Bob Roberts (1992)

A filmmaker documents the rise of right wing folk singer Bob Roberts (Tim Robbins) as he runs for the Pennsylvanian Senate seat. Fringe reporter Bugs Raplin (Giancarlo Esposito) is investigating the murky connections of the campaign to drug smuggling. Lukas Hart III (Alan Rickman) is a behind the scenes operator and Chet MacGregor (Ray Wise) runs the campaign. Roberts is well connected to Wall Street inverting the rebel image. His campaign team is often trading stocks on the bus.The aspect that bugged me most is the folk singer aspect. There is something old and tired about folk singing that shouldn't fit this concept. While I understand the corrupting of 60's idealism, it needs to bring it up to the 90's instead. Roberts never quite feels real. The movie needs him to be real. I do like Giancarlo Esposito and there is a lot in terms of skewering the political system. In general, this is a fine satire of the American political system.

Half political satire and half mockumentary, "Bob Roberts" accurately reflects what is wrong with the American political system … and indirectly what is right. The film relates the ascension of a charismatic yuppie from Philadelphia, a 35-year old self-made, a gifted swordsman, guitar player and folk singer named Bob Roberts.Like the most memorable movie characters, Bob Roberts is a man of fascinating contradictions: his conservative views are swept off by his youth, handsomeness and communicative smile while his notorious aversion toward the 60's rebelliousness is expressed through folk songs performed in public à la Bob Dylan.It's not coincidental that the film is Tim Robbins' directorial debut, and that he wrote and starred in it, for it immediately echoes another political classic : "Citizen Kane". When you watch Bob Roberts, you don't have Charles Foster Kane in mind, but as he slowly sinks into the darkest side of his personality, the film gets more distant to its initial satirical tone, and become closer to a powerful character study, scary because true.The strength of "Bob Roberts" is its multi-layered directing, flirting so many tones and styles. The documentary format allows jumping from one scene to another, without caring for its disjointed aspect. We follow Roberts visiting a school, singing in public, being acclaimed by fans or criticized by a journalist, played by Lynne Thigpen. She provides the first interesting insight by calling Roberts a "Machiavellian poseur" even though at that moment, Roberts still strikes as a normal politician. Aren't they all Machiavellian poseurs anyway? But one character regularly pops us as the troublemaker: Giancarlo Espositio plays Bugs Alijah Raplin, a black journalist and activist who discovered the implications of Roberts' anti-drugs foundation with some third-world countries' traffic. Robert's right hand, Lukas Hart III, played by Alan Rickman, has been accused several times but no proof was found whatsoever. According to Raplin, one of the reasons the media doesn't treat the information is because they belong to politicians. Later, an incident during a live TV program proves him right. Bugs' insistence and undesirability inspires a cruel machination against him that will also help Roberts to leverage the number of voters. Bugs, as the attacker who'd turn to be a victim, is an interesting counterpart to the titular character's flamboyance, being everything he's not, he's not an upper class WASP, he doesn't have the same sex-appeal or charisma, he's marginalized by his quest of the truth. The contrast is too obvious though, and I guess the subtle portrayal of Senator Baiste by Gore Vidal, as Roberts' opponent.Vidal embodies the honesty of a politician born with true idealism, a man who has certainly been impacted by James Stewart in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" and believed that John F. Kennedy would change America, before the disillusioning aftermath of his assassination. Like Bugs, Baiste is victim of a cruel machination accusing him of abusing an underage girl. He never truly recovers from the accusation in the polls, and as he doesn't believe in "negative campaigning", never strikes back.Baiste's interventions bring the most interesting insights about American politics, and I read in IMDb trivia that most of his statements were improvised, which provides a supplementary level of spontaneity and truth. Baiste is actually not surprised by Roberts' appeal. He knows the guy has connections with the CIA, which had proved to work for Nixon. The film is set at the verge of the first Gulf War, and since the beginning, despite the seemingly diplomatic efforts going on, we know the dice are cast.As the storyline progressed, I felt the film lost its realism, got too sensational, even too radical in its attempt to denounce some extreme wings of American policy. Roberts' fans got more and more demonic, forming a sort of collective trance where Roberts was less a political leader than a modern-day guru. They hear what they want to hear, they don't complain, all they want is to have the right to get their share of the American Dream, and from the mouth of a businessman, the share is not symbolical. Roberts doesn't speak about values, but about greed and success, incarnating a cynical detachment that even the crisis of 1987 hadn't defeated.But while I felt the film went too far after the assassination attempt on Roberts, I realized on a second thought that the film couldn't have been more accurate. Are the manipulations orchestrated by Robert's team unconceivable? Just think of Richard Nixon, think of the way George W. Bush attacked Iraq on the basis of false accusation. Yes, politics is made of lying, as Vidal said, it's all about justifying a threat by taking a local thug and waving its menace as a Hitler-like figure. The same manipulation of the Baiste scandal echoes the way, the Bush camp tried avoided the debate about his enlisting in the Vietnam war. History repeats itself. It's true that the portrayal of radicals flirt with caricature while the realism of movies like "JFK" and "Nixon" didn't make them less flattering about politicians."Bob Roberts" is refreshing because it points the finger on the danger of radical beliefs, and the way they lead to disasters, in the name of so-called values. And since I mentioned "Nixon" and "JFK", I realize that the 90's might be the best decade for political movies, Oliver Stone took the dramatic approach while "Bob Roberts" and "Wag the Dog", another gem of Black comedy, were more satirical but, at the end, more prophetic. Maybe it's due to the fact that the 90's were still close enough to the 70's, so the Nixon's trauma wasn't healed yet, and close enough to the 2000's, so people could foreshadow the fanatical path America was taking.The pedagogic aspect of "Bob Roberts" is undeniable, but it's its prophetic value that makes the whole experience chilling, behind the genuine laughs it generates.

"Self determination. The choice to be... what you want to be. And I wanted to be... rich!"This is the story of a superstar singer turned politician. The movie has good directing, a good script, excellent acting, countless cameos and funny, witty and entertaining music.Tim Robbins is the mastermind behind this movie. He is directing, acting, writing, singing, song writing - in one word, he does everything. And he does everything well. His directing is brilliant and the subject allows him to try his hand at directing movies, video clips, concerts and political rallies, all in one. And the result is incredible. There is a lot of mobility to the movie, and he uses the shaky cam a lot, but without the shaky part, which is remarkable. Also there is a clear distinction between mobile and static scenes, and the two don't mix, they don't bleed into each other, and there is no attempt to film one mobile scene with a fixed camera or the other way around.The script starts lighthearted, funny and highly entertaining and it turns darker and darker as time goes by. The narration and the narrator are brilliant, the mix of singing and politics is very well done, managing a fine balance. There are heavier touches later in the movie, as the writer drives his point home, but they are to be expected. There is also subtlety and innuendo.The actors are very good. Tim Robbins is a natural, both as an actor and as a singer, and his portrayal of a tireless, relentless, flawless political machine is brilliant. Gore Vidal is excellent, and Alan Rickman and Ray Wise are perfect for their roles.There are a lot of cameos by A-list and B-list Hollywood actors, and the movie turns at times into a veritable "Spot the celebrity" kind of game, which ads to the entertaining value. "James Spader, hello Sir, right this way. Here are your lines, this way please. Susan Sarandon, Hellen Hunt, Pamela Reed, Fred Ward, Jon Cusack, welcome, welcome. Here are your parts, please go right this way. Jack Black, Jack Black... I'm sorry Sir, I don't know anybody by that name, but please, please do come in. We'll see what we can do."The music is the glue that brings this movie together. It is militant, the lyrics are catchy and brutally honest, even if they are meant as a satire, not to be played out of context. The music video clips are hilarious and the concerts are very engaging and even moving, at times. The end credits feature a Bob Dylan like moment, the inspiration for the music and for the movie as a whole, bringing the powerful performance to a full circle.Bob Roberts. Brilliant movie, witty, entertaining and downright scary, at times. 10/10.

Not much as changed, regarding Tim Robbins, his left-wing extremism and his inability to articulate. I recently saw him interviewed and all he could answer - to reporter who asked him a serious question - was, "Well, YOU join the Army!" The man is a typical ultra-Liberal of the last decade: full of hate and insults, but no solutions to anything.Never better was that presented in this lame so-called "satire," which was just another vehicle for a Hollywood Loony Left-winger to expunge his hatred of conservatives, Republicans, Christians, etc. Robbins has the conservative Republican political candidate as a little bit below Neanderthal status. Yup, that ignorant right-winger is a liar, a thief, racist, homophobic, nasty, mean, corrupt and who knows what else. (Little did Robbins know he was describing today's Democratic candidates to a tee!)Robbins tries to disguise his heavy-handed attempts at doing nothing but ingratiating himself with the Liberal Hollywood bigwigs with some folksy songs and says all of this is just a "satire." Puh-leeze. It's obvious what the intent of the film was, and it wasn't for lighthearted laughs. If nothing else, the casting of Gore Vidal tells you something. He's not even an actor, but being a left-wing icon, he gets a role.One thing this movie did well: it gave us a prime example of Hollywood and its extreme political leanings and bias.....and total disdain for the American viewing public, which appropriately turned thumbs down on this propaganda piece.