An ambitious labor of love from writer/director/star Emilio Estevez, BOBBY attempts to distill the hope, anger, and confusion that gripped the U.S. in the late 1960s. With the civil rights movement still reeling from the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the country embroiled in the confusion of Vietnam, Senator Robert F. Kennedy's campaign preached a message of peace and tolerance. In a style similar to the sprawling works of Robert Altman or Paul Thomas Anderson, Estevez uses the June 4th, 1969, assassination of Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as the means to take a snapshot of the problems facing the country as the 1960's came to an end.
The hotel is a microcosm of class and race, with characters bouncing off each other until the violent conclusion. African-American head chef Edward (Laurence Fishburne) presides over a kitchen staffed primarily by Mexican Americans who are the victims of the racist restaurant manager, Timmons (Christian Slater). Timmons is reprimanded by hotel manager Paul Ebbers (William H. Macy), who is having an affair with a switchboard operator (Heather Graham) behind the back of his beautician wife (Sharon Stone). Meanwhile, a young Diane (Lindsay Lohan) prepares to marry her classmate, William (Elijah Wood), in order to save him from going to Vietnam, and two collegiate campaigners for Senator Kennedy remove their ties to take their first LSD trip, courtesy of a resident hippie drug dealer (Ashton Kutcher). Though the sheer volume of characters--and celebrities portraying them--is often overwhelming, Estevez is deft at making each plot thread convincing and involving. Though BOBBY is not a biopic and will in no way be mistaken for the definitive statement on the man or his life and times, it is thoroughly adept at distilling both his message and the time in which he fought to deliver it.
Theatrical Release: November 17, 2006
DVD Features:
Full Frame
Stars
Anthony Hopkins: Welsh Actor
Demi Moore: American actress, GHOST, G.I. JANE
Sharon Stone: American Actress, BASIC INSTINCT (1992)
Elijah Wood: American actor
Harry Belafonte: American Singer/Actor
Nick Cannon: Actor, DRUMLINE (2002)
Emilio Estevez: American Actor, BREAKFAST CLUB
Laurence Fishburne: American Actor, BOYZ N THE HOOD (1991), THE MATRIX (1999)
Heather Graham: American actress, BOOGIE NIGHTS
Helen Hunt: American Actress
Ashton Kutcher: Actor
Shia LaBeouf: Actor, HOLES (2003)
William H. Macy: Stage/Film Actor, STATE AND MAIN (2000)
Director
Emilio Estevez: American Actor, BREAKFAST CLUB
Producer
Ed Bass: Producer, COME EARLY MORNING, (2006)
Holly Wiersma: Producer, WONDERLAND (2003)
Composer
Mark Isham: Composer, WATERWORLD (1995)
Executive Producer
Daniel Grodnick: Exec. Producer, BOBBY, (2006)
Executive Producer
Gary Michael Walters: Exec. Producer, COME EARLY MORNING, (2006)
Screenplay
Emilio Estevez: American Actor, BREAKFAST CLUB
Director of Photography
Michael Barrett: Director of Photography
Review 1:
"[T]he ambition behind BOBBY is large and serious....The pulse of history is most audible not in the fictional portions of the movie, but in the moments, especially at the end, when the documentary record takes over."
Source: New York Times
p.E12 11/17/2006
Review 2:
3 stars out of 5 -- "When it works, BOBBY is a dazzler....[With] stand-out performances..."
Source: Total Film
34 03/01/2007
Review 3:
"Laurence Fishburne offers his most powerful performance for years....He is matched by Freddy Rodriguez..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.47-48 02/01/2007
Review 4:
4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's a powerful experience and one that affectionately reflects the clarity and reason of the man's policies."
Source: Ultimate DVD
p.95 05/01/2007