BOBBY: A MOMENT OF HOPE SHATTERED BY TRAGEDY

I recently heard an interview of Emelio Estevez concerning this film which he both directed and wrote. He has been trying to put the film together for a number of years but couldn't get financing. When he finally did get the financing, actors virtually flocked to be a part of the project for minimum salaries.

I don't ever remember seeing such a cast: Harry Bellafonte, Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Lindsey Lohan, Wllliam Macy, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Christian Slator, Sharon Stone, and Elijah Wood are the best known names in the cast. While such a huge cast necessitates some fairly small appearances on the screen, Estevez nurtured outstanding performances from every actor in the film. Each actor played an important part in the film.

THE PLOT

In a nutshell, the movie concerns the lives of several people who were either working in the Bobby Kennedy campaign for President in June, 1968, or were workers or guests in the famous Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles. The entire movie takes place on June 5, 1968, the day of the Kennedy's victory in the California primary and his assassination after giving his victory speech in the Ambassador's kitchen.

One of the primary characters in the film is John Casey (Anthony Hopkins) who was a doorman in the hotel since it first opened in 1921. Casey gives us a sense of the hotel's grandeur and place in American politics. At one point in the film, he mentions to another character that the Ambassador reminds him of the film "Grand Hotel."

Indeed, Emelio's treatment of the story here also has aspects of that classic film. We are introduced to a broad range of characters from the kitchen help in the hotel, to a young couple getting married so the husband can avoid combat (Lohan and Wood), to the hotel manager (Macy) and his hairstylist wife (Stone). We also meet several young workers in the Kennedy campaign from fairly high levels to pure volunteers.

We find out something important about each of these characters and throughout the movie, we are shown actual film clips of Robert Kennedy stumping for votes throughout the United States.

Of course, we know what the ultimate end of the movie is but Estevez gives each of his major characters a life of his or her own and those characters eventually play a various roles in the tragedy of the assassination.

WHY I LIKED THE FILM

As I've mentioned, each of the actors in the film did an excellent job of acting. Hopkins, Macy, Stone, Lohan, Wood, Sheen and Hunt all give standout performances as due all the "name actors". But, a number of relatively unknown young actors also give outstanding performances. Specifically, two young volunteers for the campaign, Jimmy (Brian Geraghty) and Dwayne (Nick Cannon) provide most of the comic relief in the serious film with their typical 1968 experimentation with drugs.

The film pays homage to the vast group of people who adored the Kennedys such as the Blacks and the Hispanics. Estevez (who, of course, is the son of Martin Sheen but kept his dad's real name) accomplishes this by including hotel workers as important members of the cast. Discrimination against minorities is shown of a grand scale but also in the very personal myriad of ways in the minority hotel staff's lives.

I was particularly impressed with the pace of the film which never slows down. There are numerous scenes of important confrontations and simple discussions between the characters but none of them are trivial.

Having lived through the period and remembering vividly the 1968 assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy (as well as Malcolm X and, of course, President Kennedy), I knew what was coming in the final moments of the film. Or, I thought I did. While Estevez certainly relies on actual footage of Kennedy's final victory speech and the actual assassination, he uses a method that cements the whole movie together in the last few scenes. In order to avoid spoiling the strong effect of the ending, I'm not going to say much more about that.

While the film is rooted in the turbulent days of the 60's, there were definite lessons for our times. Bobby Kennedy was not only for more equal Civil Rights for all races, he was very opposed to the ever-escalating war in Viet Nam. His words in the film could easily be transported in time to our present day insanity in fighting a "pre-emtive" war in Iraq.

Finally, my son David and I were impressed by the footage we saw in the film of Bobby campaigning among everyday Americans of all races. The looks on the faces of the people as they stretched out a hand to shake Senator Kennedy's hand and the very fact that such closeness was allowed spoke volumes about the lost age of innocence when politicians did more than appear on 30 second commercials. I've been very active in politics for years and I've never seen the type of genuine care on the faces of the voters for the candidate since the death of Bobby.

A FINAL NOTE

This is another of those films that requires you to stay for the credits due to a number of impressive photos shown during those credits. I hope people go to see this film. Estevez have put together a meaningful, important look at one of the most tragic days in American politics.

FIVE STARS