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Bob Roberts
R2 - United Kingdom - Fabulous Films Review written by and copyright: Matthew Crossman (4th November 2015). |
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The Film
 Bob Roberts (Tim Robbins) is a shrewd, right wing, folk singing politician running for the office of Senator in his home town of Pennsylvania. A British documentary crew are following him around on the campaign trail and have exclusive access to Bob and his team on their campaign ‘battle bus’ ‘The Pride’. The documentary crew also make sure to film interviews with his supporters, back up staff and opposition, the current Senator of Pennsylvania Brickley Paiste. At first it appears that Bob is simply a self made man with a passion for his country and hard work. His views are that hard work gets you everywhere and those on state benefits do not have a view that needs to be heard. Also interviewed by the documentary team is a newspaper reporter called Bugs Raplin (Giancarlo Esposito). Raplin has been digging deep into Robert’s charity ‘The Broken Dove’ and believes he has uncovered a scandal. It would appear that Roberts and one of his partners Lukus Hart III (Alan Rickman) misappropriate money meant for the building of social homes and instead used it to buy carrier planes with the intention of smuggling drugs into the country. Raplin finally believes he has enough evidence to publish his ‘smoking gun’ article and when he does it is soon picked up by the local television news programme. Shortly afterwards Roberts is apparently gunned down outside a television studio and the finger points straight at Raplin as the assassin. Those that know Tim Robbins will also know that not only is he an actor but he is a liberal political activist, as his Wife Susan Sarandon (who also appears in the film as a television newscaster). In ‘Bob Roberts’, which Robbins also wrote and directed, Robbins wears his political views on his sleeve for all to see. What starts out as a plausible satire on the political world in the United States of America soon runs into pastiche as Bob Roberts turns from hard nosed right wing business man into criminal bad guy who has misplaced his black Stetson hat. Having Bob Roberts as a folk singer is a clever touch. I don’t think anyone’s idea of a good movie is having to listen to a politician spout his rhetoric in long, boring speeches, but here Robbins manages to get Bob Roberts politics and ideals across in some folk songs that are funny and quite chilling at the same time. Earlier in the same year (1992) ‘The Player’ was released starring Robbins and directed by Robert Altman. Taking his cue from Altman Robbins litters his film with many cameos with star appeal. As well as the aforementioned cast you can also see the likes of Helen Hunt, James Spader, Tom Atkins, Fred Ward, John Cusack, and in an early role for him, Jack Black. The cast help to keep the film rolling along whilst it plunges deeper into darker territory, so much so, that it loses all chance of any objectivity by it’s conclusion. Whilst I’m fairly positive that Robbins was not aiming for any objectivity it would have given the film much more credence if the character of Bob Roberts had retained some sense of credibility until the final shot (a final shot, I may add, that was spoilt by a scene not 3 minutes before). It’s ably directed by Robbins, no more so than his love of tracking shots through crowds and rallies, the final scene being particularly memorable as the camera tracks around a vast dining room whilst Roberts performs a song on stage. I think Robbins missed a trick in that ‘Bob Roberts’ is so heavy handed it was never going to convince any right wing supporters in the USA to change their minds.
Video
Presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio. The picture is decent for a film of this age. Not exactly spectacular but certainly a large step up from the previous 1.50:1 DVD that had been released in the US. There are no issues with he picture with the blacks being fairly deep and the colours reasonably bright.
Audio
The viewer is only given the choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround in either English, Spanish (Castellano), French, German, Italian and Russian. The dialogue is crisp and clear but the soundtrack only jolts into life when Bob Roberts performs his songs on stage. Robbins appears to be a fan of over lapping dialogue from multiple characters and for the most part all the dialogue in these sections is easily picked out. There are a multitude of subtitle options available. These are; English, Spanish (Castellano), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish and Swedish.
Extras
There are no extras present on the disc.
Overall
Bob Roberts is an accomplished directorial debut from Robbins. The main failing of the film is that Robbins seems to see his politics, and those that work within the system, in only two shades. You are either black or white, there is no in between. It is this failing that projects the film, fairly early on, from satire into irony and it is to the detriment of the project as a whole. Robbins has some important things to say about the political landscape in America (I’m fairly confident that the points he makes in 1992 are still as astute today) but the heavy handedness of the script, especially in it’s second half, undermines the message. Still, it’s an entertaining film and the message seems just as pertinent today as it did 23 years ago, which, perhaps shows that you are never going to change the World with a film, which is a depressing thought.
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