Bobby DVD Review

"Bobby (2006)" reviews

DVD

Bobby (2006)

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-06-01 14:50:25

Provider

DVD Review

For a generation of young idealists Robert Kennedy's assassination was even more traumatic than that of his older brother Jack. Emilio Estevez's film is less about the event itself than the impact on a handful of fictional individuals who were in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on that fateful night. So we get Sharon Stone as a hairdresser, Demi Moore as a drunken nightclub crooner, Estevez himself as her manager/husband while Moore's real life boyfriend Ashton Kutcher plays an LSD dealer.

All are hit when the assassin Sirhan Sirhan fires on Kennedy, who barely appears in the film himself (played by Dave Fraunces), except to make a speech about "the divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with society" and, of course, to be shot. It's a strange variation on the increasingly familiar theme of biopics and/or real life dramatisation, but the strength of the ensemble acting and the undiminished power of the seismic event make Bobby a bold triumph on its own terms.

This release includes some excellent extras: a 'making of' documentary and eye witness accounts of the shooting at the hotel, as well as theatrical trailer and subtitles.