Bulworth

Bulworth is a 1998 American political satire black comedy film co-written, co-produced, directed by, and starring Warren Beatty. It co-stars Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino, Jack Warden, and Isaiah Washington. The film follows the title character, California Senator Jay Billington Bulworth (Beatty), as he runs for re-election while trying to avoid a hired assassin. The film received generally positive reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay yet narrowly failed to break even on a $30 million budget. However, Beatty was praised for tackling race, poverty, dysfunction in the health care system, and corporate control of the political agenda, with eminent legal scholar Patricia J. Williams noting the film examined "racism's intersection with America's deep, and growing, class divide."[3]

Bulworth
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWarren Beatty
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story byWarren Beatty
Starring
Music byEnnio Morricone
CinematographyVittorio Storaro
Edited by
Production
company
Mulholland Productions
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • May 15, 1998 (1998-05-15)
Running time
108 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million
Box office$29.2 million[2]

Plot

Jay Bulworth, a Democratic U.S. Senator from California, faces a primary challenge from a fiery young populist. Once politically liberal, Bulworth has over time conceded to more conservative politics, and to accepting donations from large corporations. While he and his wife have been having affairs with each other's knowledge for years, they maintain a happy facade for the sake of their public image. Tired of politics and unhappy with life, Bulworth makes plans to kill himself, and negotiates a $10 million life insurance policy with his daughter as the beneficiary. Knowing that a suicide would void the policy, he contracts to have himself assassinated within two days.

He arrives extremely drunk at a campaign event, where he freely speaks his mind in the presence of the C-SPAN film crew following his campaign. After dancing all night in an underground club and smoking marijuana, he begins rapping in public. His frank, offensive remarks make him an instant media darling and re-energize his campaign. He becomes romantically involved with Nina, a young black activist, who begins to join him on campaign stops. He is pursued by the paparazzi, his insurance company, his campaign managers, and an increasingly adoring public, all the while awaiting his impending assassination.

After a televised debate during which Bulworth derides insurance companies and the American healthcare system while drinking from a flask, he retreats to the home of Nina's family in impoverished South Central Los Angeles. He witnesses a group of children selling crack and intervenes to rescue them from an encounter with a racist police officer, and later discovers they work for L.D., a local drug kingpin to whom Nina's brother owes money. Bulworth eventually makes it to a television appearance arranged earlier by his campaign manager, during which he raps and repeats verbatim statements that Nina and L.D. have told him about the lives of poor black people and their opinions of various American institutions, such education and employment. Eventually he offers the solution that "everybody should fuck everybody" until everyone is "all the same color," stunning the audience and his interviewer.

After an assassination attempt occurs, Bulworth escapes with Nina, who reveals that she is the assassin he indirectly hired (ostensibly to make the money needed to pay off her brother's debt) and will now not carry out the job. Relieved, Bulworth falls asleep for the first time in days in Nina's arms. He sleeps for 36 hours, during which the media speculates over his sudden absence leading up to election day. Bulworth wins the primary in a landslide, and L.D. allows Nina's brother to work off the debt. Bulworth accepts a new campaign for the presidency during his victory speech, but is suddenly shot by an agent of the insurance company who were fearful of Bulworth's recent push for single-payer health care.

Bulworth's fate is left ambiguous. The final scene shows an elderly vagrant, whom Bulworth met previously, standing alone outside a hospital. He exhorts Bulworth, who is presumably inside, to not be "a ghost" but "a spirit" which, as he had mentioned earlier, can only happen if you have "a song". In the final shot of the film, he asks the same of the audience.

Cast

Production

Beatty first pitched the film in 1992 under the basic pitch of a depressed man putting a hit on himself for the life insurance before falling in love. 20th Century Fox executive Joe Roth approved of the pitch and a budget of $30 million before Beatty got to work on the point of view in politics that would take center stage for the film, with Beatty taking input from writers such as Jeremy Pikser, James Toback and Aaron Sorkin (who reportedly did a re-write on the script). Beatty, long involved in politics since his first hero of Robert Kennedy, wanted to make a film that would strike the perceived notion that politics had become too absorbed in polls and fundraising while losing sight on the issues that matters most. Beatty styled his film in hip-hop and rap because of the "great comic contrast" that would come from it.[4]

Soundtrack
Main article: Bulworth (soundtrack)

The soundtrack was released on April 21, 1998 by Interscope Records.

Critical reception

The film generated a great deal of controversy and received a positive reception from film critics.[5][6][7][8][9] It currently holds a 76% approval score at Rotten Tomatoes based on 66 reviews, with an average rating of 7.08/10. The site's consensus states: "Star and director Beatty's ambitious take on race and politics in 20th-century America isn't perfect, but manages to provide more than its share of thought-provoking laughs."[10] Writing in Time Out New York, Andrew Johnston observed: "More than anything else, Bulworth is descended from Preston Sturges's topical farces of the 1940s, which juxtaposed a deep belief in the promise of America with irreverent attacks on the hypocrisy of its institutions."[11]

Patricia J. Williams saw the film three times, saying: “[Beatty] knows power, if not the ghetto, and this movie is effective precisely because it takes on the issue of power... I kept going back because I am amazed by a movie this overtly left wing, fearless and eccentric." She added: "Bulworth isn't about race alone; more specifically, it's about racism's intersection with America's deep, and growing, class divide."[12]

Box office results

The Los Angeles Times commented that Bulworth did "extremely well" on a limited release.[13][14] Despite this, the film ultimately grossed just $29,202,884 worldwide at the box office.

Awards and nominations
Award Category Recipients and nominees Result
71st Academy Awards Best Original Screenplay Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser[2] Nominated
56th Golden Globe Awards Best Screenplay Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser Nominated
Best Picture Bulworth Nominated
Best Actor Warren Beatty Nominated
1998 Satellite Awards Best Actor Warren Beatty Nominated
1998 Writers Guild of America Awards Best Screenplay Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 1998 Best Screenplay Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Screenplay (1998) Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser Won
1998 Golden Lion Awards Best Film Bulworth Nominated
1999 NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Actress Halle Berry Nominated
Outstanding Supporting Actor Don Cheadle Nominated

Cultural legacy

In 2013, The New York Times reported that President Barack Obama had, in private, "talked longingly of 'going Bulworth,'" in reference to the film.[15]

References
  1. "Bulworth (18)". British Board of Film Classification. September 18, 1998. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  2. "Bulworth". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  3. https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-20942927/bulworth-agonistes
  4. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-03-ca-45719-story.html
  5. Gleiberman, Owen (May 22, 1998). "Bulworth". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
  6. Ebert, Roger (May 22, 1998). "Bulworth". Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved December 4, 2010 – via rogerebert.com.
  7. McGurk, Margaret A. (May 22, 1998). "No apologies for 'Bulworth'". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
  8. Vice, Jeff (May 22, 1998). "Film review: Bulworth". Deseret News. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
  9. Guthmann, Edward (May 22, 1998). "Hilarious 'Bulworth' – the truth sets a senator free". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
  10. "Bulworth (1998)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
  11. Johnston, Andrew (May 14, 1998). "Bulworth". Time Out New York.
  12. https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-20942927/bulworth-agonistes
  13. Welkos, Robert W. (May 19, 1998). "Weekend Box Office; Audiences Still Flocking to 'Impact'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
  14. Natale, Richard (May 27, 1998). "Mixed Early Returns". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
  15. Baker, Peter (May 15, 2013). "Onset of Woes Casts Pall Over Obama's Policy Aspirations". The New York Times. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  • Ann Hornaday, "The 34 best political movies ever made" The Washington Post Jan. 23, 2020), ranked #19
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.