The Bottom Line
- An earnest and ambitious film about an important moment in U.S. history
- Movie features a talented, charismatic star-studded cast
- DVD provides an hour's worth of extras that enhance viewer's appreciation of feature film
- Not a great film -- more like a first-class cable-TV movie
- Characters are at best two-dimensional
- Some may object to the use of an LSD trip for comic relief
Description
- DVD containing drama Bobby (2006), written and directed by Emilio Estevez
- Actors in film include Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Elijah Wood, Laurence Fishburne, Lindsay Lohan
- Others in movie include Sharon Stone, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Demi Moore, Nick Cannon
- DVD contains a half-hour making-of documentary
- DVD provides a half-hour featurette of eyewitness accounts from the Ambassador Hotel
- MPAA rating: R for language, drug content and a scene of violence
- Feature film run time: 1 hour 56 minutes
- DVD release date: April 10, 2007
Guide Review - Bobby DVD Review
Emilio Estevez wrote and directed Bobby, an earnest and ambitious attempt to remind viewers of the vision of harmony that Robert F. Kennedy was promulgating in 1968 amid the divisiveness of the Vietnam War and racial issues. Estevez achieves a measure of success, largely because he has a talented, charismatic star-studded cast that includes Harry Belafonte, Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, Laurence Fishburne, Nick Cannon and Freddy Rodriguez. RFK is present via archival footage.
L.A.'s grand old Ambassador Hotel, where heads of state stayed and movie stars partied, is like a character in the film. The movie is set there on the day RFK was fatally shot in the hotel kitchen just after he won the California primary. The film interweaves the stories of about 22 people, including hotel employees and guests, as well as campaign workers.
Bobby isn't a great film; it's closer to a first-rate cable-TV movie. Using a structure similar to disaster movies, the characters are at best two-dimensional, but are given enough detail to make us care. And Estevez has created an upbeat, inspirational film with wide audience appeal about an important tragic moment in American history.
The DVD contains a half-hour featurette that greatly enhanced my appreciation of the movie. It consists of reminisces of people who were present at the Ambassador Hotel the night of RFK's assassination. These eyewitnesses include a man who was shot and a physician who attended the wounded.
Also on the DVD is a fairly good half-hour making-of documentary. Cast and crew members are heard from, and we learn interesting things about the production. For example, some filming was done at the Ambassador and shortly afterward the hotel was demolished.
