VHS : Bulworth [1999]

Rating: - The "Nightmare" Movie
(Warning: this film deals with gun crime and violence and multi-cultural conflicts, if you think you may be affected by this, please do not watch this)

Beatty was starting to distance himself away from Hollywood after making Reds in 1991. One of the few films he worked on, after this was the controversial black-comedy bashing the US government.

Beatty was ready at the helm, as producer, head writer, director and even a "starring" role as Senator Jay Billington Bulworth, a corrupt liberal.

We see Bulworth as a so-called modest man-a perfect one, but his polished and cheery apperance with his repetious slogans and speeches don't do him any favours with the young generation and especially the divided black communities scummoned into povetry. Bulworth is ridculed with greed, suicidal thoughts, anger and repression, also you could say he fallen out of love with his job and money-making prodecures.

Bulworth is treated, like a nightmare from his prespective, his own life story. Bulworth likes to humilate those in power and act like a lunatic, to fool the public and make his best shot to climb the ladder of corruption, to regain his former popularity and success. The fact is, Bulworth is a crook, a very nasty one.

However, does Bulworth make great entertainment? Yes and No. Bulworth may doesn't follow a straight path, it wobbles around, not sure of which direction it wants to make. Bulworth on the other hand, could be a realistic of a candidate desire to become laid, freak out and make money for his back pocket on the side, like a crazy junkie story of the life and success of the powerful politicans, but it never seems satified, it comes across as geeky, in your face and patronising. The story is bare and it doesn't add up to a conclusion with strings attached, in fact i didn't even know if there was a much of straight forward plot.

The problem with Bulworth is, you might not understand the way the US government works compared to the UK one, so a spot of well-deserved revision may be the key to the puzzle, which i suggest.

Bulworth is frankly deadpan black comedy, if you like your films to be weird and wonderful.

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Rating: - A film that the politicians should have watched before Katrina
For it's the same underlying socio econmical problems that America that was blown wide open, exposed and laid on the front pages of every news paper in the world to read about as it subtley underlined in this very funny political comedy. What Warren Beatty does so brilliantly here is he doesn't through the underlining meaning of this film in your face. Instead, the piece is a social commentry told through the eyes of Bulworth ... From the moment he signs his own death warrent, we see him go on a journey where he is finally allowed to care. Something that a lot of "higher" class people in America simply don't allow. The black people in this film are not seen, they do not contribute to election campaigns finanically so they are ignored ... A brilliant piece that was ahead of it's time and only now can one really look and realise just how cutting edge this film really was ... Stunning ending.

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Rating: - Special Edition DVD
Someone really ought to do a 2 disc special edition set of Bulworth. If far lesser movies got this treatment, this gem certainly deserves that. Besides I've worn my regular edition DVD from multiple viewings and would like to buy something better this time!

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Rating: - Politicians: take note
Bulworth is one of those films that leave you thinking "wouldn't it be great if people did that in real life?" In this case, politicians who rediscover their sense of morality and integrity, tell the truth at all times, behave like human beings and stop trying to kid us they're somehow superior to the rest of us - UK and US alike.

I'm not normally that keen on the Warren Beatty didactic school of acting, but here he's totally delightful as a politician with a crumbling facade, discovering that he really likes the person underneath - the warm, witty and engaging fellow who went into politics for all the right reasons.

Combining this with a farcical auto-assassination plot and tacking on a range of black issues was risky, but works better than several other Beatty epics. Its heart is in the right place, and wins points also for the passion and sincerity with which the disadvantaged in American society are portrayed.

Among many splendid supporting roles, I particularly love Paul Sorvino's stone-faced insurance industry lobbyist, who having set up a $10m life insurance policy for the senator finds his man making a series of outrageous statements on the culpability of the insurance industry in blatant profiteering within the healthcare business.

Perhaps the film isn't quite as funny as its ingredients suggest it ought to be, but it will leave you with a smile on your face and nodding sagely

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Rating: - political satire - not subtle - but significant
This is great political satire. Its central character, a sleep deprived senator, becomes the honest voice of US politics and its reliance on funding. For a UK watcher it's a fasinating warning - for an American, hopefully a little more.

In the plot, the senator adopts black culture, and "rap", to germinate a new type of politics. (Sleep-deprivation is a condition that historically combines insanity with clarity of mind.) This provides some of the best comedy and ultimatly the film's best scene (a TV interview). Nevertheless this is not a film about black issues (although it presents some of them with great clarity) in this way its biggest strength is also its weakness: to some degree it merely 'uses' these issues as a way of presenting other issues.

Nevertheless I love this file for its honesty, risk and fun. It is very watchable and a film that has not been given the serious consideration that it deserves.