by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
On June 4, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy had just won the California primary and was on the road to the White House. In the early morning hours of June 5th, Kennedy addressed his supporters at the Ambassador Hotel and was ushered into a service area in the kitchen where a man stepped in front of the Senator and shot him with a .22 caliber revolver. Emilio Estevez wrote and directed a film based on the tragedy, which gives a fictionalized account of what a handful of witnesses were doing on that fateful day. Bobby is now available on DVD.
The Bobby DVD has two main bonus features. The first is “Bobby: The Making of an American Epic,” which is a 30-minute look at the making of the film. Here, Estevez discusses what drew him to the project, which he says he’s been preparing for his whole life, and the filming process. Interviews with the cast and crew, the musicians responsible for the score and RFK historians make this supplement extremely interesting, but also a tad overwhelming. If each aspect of the production had been separated into its own featurette, it would have been much easier to digest and far more valuable to the viewer. The other extra is “Eyewitness Accounts from the Ambassador Hotel,” where actual bystanders and victims talk about their experiences on June 4, 1968. This featurette was actually more interesting to me than the film itself.
Bobby has a stellar all-star cast of over 20 people. While this massive ensemble is somewhat appealing, it’s also a bit overwhelming and causes the story itself to suffer. With so many different characters crisscrossing across the screen, the viewer hardly has time to register who each person is, let alone get to know them and how they relate to one another. As a result, every character is underdeveloped and much of the time their motivations for being at the hotel on that fateful evening are a mystery to those who aren’t taking notes. Without the help of the making-of bonus feature, I wouldn’t know what Helen Hunt and Martin Sheen were doing there and I’m still clueless as to how a waitress (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) got into such a swanky party. What would have made the film more interesting to me is if it was the true story of some of the people who were in the Ambassador at the time of the shooting instead of a fictionalized account. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been such a dramatic tale; perhaps the real people were perfectly normal having a perfectly normal day up until that point. But at least then we would have a realistic look at the time instead of a series of preachy, soap opera yarns framed by a real life tragedy. As it stands, Bobby is a film that focuses less on what actually happened to the title character and those around him and more on the love people had for him. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just disappointing if you’re expecting to see the film for the history it claims to portray.
On the plus side, the acting in Bobby is pretty good for the most part. More seasoned actors like Demi Moore, William H. Macy, Laurence Fishburne and Anthony Hopkins were stand-outs. New school actors Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kucher, Nick Cannon and Elijah Wood didn’t do much for me, but may attract younger viewers who may not know anything about Bobby or the era. The addition of actual news footage from RFK’s campaign was a nice touch, though it does give the film an air of realism that the story itself simply does not deserve.
All in all, Bobby is an interesting film that just falls short of the mark, weaving too many fictional tales into a real story that would have been good all by itself. The DVD has some interesting extras that are worth a look for existing fans or for those who want to know what really happened that day. I certainly won’t be adding it to my DVD collection, but I don’t regret the rental.
|
