Juliana lauThe date is June 4, 1968.With famous American civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated just over two months ago, America faces intense civil strife and riots are breaking out everywhere on the streets. To make matters worse, the Vietnam War shows no signs of ending and the country is split into the pro-war and war-weary.Yet, amidst the fighting and general dissent among the population, life still goes on for America. At the Ambassador Hotel, (where Bobby is set), life continues for its staff and guests.
Until a monumental assassination rocks the world. Bobby retells one of the most devastating nights in American history – the assassination of Robert ‘Bobby’ F. Kennedy in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel, moments after his victory speech for winning the California primary.
Weaving fact with fiction, writer/director Emilio Estevez has decided to reject the usual storylines revolving totally about Bobby and/or his shooter, Sirhan B. Sirhan and instead, has chosen to focus on a varied group of ordinary people whose lives would change in the moments that Bobby was shot.We’re first introduced to hotel manager Paul Ebbers (William H. Macy) trying to calm the guests milling around the front of the hotel down after a false fire alarm, together with The Ambassador’s retired doorman, John Casey (Anthony Hopkins).
From this point onwards, the movie gets a little messy. The audience is quickly (and rather haphazardly) introduced to a thoroughly overwhelming myriad of characters, ranging from devoted political campaign aides and volunteers to various hotel staff members to an interesting variety of hotel guests to a determined (and somewhat annoying) Czech journalist and more.
The only person who links the several characters in the movie is John F. Kennedy’s younger brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who is running for Presidency and is scheduled to give a speech at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5.
Besides Ebbers and Casey, the Ambassador’s staff includes baseball-crazy, Latino busboy Jose (played by Six Feet Under’s Freddy Rodriguez) and his perpetually angry colleague and friend, Miguel (Jacob Vargas), bigot F&B manager Timmons (Christian Slater), hotel hairdresser Miriam (Sharon Stone) and switchboard operator Angela (Heather Graham) who is having an affair with the married Ebbers, much to her colleague Patricia’s (Joy Bryant) disapproval. Laurence Fishburne also makes an appearance as a wise sous chef dispensing words of advice or encouragement, a role reminiscent to his portrayal as Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy.
Other characters include devoted Kennedy presidential campaign aides Dwayne (Nick Cannon) and Wade (Joshua Jackson) and novice volunteers Jimmy (Brian Geraghty) and Cooper (Shia LeBeouf), the latter two’s meeting with a hippie drug dealer (Ashton Kutcher) provides most of the little comical highlights of the entire movie. There’s also a depressed East Coast stockbroker (played by Estevez’s own father Martin Sheen) and his younger wife, Samantha (Helen Hunt) and a young bride-to-be (surprisingly well-played by Lindsay Lohan) who is about to marry a young man (Elijah Wood) to save him from being sent to Vietnam to fight.
Other than the civilian angle of the show, Bobbyalso gives an insight into the lives of the rich and famous, with Demi Moore playing an alcoholic singer past her prime, Virginia Fallon. The audience is able to see how such a famous celebrity has been reduced to one who sleeps till late afternoon and takes swigs at her whiskey bottle every five minutes, and how her seemingly flawless marriage with Tim (played by the director himself) is far from the perfect relationship everyone believes it is.
With such a star-studded ensemble cast (and we do mean ensemble), one might expect the film to be a little on the showy side. Yet, Estevez manages to hold control over the movie, never letting the actors outshine each other or the movie itself. Despite being filled with so many stars, you’ll find yourself caring more about their characters and the overall plot of the story rather than be star-struck by the sheer amount of famous faces involved.
Estevez also made an extremely wise decision when it came to portraying Bobby Kennedy. Rather than having someone fill the shoes of the iconic politician, Estevez had old footages of Bobby on his tours and giving speeches edited into the film, bringing the viewers back to the 1960s era and giving everyone a chance to see the real Bobby Kennedy. The transitions and continuity from archival clips to movie is amazing as well, with Estevez playing close attention to every single detail and seamlessly weaving together a cohesive story.
The strangest and most notable thing about the movie is how it makes the audience start to feel for Bobby, the only character in the movie who isn’t even played by a real actor. Bobby Kennedy is never seen interacting with any onscreen character, and yet the story is told in such a moving way that the audience can’t help but feel so strongly about him, with tears inevitably falling when the movie reaches its climatic peak.
Estevez’s team has taken care of every single little details, with the dressing of the sets, the costumes and even the slang, constructing a realistic portrayal of the late 1960s. For 116 minutes, the audience is transported to a world of bouffant hairstyles and dresses in striking colours and prints.
According to the movie’s production notes, Estevez felt that “in many ways … he was fated to make “Bobby” all his life”. Merely six years old when Bobby was murdered, Estevez began to see Bobby’s assassination as “the shot that had stopped in its tracks the idealism and optimism of an earlier generation of Americans”. During a photo shoot conducted in the Ambassador, Estevez suddenly remembered how his father, Sheen, had brought him there soon after the assassination, and inspiration struck.
“All I knew in the beginning is that I wanted to tell a story that would celebrate the spirit of Bobby,” said Estevez.
It’s perhaps this motivation that led to a beautiful end result. Despite the many setbacks he’d faced (according to IMDb.com, he reportedly had a case of what he called “paralyzing writer’s block” and took seven years to make this movie), Estevez has successfully produced a film that tells everyone about the Kennedy legacy and what America lost on that fateful night of June 6th, 1968.
Though slightly on the messy side, Bobbysucceeds in intriguing the viewers. Even with its political undertone, Estevez manages to maneuver the film into one about ordinary people and their stories, and that’s what captures the audience.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Movie Details
Opens: 25 January 2007
Runtime: 116 minutes
Cast: William H. Macy, Freddy Rodriguez, Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, Nick Cannon, Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood, Demi Moore
Director: Emilio Estevez
Official trailer and website