Bobby (2006)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Emilio Estevez

Writer (WGA):

Emilio Estevez (written by)

Release Date:

23 November 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

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

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Campaign | 1968 | Friend | 1960s

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 3 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

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

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

120 min | Italy:112 min (Venice Film Festival) | Canada:112 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Australia:M | Ireland:15A | Singapore:NC-16 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Germany:12 | USA:R (certificate #43067) | New Zealand:M | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:7 | Brazil:14

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Weinstein Company, The

Trivia:

While the rest of the cast is made up of actors, the central role of Robert F. Kennedy is portrayed almost entirely in actual footage of the senator.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Two college students and a waitress debate whether Anne Bancroft used a "body double" for a topless scene in The Graduate. In 1968, no one outside the film industry would have ever heard of this term which did not become widely-used by the public for at least ten or fifteen years, by which time such stand-ins had became common.

Quotes:

Cooper: [High on LSD - just threw a TV set out of the window] CLEARENCE SALE! EVERYTHING MUST GO!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Hurdy Gurdy Man

"Bobby" – an awful version of "Magnolia"

Tonight I suffered the great displeasure of seeing a free sneak preview screening of the movie "Bobby".

I walked into the movie with only the vague knowledge that the film was an ensemble piece about people that were in the Ambassador Hotel on the night of Bobby Kennedy's assassination.

As the movie started, I was very impressed with the casting. I couldn't help but think that the writer/director Emilio Estevez has a LOT of friends in show business.

Unfortunately, absolutely none of these characters were compelling or interesting in any way whatsoever and very hard to really care for. Furthermore, there was little in the way of a cohesive story or narrative. Scene after scene started to play like a vignette in an acting class and the vast majority rang falsely due to the atrocious writing.

I found myself waiting for Bobby Kennedy to be integrated into the story in some meaningful way, but that never happened. Whatever you do, don't go to this movie thinking it has much to do with Bobby Kennedy.

Finally, towards the very end of the movie when Robert Kennedy, the great orator and only charismatic character in the movie, starts to speak – the director decided to mute Kennedy's voice and play the Simon & Garfunkel song "The Sounds of Silence" over his speech! The last movie that Emilio Estevez wrote and directed was "Men at Work", an unsuccessful comedy about garbage men. He is completely out of his league with this material, and misses the mark by miles. I contemplated walking out of the theater several times as this mess unraveled on the screen.

Bottom line: avoid at all costs.