Bobby [Movie Review]

http://www.michaelmedved.com ^ | Michael Medved

[Fiji Hill]

BOBBY

Bobby uses an all-star cast to follow more than twenty characters through one of the most fateful days in American history.

CLIP: “Senator Kennedy, welcome to the Ambassador Hotel.” “Thank you very much.”

That’s Anthony Hopkins as a hotel doorman who joins Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Lawrence Fishburne, Christian Slater, and many others to dramatize the night of Robert Kennedy’s assassination at his LA victory celebration in 1968.

CLIP: “What if Kennedy loses?” “We can all forget it now. I’m 19, Jimmy, I don’t want to go to Vietnam.” “Do you?” “Now that Dr. King is gone, I don’t have nobody.”

This is a particularly moving film for me because I was there as a young Kennedy volunteer on that June night when Bobby was shot. I can confirm that director/writer Emilio Estevez gets most of the feelings of the occasion right. But, the melodramatic, multi-character format proves somewhat uneven and distracting. Rated R for language, violence, and drug content…

THREE STARS for the intriguing but imperfect Bobby.

That’s a wrap. I’m Michael Medved for Eye on Entertainment.

[Fiji Hill]

If you're a nostalgic liberal, this film is for you. It takes place at the Ambassador Hotel, which once stood on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, on the day of the California primary election of 1968.

One thing the film doesn't tell you is that the Democrats were not the only ones holding a post-election party that night. In another ballroom, Republicans celebrating Max Rafferty's primary victory over incumbent Senator Tom Kuchel, a liberal Republican, in the US Senate race. Rafferty, who was California's Superintendent of Public Instruction, was backed by the party's conservative wing. However, although the Rafferty event took place in the same building, the movie makes no mention of it.

By the way, the Ambassador Hotel's cafeteria, which is accurately portrayed in the film, featured some of the best hamburgers in Los Angeles.

[toddlintown]

"However, although the Rafferty event took place in the same building, the movie makes no mention of it."

Then the movie would be called "Bobby & Max."

[Baynative]

There is a purpose for getting this film out now. It will do a short stint in theaters and then hit the DVD market and be all over TV in the next election run up to promote the democrat party and their legacy of ...what is their legacy?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

Sorry for the wrong ping!

[wku man]

Another Kennedy movie. Yawn.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[Rosemont]

I wonder how they treated the Arab terrorist who killed RFK in the film?

[Publius]

And Max Rafferty was defeated by Alan Cranston.

[Diogenesis]

VERY PARTIAL LIST OF ISLAMIC TERRORIST ACTIVITIES
Full list is pages and pages and pages and pages.

1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated
1972 Munich Olympics Sep-5,1972 (Black September)
1976 Entebbe Hostage Crisis, June 27, 1976
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, Nov. 4, 1979 444 days
1979 Grand Mosque Seizure, Nov 20,1979
1981 Assassination of Egyptian President, Oct 6,1981
1982 Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister, Sept 14, 1982
1983 Bombing of US Embassy in Beirut6, April 18,1983
1983 Bombing of Maring Barricks, Beruit, Oct 23,1983
1984 Hizballah Restaurant Bombing, April 12,1984
1985 Egyptian Airliner Hijacking, Nov 23,1985
1985 Rome Airport murders
1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacked, U.S. Navy diver murdered
1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, Homacidal maniac lived in saddams Iraq
1986 Aircraft Bombing in Greece, March 30, 1986
1988 Pan Am 747 Flight 103 Bombing, Lockerbie, 100's murdered
1988 Berlin Discoteque Bombing, Dec 21,1988
1992 Bombing in Israeli Embassy in Argentina, March 17,1992
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured, Billions
1994 Air France Hijacking, Dec 24,1994
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1995 Military Installation Attack, Nov 13, 1995
1995 Kashmiri Hostage taking, July 4,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1996 Sudanese Missionarys Kidnapping, Aug 17,1996
1996 Paris Subway Explosion, Dec 3,1996
1997 Israeli Shopping Mall Bombing, Sept 4, 1997
1997 Yemeni Kidnappings, Oct 30,1997
1998 Somali Hostage taking crisis, April 15,1998
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted)
2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered
2000-2003 Intifada against Israel - 100's dead and injured
2000 Manila Bombing, Dec 30,2000
2001 4 Commercial airliners hijacked, 250+ murdered
2001 World Trade Center attacked, 2800+ murdered
2001 Flight 93 murders
2001 Pentagon attacked, 180+ murdered
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and murdered
2002 Philippines American missionary, Filipino nurse killed
2002 July 4, El Al attack Los Angeles LAX, several murdered
2002 Bali bombing - 200 dead, 300 injured
2002 Yemen, French Oil Tanker attacked
2002 Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait
2002 Washington D.C. sniper
2002 Russian Theater attacked, 100+ dead
2002 Nigerian riots against Miss World Pageant, 200 dead, dozens injured
2002 Mombasa Hotel Attacked, 12 dead, dozens injured
2002 Israeli Boeing 757 attacked by missiles, fortunately no one injured
2002 August Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 12 dead, dozens injured.
2003 Rusian concert bombing
2003 Phillipines airport and market bombing
2003 Foiled SAM plot in the USA
2003 UN Baghdad HQ Bombing
on and on and on and on their terrorism has gone .........

---

[meg88]

Does Frodo play RFK and Lohan the dutiful life?

[Dont Mention the War]

director/writer Emilio Estevez

What more need be said? Run! Run far away!

[Silly]

But if you didn't want tomato, you had to tell them at least three times or they'd put it on your burger.

[Our man in washington]

Interesting. I figured that:

1. The movie would be an homage to Bobby Kennedy,

2. Medved would trash it for that reason.

I'm not sure the real Bobby Kennedy would be that popular with today's liberals. After all, he was a top official in an administration that massively cut tax rates and thought communism was evil.

However, a lot of leftists proejct their own views on the Kennedys to create this idea of a sexy exuberant form of leftism. It's rather annoying, and I'd hate to sit through a whole movie that makes Bobby Kennedy out to be some fallen perfect leader.

[headstamp]

Yes, that is a good question. I'd bet it's played down or PC'd over.

[ElkGroveDan]

Mi>It will do a short stint in theaters and then hit the DVD market and be all over TV in the next election run up to promote the democrat party and their legacy of ...what is their legacy?

Caring. They care way more than anybody else.

[headstamp]

John Kennedy would be thought of as a moderate Republican today with some fiscal conservative attributes.

Heck, there is a letter floating around on the net that JFK wrote to Colt thanking them for the AR-15 rifle they sent him. He enjoyed firing it when he was out on his boat.

Not sure if it is true or not though.

[raybbr]

Look at the cast list.

A virtual Who's Who of libs.

[FReepapalooza]

I certainly am not a nostalgic liberal, so I will probably skip this rendition of RFK. I wish someone would put out a truthful movie about JFK and RFK because I believe the liberals would run the other way if they found out, (pathetic how history gets re-written and twisted), how conservative these two were in comparison to the Demoncrat Party today.

[L98Fiero]

Kind of bugs me in the preview with the whole "the border crossed us" comment from the Hispanic guy. Way to make RFK seem to have a stance on a modern issue.

[FReepapalooza]

I noticed that in the preview also. It was almost like fingernails on a chalkboard to me! Like that was an issue in 1968.

[Just mythoughts]

Hmmmm, since Hillry seeks to reenact that year of 1968 in a couple of years, I expect her campaign to make good use of keywords used by 'Bobby'. Such as 'we can do it better'.

Got to love the moderate elites who just know by their very being they are smarter and better than those commoners.

[Rakkasan1]

what was his stance on the Patriot Act and wiretapping?

[Baynative]

"Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Lawrence Fishburne, Christian Slater, and many others ...

This will be a factual portrayal of history. -I CAN JUST FEEL IT!

[TeenagedConservative]

Yeah, and it doesn't even make sense. Just what libs love.

[L98Fiero]

I don't know but I hear he favored internet poker.

[L98Fiero]

I heard every actor in Hollywood was in this. You have a SAG card, you get a part. ;)

[Polybius]

Another Kennedy movie. Yawn.

When is "Chappaquiddick" coming out?

[DoughtyOne]

When you look at the Kennedy family, it's amazing what they represent and how much they are revered by the left in the United States.

It's a shame Robert Kennedy was shot. It was a despicable act. I hardly think of it as 'one of the most fateful days in American history.'

[DoughtyOne]

I'm sure Martin had no influence on this idea cominig to fruition...

[duckman]

I don't see Roosevelt Brown in the cast list. Also is Sirhan played by a Russian?

[Brad from Tennessee]

A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy told me that when the LAPD contacted Kennedy's campaign about providing security for Senator Kennedy a campaign staffer said, "We don't want any pigs over here."

[TightyRighty]

My favorite line from Bobby?
"We didn't cross over the border - the border crossed over us."

[fatnotlazy]

I heard that story, or something similar, years ago, and had forgotten about it. I don't remember the "pigs" remark, but I did remember that the extra security had been declined. Wonder how the person who made the decision felt about it afterwards.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

 

Frodo, or Fredo?

 

[fatnotlazy]

And one of my favorite actors, Anthony Hopkins, is in it too. Too bad. I like the guy.

[Ghengis]

The Kennedy Myth still has magic for shallow thinkers. Oh well.

[snarks_when_bored]

Who played the role of Marilyn Monroe's corpse?

[Zionist Conspirator]

However, a lot of leftists proejct their own views on the Kennedys to create this idea of a sexy exuberant form of leftism. It's rather annoying, and I'd hate to sit through a whole movie that makes Bobby Kennedy out to be some fallen perfect leader.

Contemporary leftists have a bad habit of treating people like FDR and JFK as if they were gay liberationists. However, according to leftist Hegelian thought, the TVA and Peace Corps were the "gay liberation" of their day, and if FDR or JFK were around today they'd be in the forefront of the perversion lobby. And considering the number of fossilized leftists who promote this stuff (or are silent about it), I can't say that they're wrong.

Bobby Kennedy was part of an anti-Communist Democrat administration, but as soon as Nixon took the White House the Democrats who put us in Vietnam immediately morphed into hippies opposed to the "Republican" war.

This movie also recalls the old days when (in America at least) support for Israel was the "liberal" position. RFK was a pro-Israel liberal assassinated by an Arab terrorist for that very reason. This movie is just what Jewish liberal Democrats need to keep living in the past.

[Waco]

One of our luckier nights IMHO.

[Let's Roll]

Does the movie make the point that Bobby's murderer was a muslim?

[Brad from Tennessee]

Extra security might have made a difference and perhaps not. Kennedy had the image of a populist and insisted on pressing flesh.

I think had he been elected he would not have begun an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam as was advocated by McCarthy and later by McGovern. I think Kennedy would have gone for a phased withdrawl like Nixon accomplished.

Despite all the historical revision, Bobby had a hand in the plots against Castro:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n12_v27/ai_17828366

[pgkdan]

Who played the role of Marilyn Monroe's corpse?

That's what I want to know. Do we get to see St. Bobby and Peter Lawford committing their dirty? Probably not. Murders committed by Kennedy's don't count...it's only when Kennedy's are murdered that we're interested.

[Sonora]

The film was reviewed by our local guy - it's boring, basically tells about the boring people that were there working, primarily. If it were not for the newsreels of "Bobby" it would not really be about "Bobby" at all.

I don't get it - why would anyone want to know anything about the people that happened to be working at the hotel at the time? If the film was some insightful stuff about "Bobby" it may be worth viewing, but save your money on this one.

[oyez]

I'm not so sure RFK of 1962 was the same guy as RFK of 1968.

[fatnotlazy]

Extra security might have made a difference and perhaps not. Kennedy had the image of a populist and insisted on pressing flesh.
***
You may be right...I don't know. I was thinking possibly another pair of eyes may have spotted Sirhan Sirhan sooner, or something. But if I were the one who decided to decline the extra security, I would have carried around some rather heavy guilt after Kennedy was shot.

As was pointed out, the Kennedys were akin to the Republican conservatives of today from a political standpoint. Now as to personal morals, well, that's another story.

[Melinda]

What would the Estevez/Sheen clan have for careers if it weren't for the Kennedy family (or similar) liberal political dramas? B-O-R-I-N-G !!

[Fiji Hill]

I certainly am not a nostalgic liberal, so I will probably skip this rendition of RFK.

If you want to learn about RFK's support for Israel or his service on the staff of Senator Joe McCathy (R-Wis.)--perhaps the Left's biggest bête noir--you won't find it in this film.

[Phsstpok]

There is a purpose for getting this film out now. It will do a short stint in theaters and then hit the DVD market and be all over TV in the next election run up to promote the democrat party and their legacy of ...what is their legacy?

Surrender to the Communists who assassinated Jack?  Appeasement of the Jihadists who assassinated Bobby? 

[Brad from Tennessee]

I know from TV interviews in the 1970's that Roosevelt Greer, former NFL player, felt some guilt in his role as one of RFK's bodyguards. I think he served in this function unarmed.

[llevrok]

1. The movie would be an homage to Bobby Kennedy,

Once again, homage to America's royalty who, at best, lead a less than normal life. At worst, the power of corruption.

But we are "OK" with that.

[rwfromkansas]

I sure won't see it. I am sure Bobby was a great guy despite political disagreements.

But, I just can't see it.....the movie is going to make the guy a god.