Pretty Good

Powerful

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie may look goofy, but it's not. Note how the rule of big money behind our democratic façade is exposed. It could have been done in bits and pieces and through corruptive behavior, but that would have made the message less focused. Of course, simply declaiming the political message would have sounded preachy. Instead, Bulworth does a wacky in-your-face by delivering the message in unmistakable, yet entertaining fashion. That's done by having the senator succumb to an alter ego brought on by mental exhaustion over his planned suicide. Serious messages are then wrapped in comedic contrasts. No more suit and tie for the new Bulworth. Instead, he looks like he went shopping in the dark at a charity ward. In fact, the now truth-telling hipster appears his real self suddenly breaking through the conventional façade. At the same time, watching him defy deadening media clichés amounts to a jarring hoot. And after romantic pursuit of an eye-catching Black woman (Berry), he learns day-to-day facts of ghetto plight by staying with her family. And when not speaking truth to power at White fund-raisers, Beatty's Bulworth uses his newly acquired hip-hop to rhyme out the message in catchy rapper fashion. Either way, it's one of the cleverest approaches to undercutting deadening political authority that I've seen.No pretty-boy Beatty here. Pushing 60, he's haggard looking throughout, doing little to compensate until the end. Of course, that's the way it should be, given the emphasis on message. I suspect it's a movie the lefty actor-director-producer has long wanted to make. And make it he did, in spades.

A politician has nothing left to lose.. so why not speak the truth? Warren Beatty's Senator Jay Bulworth lays down the smack: the reason the working man (in this movie, the working class is cleverly disguised as hip-hop mavens) doesn't have a voice, is he doesn't have the sway or monetary bullocks to *buy* a voice. Words aren't worth a penny unless you're worth billions. And of course, from the first instant, this divine fool's failure is certain and imminent: Big Business, what with its grimy fingers perpetually immersed in the U.S. Government's proverbial tub of crunchy Jif, would never allow a politician like Bulworth to succeed, at the risk of the working class' newfound capacity to leech the power from the insurance companies and tire manufacturers.Beneath the sometimes dark comedy, Bulworth has a lot of insightful and painful comments to may about our often hypocritical and ineffectual government. These observations are made satirically, but effectively. This is not a heavy-handed work. One thing that hampered Bulworth at the box-office was its portrayal of the man in the black community. People didn't get it. They were offended, especially many liberal white people. Beatty was in no way making fun of African-Americans by showing a very streetwise group. His point, which I thought was fairly obvious, was that many people will behave in an antisocial way in a society that is largely indifferent and often hostile towards them. I think that's almost a no-brainer. Bulworth is that rare politician who has soul. I agree that Warren Beaty's rapping was sub par, but who cares? "Bulworth" makes a powerful statement that in order to transcend problems of crime, poverty, racism, and political corruption we are going to have to take a cold hard look at who we really are and what is really happening around us. Accepting other people particularly from different racial and economic backgrounds has to be more than just an insincere speech act. It must be an act of good will that is grounded in practical reality.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Warren Beatty is the director, writer, and star of Bulworth, a political black comedy in the tradition of Bob Roberts and the Contender. He is an old fashioned 60s liberal who has moved to the center to appease the voters. His marriage has secretly been an open one for years, showing the public the perfect couple; sounds like the Clintons. He decides to take out a large life insurance policy and have someone kill him, in order to leave the money to his daughter. He goes off the deep end by appearing at campaign events drunk and making inappropriate comments, which make him a media star. He meets a staffer, Nina(the physically perfect Halle Berry), and the senator quickly hook up; surprise, surprise. Her brother is a drug dealer, and Bulworth hangs out with them and she reveals a big secret. He is revitalized as a candidate and the movie ends ambiguously. Beatty is funny and likable as the politician, and I am always mesmerized by Berry's beauty. Bulworth is a solid 8/10.

My friend didn't really like this movie all that much claiming that he couldn't really relate to the African-American subculture, but what I really think is that this movie is directed to minority people in general and is quite anti-corporate.The movie is focused around incumbent senator for California, Senator Bullsworth. The movie opens with him watching his campaign trailers and crying. It seems that the weight of his position has finally fallen on him. We learn that his wife really doesn't love him anymore and he has asked a hit-man to kill him. Suddenly he turns on the political system and begins to drag it through the mud. The first speech is at a Negro church and when he is asked questions, instead of giving a sugar coated non-committal answer, he tells them the truth. They have no money and thus do not matter. Soon he turns on the corporate sponsors, criticising their manipulation of the political system by throwing lots of money in the right direction.Thus senator Bullsworth throws away his lifestyle and delves into the Negro community. He attacks the corporations that run the nation and supports the under powered minorities. He even turns his teeth on the drug pushers, seeing them as evil pawns of the faceless corporations.Basically this movie is Bullsworth's epiphany. He wants to die at first, and with this he has his epiphany - the realisation before his death. Throughout the movie we know that he is going to die, because even though he is popular, he cannot get away with making the statements that he is making. He is being incredibly controversial, and such a stance can never last that long. It rocks the boat way too much and as such can't be allowed to succeed. In the America of the movies things cannot change too much, and in fact, if it has happened before hand, things will be set straight. I guess this then shows the tragedy of society, that when a saviour arrives, he will be killed, because those in power don't want to give it up.