Bulworth (1998)

In the late 1990's there was a little spat of pretty sharp political satires coming out of Hollywood, most notable among these being Primary Colors and Wag the Dog. Bulworth was the lest successful financially of this trilogy (there might be more, but I can't think of any). How this movie was even made is kind of a funny story, I'll let Wikipedia tell it:

"Bulworth was made in complete stealth and released by 20th Century Fox only after protracted contractual wrangling, only for a brief period of time, and practically without any publicity. As Peter Swirski reports in his study of this film, "after 20th Century Fox backed out of producing Dick Tracy, Beatty used the leverage of a lawsuit to wangle unprecedented artistic freedom," disclosing only the barest outline of the story and essentially duping Fox into bankrolling the project."

So this subversive (in the Oliver Stone sense) movie was made subversively. Now it would kind of have to have been because this is not the kind of picture any major studio of the time would have been over joyed to make. Should 20th Century Fox have known something was up? Well they know Warren Beatty had made Reds.

Anyway the plot of Bulworth centers around a long time United States Senator from California, alliteratively named Jay  Billington Bulworth, who is facing a strong primary opponent as he runs for his 4th or 5th term as part of the 1996 election cycle. As the film beginngs Senator Bulworth is having a crises of confidence, again from Wikipedia:

"Bulworth is losing his bid for re-election to a fiery young populist. Bulworth's socialist views, formed in the 1960s and 1970s, has lost favor with voters, so he has conceded to more conservative politics and to accepting donations from big corporations. In addition, though he and his wife have been having affairs openly for years, they must still present a happy façade in the interest of maintaining a good public image.

Tired of politics and his life in general and planning to commit suicide, Bulworth negotiates a $10 million life insurance policy with his daughter as the beneficiary in exchange for a favorable vote from the insurance industry. Knowing that a suicide will void his daughter's inheritance, he contracts to have himself assassinated within two days' time.

Turning up in California for his campaign extremely drunk, Bulworth begins speaking his mind freely at public events and in the presence of the C-SPAN film crew following his campaign. After ending up in a night club and smoking marijuana, he even starts rapping in public. His frank, potentially offensive remarks make him an instant media darling and re-energize his campaign."

So this shouldn't work, both in the story sense and as a movie, but somehow it does, and in fact its oddly endearing. The rapping coming for a white sixty something liberal is (surprisingly) good, funny, and informative.. The cast is full of good character actors, including Oliver Platt, Paul Sorinvo and Jack Warden. Halle Berry, still fairly early in her career is good as a Bulworth campaign volunteer and potential love interest for the Senator. The movies balance between the cynical and the sentimental is very well maintained. Inherently awkward at points the film still manages to coalesce into something worth seeing and thinking about. I particularly liked the sequences set amongst the California black community. This is a flawed, minor classic, political tract of a film. ***