some amazing things for us and we'll never know if he would have lived up to those expectations but I am now very informed of his life, legacy and how much he meant to so many individuals.

Emilio Estevez could very well be the Paul Haggis of the year with his excellent writing and direction of the film. I never would have thought he had it in him to pull off this passionate and affecting drama out of him. The performances are amazing and utterly mind blowing but to be honest, with 22 different characters as oppose to Crash's ten or twelve it's hard to pick a standout. If critics go crazy for the film, I'd place bets for Laurence Fishburne who has already received raves for his "Akeelah and the Bee", Helen Hunt's haunting and powerful performance very reminiscent of Julianne Moore's performance in "The Hours", and possibly Harry Belafonte as the veteran of the year to make it to the short list for the first time. With these bets my favorites differ; by far Freddy Rodriguez as Jose who brings a sense of humanity to his role which mirrors Michael Pena's Daniel in Crash went home with me post-experience. I wouldn't even be hesitant to say Christian Slater was great as a racist who also mirrors Matt Dillon's Oscar nominated performance. Sharon Stone also left a beautiful impact on me to make long forget about "Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction."

With all of these key components and sides of "The Constant Gardener" and "JFK," this is the film of the year. Undying gratitude can be expressed to cast and crew involved in such a passionate masterpiece of film-making. The technical aspects of the film are eye-catching. The recreation of the Ambassador Hotel by unknown Colin De Rouin is beautifully constructed and is alone worthy of viewing pleasure. The cinematography always keeps the smooth flow of the film moving along with excellent editing coming from Richard Chew, the Oscar winner of a little bold masterpiece called "Star Wars." Even the Mark Isham score definitely sampled from Thomas Newman adds to a melancholy yet invigorating memoir. A review such as this cannot begin to encapsulate the consciousness of "Bobby" it can only be a fishhook with enough thrust to get a viewer into a chair and enjoy respect, knowledge and background of one of the most notorious and resourceful men in the history of politics.

Bobby's words & Stone's performance lifts this out of listlessness.

[DAHLRUSSELL · 6/10 · 26 January 2007]

Emilio Estivez wrote and directed this film. It is, above all else, a tribute to, and reassertion of the words and work of Bobby Kennedy. Documentary footage and audio are integrated throughout this production to make him live again in this film.

This is one of those pastiche films of people "sharing a moment of time" when separate lives all intersect through fate (a style which is not my cup of tea). Unfortunately, there is an awful lot to wade through just to get to that moment, much of it banal. This film tries so hard to be historical, timely, and PC all at the same time, that it is utterly devoid of charm or interest.

The cast is so chock full of luminaries that it looks like a remake of Spelling's HOTEL, or SHIP OF FOOLS, with the same amount of soap opera story lines. Unfortunately, the famous faces are often extremely distracting. Oh! Look! It's Frodo getting married! I wonder if he is using "precious" as the ring? This film would have benefited enormously from casting mostly little known faces, especially when you get to the pay off scene.

Surprisingly, the stand out performance is Sharon Stone as a sadder-but-wiser gal, a hotel salon hairdresser married to the philandering manager (William Macy). I love it when a familiar actress actually brings new facial expressions to the table, and here she proves herself a strong character actress (like a sequel to her strong work in CASINO, but a more down-home character). The strongest scene in the entire film is between Stone and Demi Moore as an alcoholic performer/diva. Moore evokes Joan Crawford in her later years, dependent on large wigs and alcohol.

There is something touching and a little scary about these gaunt, overly tanned women (Helen Hunt, too)… some of this must be make-up, because that "beached, bleached and smoked look" was in vogue with the country club set at this time period, but it's a cautionary tale about skin like leather stretched over a skeletal frame. So…that IS relevant, isn't it?!

Estivez wisely gives himself a very small role, but sympathetic, and (other than Kennedy's) the most memorable line of the film. Harry Belafonte and Anthony Hopkins quote GRAND HOTEL at the onset of the film, but this is no grand hotel. Too much happens, and everything changes. It's almost painful to see these two lions in these roles with meaningless dialogue, just filling time. I was just so relieved when this film was over! Finally!

The words of Kennedy remain relevant and inspiring, and BOBBY makes me long for a really good bio documentary of his life instead of this sound and fury cavalcade of stars tribute.

very worth seeing

[alansaxon · 10/10 · 27 November 2006]

"Bobby" brings you back (if you were ever there) to the 60s, when those who protested the Vietnam War and racial injustice were motivated from their heart and torn by anger and grief in their efforts to change both. Yes the ensemble characters in the film are quite ordinary and their (sometimes) tawdry or pathetic shortcomings all too obvious and easy to sneer at, yet who could not recognize themselves in one or more of these vignettes. Robert Kennedy's assassination was felt by those who cared about him or his mission to the presidency as a deep wound to our own vision of a more compassionate and just America. The pettiness and simplicity of the characters in this movie are expertly directed to reveal our own pettiness and let us identify with them, if not consciously, then unconsciously. Remember, the top Hollywood actors in this movie were paid basic union scale (virtually free for them) so this was made for love. Our own little soap operas are put into such deep perspective that when he is killed, so were we, or at least the film lets you feel that. You find yourself loving this man, Robert Kennedy, for what he stood for and what he said during his candidacy, which is brilliantly threaded throughout the movie in his own words. The humanity you discover in him is of course your own humanity and isn't it refreshing to cry for yourself and your lost dreams as you cry for his.

Thought provoking and surprisingly uplifting

[angry_beaver_05 · 7/10 · 27 January 2007]

The draw of this movie would be its star-studded cast and with this cast you think you know what to expect, however this is not the case. they all deliver unique performances, even an unexpected performance from Lindsey Lohan.

Also there are fantastic moments as the director refers back to old footage of Robert Kennedy in a subtle but effective way.

I also have to credit the rest the cast Anthony Hopkins, who brings a classic feel to the film, Demi Moore, who brings showbiz and tragedy to her role, and Helen Hunt with Martin Sheen play the part of a perfect relationship.

The true moment of greatness is the ending (I mean this in a good way)at the end we see a connection between all the characters during Kennedy's assassination which makes you realise that we are all human beings and should treat each other equally, this is really summed up in the words of Robert Kennedy himself in the famous footage that concludes the film.

If I had to say anything bad about this film it would be the pace which is slow at times but it does not detract from the storyline and in some ways makes the ending that bit more powerful as you feel you have spent time with these characters which would be impossible to achieve with a short and snappy script.

Captures the Era and the Man

[AuntieEm03 · 9/10 · 27 October 2006]

I saw the movie "Bobby" as part of the Vienna International Film Festival last week and thought it was an incredibly powerful film. The movie focuses on around 20 people in and around the Ambassador Hotel the day that Robert Kennedy was shot there. The large cast never seems overwhelming. The characters are clear enough that we remember what they were doing the last time we saw them, but we never feel like they are merely one-dimensional. Emilio Estevez really hit the jackpot with his cast - they all are 100% committed to their roles and the audience simply gets lost in the era.

The cast is phenomenal - the standouts include Sharon Stone (who has a a chance at a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination if the Academy can overlook Basic Instinct 2), Nick Cannon as a young Black-American working on the campaign, and Freddy Rodriguez as a young Latino working in the kitchen. The later two, combined with Lindsey Lohan as a woman marrying to save a man's life, serve as the heart of the movie and bring a well-balanced view of many of the hot issues of the day.

The movie has an incredible, emotional climax that is enhanced by an actual speech of Bobby Kennedy. The audio and visual clips of Kennedy serve as snapshots into his life and the work he did during his short time in the public eye. You can read whatever you want to into the political agenda of the movie, but in the end this movie is a tribute to Robert F. Kennedy and his time.

Idealism intact in a fitting if uneven tribute to RFK's legacy

[george.schmidt · 7/10 · 12 December 2006]

BOBBY (2006) **1/2 Harry Belafonte, Joy Bryant, Nick Cannon, Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Brian Geraghty, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Svetlana Metkina, Demi Moore, Freddy Rodriguez, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Jacob Vargas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Elijah Wood, David Krumholtz. Sprawling and uneven yet somewhat compelling fictitious look at the day in the life of several characters on the fated evening of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination provides a glimmer of what the era was like and some fine ensemble acting (particularly Rodriguez and Stone) make up for filmmaker Estevez' shortcomings and long stretches of credibility (to wit, weakest link Kutcher as a drug-dealing hippie). However credit the actor for smartly weaving Kennedy's powerful speeches into the film solidifying the gravitas of a true leader whose idealism proves just how we as a nation are treading in similar times (i.e. an unjust war and a middling government with civil rights).

Where's Bobby

[steve-585 · 1/10 · 20 June 2019]

I am into history and was 15 when the incident actually occurred. This is not about Bobby Kennedy. It is about some of the people that were at the hotel at the time. There is no actor playing Kennedy, just some footage of him. Pretty boring until the last few minutes. No mention of even who killed him in the movie.