Bobby

2006

Action / Biography / Drama / History

14
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 47% · 173 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 72% · 25K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.0/10 10 43746 43.7K

hotel politics marriage crisis senator los angeles, california xenophobia

Director

Emilio Estevez Photo
Emilio Estevez

Top cast

Demi Moore Photo
Demi Moore as Virginia
Anthony Hopkins Photo
Anthony Hopkins as John
Shia LaBeouf Photo
Shia LaBeouf as Cooper
Mary Elizabeth Winstead Photo
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Susan
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.05 GB
1280*544
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 1
2.15 GB
1920*816
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by David_Frames 6 / 10

My Israeli shot me down

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.
Reviewed by gradyharp 8 / 10

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

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
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