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Big Name Cast Play Various Roles On the Night Bobby Kennedy Died
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
Although its multiple fictional dramas can’t begin to compare to the majesty of the real life drama that was Robert Kennedy’s transformation into an agent of change, the ensemble film “Bobby” delivers a winning message about the capacity of people to rise to their better natures.
Director/writer Emilio Estevez has done a remarkable job dovetailing the idealistic fervor of Kennedy’s presidential primary campaign (evoked by extensive newsreel footage) with pivotal moments in the lives of ordinary people endeavoring to make those lives count.
Although some of the inhabitants of the Ambassador Hotel in which Kennedy will await election returns with staff, family and friends on the evening of June 5, 1968, have such mundane things as the Dodgers game or a husband’s loyalty on their minds, there is a palpable air of history-in-the-making in the hustle and bustle of the swank Los Angeles hotel.
As Kennedy’s rousing final hours stump speeches float out of hotel room televisions, staff and guests confront challenges to their dreams, livelihoods, ambitions and values. Alcohol, depression and infidelity force three couples (Helen Hunt/Martin Sheen; Demi Moore/Estevez; Sharon Stone/William H. Macy) to re-evaluate their marriages, while a young woman (Lindsay Lohan) offers to wed a young man (Elijah Wood) she barely knows to keep him from going to Vietnam.
A Mexican-American kitchen worker (Freddy Rodriguez) does not let prejudice and inequity stop a gesture of generosity to a superior (Laurence Fishburne). A guilt trip for hours lost to acid-dropping renews commitment of juvenile campaign workers to their get-out-the-vote work.
A doorman (Anthony Hopkins) waxes philosophical about the famous and the infamous he’s seen come and go from the Ambassador for years, before he welcomes RFK with a handshake. A lounge singer (Demi Moore) contemplates the ravages of time and the self-destruction of her career before she takes to the stage to entertain the Senator.
As these and others converge on the hotel ballroom to witness Kennedy’s response to his victory, the euphoria of new beginnings is soon transformed into a delirium of horror at the news of Bobby’s mortal wound. As suffering and rage spread through the chaotic scene, the calm, impassioned voice of Kennedy is heard laying a healing hand on hearts at the abyss.
Estevez’s unabashed blend of nostalgic potboiler and heart-rending homage is a compelling call to take up the cause of peace to which Kennedy committed his life. A Weinstein Co. release, rated R for language, drug content and violence.
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