Thoughts on Bulworth

 

via Giphy/Courtesy 20th Century Studios/Disney

"Are you saying the Democratic Party don't care about the African-American community?"
"Isn't that obvious? Hey, you got half of your kids out of work and the other half are in jail. Do you see any Democrat doing anything about it? Certainly not me. What are you to do, vote Republican?"

It's time for another edition of What I Like, What I'm Okay With and What I Dislike. This installment looks at Bulworth!

I Dislike ... Bulworth taking place in 1996 rather than 1998 amid a contested U.S. Senate primary election rather than the general election. Using the recent past to comment on the present worked in a previous Warren Beatty movie, Shampoo, but I think Bulworth required more immediacy, more stakes. 

I Love ... the first words of Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth, D-Calif. (Beatty) including a destined to be trite soundbite ("We stand at the doorstep of a new millennium."). Who wouldn't despair at such banality?

I'm Okay With ... the suggestion that Jay married Constance (Christine Baranski) to boost his electability. The Bulworths have been married for 24 years, since approximately 1972. I'm guessing Jay was elected in '72, '78 (a race bolstered by Constance's pregnancy?), '84 and '90.

I Like ... a lot of the dialogue in these early scenes. Bulworth's screenplay is credited to Jeremy Pikser and Beatty, with the former having adapted the star-director-producer-writer's story. It's also commonly believed that both James Toback and Aaron Sorkin were script doctors. Whomever wrote the dialogue between Eddie (Jack Warden) and Bulworth's doctor (Josef Sommer) clearly understands that word economy can be witty.

"Hey, doc! How's he doing?"

"Fine. Fine. How are you doing?"

"Fine, fine. You?"

"Fine."

"Fine."

I'm Okay With ... the amount of setup in Bulworth's first 15 minutes. A sellout, particularly but not necessarily exclusively to the insurance industry, with tentative financial security, Jay arranges his assassination and that his daughter will receive a $10 million insurance settlement. Expecting to be dead by Monday and back in California for campaign stops, Bulworth indulges in the luxury of speaking fearlessly.

I Dislike ... Nina (Halle Berry) being introduced at the South Central church with a sucker in her mouth. As if! Then again, no one in that scene is especially reverent.

I Love ... how much mileage Beatty was able to get out of people, particularly but not exclusively Dennis (Oliver Platt) and Bill (Joshua Malina), and their logical "What the fuck is going on?" reactions. As good as the duo are, the funniest individual reaction came from C-SPAN producer Mimi (Laurie Metcalf). "Fred, when you say 'by the book,' what book would that be?"

I'm Okay With ... Amiri Baraka as the rastaman, who I'm not 100 percent actually exists. Halucinated or real, he's clearly meant to represent the conscience of Bulworth and Bulworth.

I'm Okay With ... Bulworth chiding the Beverly Hills partygoers, mostly Jewish and in the entertainment industry, for making lousy TV shows and movies. I'm always little wary of when creative types get on the subject of bad entertainment, because it always feels a little like "Luckily, my stuff is so much better than yours." Beatty can kinda get away with it here on the strength of accumulated goodwill (less for his filmography since Reds, of course) and that we're still exploring how much Jay can get away with.

"(talking with his mouth full) It's funny that so many smart people could work so hard on 'em and spend all that money on 'em and make so much money on 'em, and I mean, what do you think it is? It must be the money, huh? It must be the money. It turns everything to crap, you know? But Jesus Christ, how much money do you guys really need?"

I Like ... the brick joke of Bulworth being confused for George Hamilton while out clubbing with Nina and her friends. (Later in the movie, Jay briefly says hello to the real George Hamilton.)

I'm Okay With ... the fish out of water aspect of Bulworth at the club and especially his gleeful adoption of rapping. Whether or not Warren intended it, for the next few scenes, Jay comes across as a curious toddler. "Boy, that George Hamilton sure can move."

I Have Mixed Feelings About ... Bulworth taking place over so little time. In 1996, would an incumbent politician's last-minute change in public and media interactions really make that much difference? This is one aspect where the movie was somewhat prescient. It's not hard to imagine Bulworth's constituency going from Californians to Twitter users.

I'm Okay With ... a newly-invigorated Jay trying to call off the hit against him, followed by the reveal that the would-be assassin isn't the Man with Dark Glasses (Graham Beckel). It's Nina, who, naturally, now has feelings for her target. (Although it will still be another half-hour or so until romance trumps necessity.) Thanks to Vinny (Richard C. Sarafian) having a heart attack, she doesn't yet know that the job is off. 

I Like ... that Jann Carl from Entertainment Tonight is among the panel of journalists when Bulworth debates Hugh (Hart Bochner) and that Larry King is considered a formidable interviewer.

I Like ... most of Bulworth's interactions with Nina's family and others in Compton. There's good escalation in this sequence, from Momma Doll (Helen Martin) explaining that he's not eating collard greens, but kale, to his winning over the Little Gangstas with ice cream and defending them against harassment from white cops, to his belated understanding of how business dehumanizes even children.

I'm Okay With ... Bulworth's big TV appearance including him cribbing from Nina and L.D.'s previous monologues. Dude's been rapping for just over 24 hours and already he's sampling! I'm less fond of Dennis and reporter Missy Berliner (Nora Dunn) grooving in the control room, but whatever.

I'm Okay With ... the overall tone of Bulworth, which is generally "Warren Beatty has a lot of ideas, you guys!" I can't argue with the critics who feel that he should have made more of a point, but as I've often said, performance is worth more than composition.

I'm Okay With ... Jay, having spoken his peace about the state of America and having learned that Nina was the hitwoman and that she's abandoned the mission, getting to have his best and likely longest sleep ever.

I Dislike ... the implication that Bulworth's new attitude helped him win the primary election. Sorry, not buying it, not so late in the game. 

I'm Uncomfortable With ... Nina's last line, coming after she decides to embark on a new life. "Oh, come on, Bulworth. You know you're my n****r."

I Dislike ... that Jay ultimately screwed over his daughter. He tore up the policy that he arranged with Crockett (Paul Sorvino), who would have no reason other than honor to see that it is paid out. And since Crockett is the guy who (likely fatally) shot Bulworth to protect his and the insurance industry's interests, I'm guessing he could care less about honor.

"(to audience) You got to be a spirit. You can't be no ghost."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:

-- "You know that guy who's talking to you in that tiny little earphone?/He's afraid the guys at network gonna tell him he's through if he lets a guy keep talking/'Cause the corporations got the networks and they get to say/who gets to talk about the country and who's crazy today/I would cut to a commercial if you still want this job/because you may not be back tomorrow with this corporate mob/cut to a commercial/cut to a commercial/cut to a commercial/cut to commercial ..."

-- Box Office: Grossing more than $26.5 million on a $30 million budget, this opened wide at No. 4 and came in at No. 72 for 1998.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "There's a special kind of madness to Bulworth, which hobbles along the line between inspiration and foolishness like a failed sobriety test," Scott Tobias wrote for The Dissolve in 2014. Kenneth Turan: "An amusing, self-consciously outrageous attempt at a shotgun marriage between knockabout comedy and serious political commentary." "(It) plays like a cry of frustrated comic rage," Roger Ebert wrote. Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: "All bluster and hype. It's a tease of a satire that never really follows through on its audacious premise."

-- Critic's Corner, Warren: "Magically revitalized ... has directed this political satire with jubilant wit and energy," Janet Maslin wrote in 1998. Turan: "More engaging than expected is Beatty's good-humored willingness to look completely silly." "Dear lord, there are few things more awkward than watching Warren Beatty attempt to freestyle rap about problems with corporate lobbyists," Alex McLevy wrote for the A.V. Club in 2018. Speaking of the cultural appropriation, Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post said he suspected "white people will laugh harder than black people" about it. For the same paper, Michael O'Sullivan observed that "the potential arrogance of a white man co-opting the black idion comes dangerously close to condescension." Gleiberman: "We're left embarassingly aware that it's not just Jay Bulworth who's appearing before us as an oxymoronic funk-WASP jester. It's Warren Beatty himself." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: "If you're stirred by the sight of a high-wire artist working without a net, catch Beatty's act."

-- Critic's Corner, Oliver: "Platt is instantly credible in any role he plays, a most unusual talent," Gene Siskel wrote.

-- AlienJesus, I'll let you retell the story of how much of a struggle it was to promote Bulworth.

-- Memorable Music: The score is 11-9, with a point for "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)." I'm surprised that song didn't do as well as I remember. It peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs charts.

-- Awards Watch: At both the Oscars and Golden Globes, Bulworth's screenplay lost to Shakespeare in Love. The Globes also included losses in the Musical or Comedy field to Shakespeare in Love and for Beatty's performance as a Musical or Comedy actor, to Michael Caine in Little Voice. Over at the Grammys, Ennio Morricone's score lost to John Williams' for Saving Private Ryan, while "Ghetto Supastar" lost the duo or group rap performance award to "Intergalactic." Other music losses included the video for "Ghetto Supastar" falling to "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" for Best Video from a Film at the MTV Video Music Awards and the soundtrack falling to City of Angels' at the Teen Choice Awards. Finally, Berry and Cheadle were nominated for NAACP Image awards. She lost to Angela Bassett in How Stella Got Her Groove Back and he lost to Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact.

-- Fanservice Junction: The painting of a naked woman in L.D.'s office and more importantly, Nina sagging.

-- Hey, It's ...!: Florence Stanley, Sean Astin, John Witherspoon, Michael Clarke Duncan, Lou Myers, James Pickens Jr., Isaiah Washington, Sarah Silverman (although I didn't notice her) and William Baldwin.

-- Great Moments in Shilling: Jay briefly lands on The Simpsons during his channel surfing of despair.

-- Possible blooper: California was not among the states electing U.S. senators in 1996.

-- "Senator, Mr. Weldie, I'm sorry to say, but we're gonna have to cancel this for today. They don't want to bump Jerry Springer."

-- Next: Deep Impact. On deck: Quest for Camelot.