Bobby (2006)

The story of the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy who was shot in the early morning hours of June 5, 1968 in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and 22 people in the hotel whose lives were never the same.

Director:

Emilio Estevez

Writer:

Emilio Estevez

Stars:

Harry Belafonte, Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 4 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Harry Belafonte	...	Nelson
Joy Bryant	...	Patricia
Nick Cannon	...	Dwayne
Emilio Estevez	...	Tim
Laurence Fishburne	...	Edward
Brian Geraghty	...	Jimmy
Heather Graham	...	Angela
Anthony Hopkins	...	John
Helen Hunt	...	Samantha
Joshua Jackson	...	Wade
David Krumholtz	...	Agent Phil
Ashton Kutcher	...	Fisher
Shia LaBeouf	...	Cooper
Lindsay Lohan	...	Diane
William H. Macy	...	Paul

Storyline

Tuesday, June 4, 1968: the California presidential primary. As day breaks Robert F. Kennedy arrives at the Ambassador Hotel; he'll campaign, then speak to supporters at midnight. To capture the texture of the late 1960s, we see vignettes at the hotel: a couple marries so he can avoid Vietnam, kitchen staff discuss race and baseball, a man cheats on his wife, another is fired for racism, a retired hotel doorman plays chess in the lobby with an old friend, a campaign strategist's wife needs a pair of black shoes, two campaign staff trip on LSD, a lounge singer is on the downhill slide. Through it all, we see and hear RFK calling for a better society and a better nation.

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Plot Keywords:

hotel | campaign | senator | chess | anti war | 

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Taglines:

He saw wrong and tried to right it. He saw suffering and tried to heal it. He saw war and tried to stop it.

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, drug content and a scene of violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [United States] TFM Distribution [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

23 November 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

El día que mataron a Kennedy

Filming Locations:

Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£285,057 (UK) (26 January 2007)

Gross:

$11,204,499 (USA) (2 February 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Weinstein Company, The, Bold Films, Bobby

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min 112 min 112 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It took Emilio Estevez seven years to get the movie made. At one point, he had such a case of writer's block that he only had 30 pages of the script and lied to people that he was working on it. His brother Charlie Sheen read the pages and convinced him to finish.

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Goofs

During a conversation between John Casey and Nelson, there is close-up shot of Nelson: you can see that he is wearing an in-canal hearing aid in his left ear. These were not available in 1968.

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Quotes

Dwayne: Now that Dr. King is gone, nobody left but Bobby. Nobody.

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Connections

References Grand Hotel (1932)

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Soundtracks

"Tracks of My Tears"
Written by Marvin Tarplin, Warren Moore and Smokey Robinson (as William Robinson,
Jr.)
Performed by Smokey Robinson
Courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

very worth seeing

"Bobby" brings you back (if you were ever there) to the 60s, when those who protested the Vietnam War and racial injustice were motivated from their heart and torn by anger and grief in their efforts to change both. Yes the ensemble characters in the film are quite ordinary and their (sometimes) tawdry or pathetic shortcomings all too obvious and easy to sneer at, yet who could not recognize themselves in one or more of these vignettes. Robert Kennedy's assassination was felt by those who cared about him or his mission to the presidency as a deep wound to our own vision of a more compassionate and just America. The pettiness and simplicity of the characters in this movie are expertly directed to reveal our own pettiness and let us identify with them, if not consciously, then unconsciously. Remember, the top Hollywood actors in this movie were paid basic union scale (virtually free for them) so this was made for love. Our own little soap operas are put into such deep perspective that when he is killed, so were we, or at least the film lets you feel that. You find yourself loving this man, Robert Kennedy, for what he stood for and what he said during his candidacy, which is brilliantly threaded throughout the movie in his own words. The humanity you discover in him is of course your own humanity and isn't it refreshing to cry for yourself and your lost dreams as you cry for his.