 | |
List Price: $14.95 | | Label: The Weinstein Company
Salesrank: 12397
Released: April 10, 2007 |
| Our Price: $2.89 |
| Used Price: $1.31 |
|
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
(Drama) A re-telling of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968. The film follows 22 individuals who are all at the hotel for different purposes but share the common thread of anticipating Kennedy's arrival at the primary election night party, which would change their lives forever. This historic night is set against the backdrop of the cultural issues gripping the country at the time, including racism, sexual inequality and class differences.
Bobby (Widescreen Edtion) Reviews:
Still a Raw Nerve, an Unhealed Wound 
2008-12-24 - I avoided this film for two years not just because I assumed it would fail to live up to the importance of it's topic, but because that topic is still difficult for me to deal with. The story takes place just a week past my 16th birthday, but for me (and almost everyone of my age that I know,) it's as though Bobby was shot last night. When I see footage from the Ambassador ballroom, or when I see film of the funeral train... the tears quickly well up. Four decades later, I choke up.
In reading the many Amazon pages of reviews for this film, you can get a feel for the age of the author. I wouldn't expect anyone under the age of perhaps 12 at the time (or not yet born) to react the same way to this film as those of us who remember the night in vivid detail. And to those too young to really feel this film as we older folks do, three quick points...
One, many reviewers don't like the fact that there are so many seemingly unrelated personal stories woven together into this film. I understand the complaint, it's the "Nashville" syndrome and I'm no Robert Altman fan.
But it makes absolute sense here to show a dozen or so simultaneous tales leading to a common conclusion - because it drives home the fact that Bobby's campaign spoke so eloquently and intimately to such a wide range of social classes and demographics, and that his death shattered them equally. On the day after Bobby finally passed away in his hospital bed, I remember noticing that even Republicans, even conservatives, even those that supported the war, even "grown-ups" and my high school teachers were just stunned with shock by what had happened... that there was a fog of unreality and disbelief that people seemed to wander through aimlessly for a few days...
Second point - there's a small scene after Booby is shot where a young man throws a chair against a lobby wall. This rings true (as does everything in the final twenty minutes of the film) as it hints at what was to come, the rage we all felt, the fury, the visceral disgust at our government for continuing an obscene and pointless war, the inconsolable pain and the desire for revenge that many of us had. The Weather Underground was born in the hearts of many of us that night.
Finally, in terms of Mr. Estevez' ability to draw the best out of his cast and the dedication with which they approached their roles (for this was obviously each cast member's personal tribute to Bobby...), the look on William H. Macy's face as he watches the ambulance drive away says it all. Macy, a supremely gifted actor, moves deeply in his heart to a place that most actors don't always manage to go.
If you're too young to remember that night yourself, trust me.
Look at Macy's face, watch him try to cope, to hold on, look into his eyes.
That's exactly what it felt like when we heard... that Bobby... had... been shot.
Mindblowing 
2008-11-18 - I was blown away by this movie. It focuses on the day Bobby Kennedy was shot in the kitchen, as well as some innocent bystanders. This movie does something different. Instead of just telling the story, it focuses on various people who were there and traces their experiences from the moment they step into the hotel until they all come together at the fateful moment in the hotel kitchen. There is an allstar cast and they all bring their "A" game. I absolutely love this movie and the soundtrack is great. My favorite part is at the end when Bobby Kennedy's famous "Mindless Menace of Violence" speech is played with music. This is a moving, fairly historically accurate movie that shows how one moment affected so many people. I highly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone. People who consider themselves history buffs would especially love this movie.
Emilio captures the moment
2008-11-04 - "Bobby"really gets to you,especailly at the end.How everything would have changed if Kennedy would have listened,and didn't go through the Kitchen at the Hotel.Estevez doesn't bring that up in the film.
The cast is great,epecially Moore and Sharon Stone.Both should have been nomatated for Oscars,along with Emilio Estevez for directing "Bobby."
when the world was young ...
2008-10-20 - A little seen movie that hasn't received the acclaim that it truly deserves is Bobby, the story of the lives of several characters on that fateful day in 1968 when Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Emilio Estevez, who proves that he should have been a writer,directed this all-star cast that takes place in Los Angeles at the Ambassador Hotel. I was a little apprehensive about seeing the film because I'm usually leery of seeing movies with so many big-names attached but this movie really seemed to drive home that the fascination with this era is more than just about the Kennedys. It's the clothes, cars, the people, the changing lives, the after-effect of the civil rights movements, everything. It's about a golden era that no longer exists.
I thought at times, that some of the characters weren't necessarily, such as the shia labeouf character who gets high on lsd. But I get that's an important part of the message that Estevez is trying to drive home: when we were young, we were inspired to do it all, we believed that we could but we can't have it all. Not for long but for a little awhile. The best performances in the movie came from Sharon Stone, is sensational as a hairdresser and Laurence Fishbourne, as a black cook whose sensibility is passed onto the workers he cooks for. Other notable
performances include Christian Slater and Demi Moore. But it's not about
the names, it's about the lives they lead, when history was made.
This Shot at RFK Backfired 
2008-07-07 - What a stinker!
One stereotyped 60's character after another is paraded onto a boring movie.
RFK is portrayed as the second coming (wait...wasn't JFK the 2nd coming...too bad Marilyn is dead, only she would be sure to know) and the answer to everythingthat Estevez and Papa Sheen and the rest of the Hollywood activist set believe is wrong with america. Gratuitous scenes of RFK with black people,but the movie gives patronizing roles to its black characters and has then live out stereotypes (typical white pinkolibs, eh?)
This is just another tribute to the overidealized 60s.
