Sometimes, there are two possible scales upon which a movie like ""Bobby"" can be weighed. One measures the quality of the filmmaking: the writing, the story, the shots, the scenes, the characters, their relationships and the ending. The other measures whether or not the movie succeeded in making its audience aware of something: an issue, a tragedy, a cause.
When watching ""Bobby,"" the first scale that comes to mind is the issue scale. Robert F. Kennedy was an important and well-loved politician during a decade that will forever go down as infamous in the vast, unfathomable book of America.
Now, at the turn of a brand new millennium, the United States is still struggling with important issues that so many wish they could ignore. Our generation becomes thirstier every day for a man like Bobby Kennedy, one trusted and admired by people who were black, white, poor, rich, young and old.
If this movie should be seen for any reason, it should be for the memory of RFK and the impact that ""Bobby"" has while uniting its audience against forces that cannot be controlled.
The writing is decent. The characters are mostly dynamic, sometimes unbelievable in their quaint naA_vetAc, but it is all that one can expect from a first-time writing and directing attempt by Emilio Estevez. There are a lot of really beautiful moments in this movie, each connected by the very pipes of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and a powerful ending that will shock, frighten and illuminate.
""Bobby"" is the story of 22 people who were at the Ambassador Hotel the night that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. While none of the performances are particularly remarkable, those by Laurence Fishburne, Ashton Kutcher, Freddy Rodriguez and Sharon Stone are sheer gems amid a so-far bleak and uninviting season of film.
Among one of the mini-plots is a young woman (Lindsay Lohan) about to marry a high school friend (Elijah Wood) to save him from being sent to the front lines in Vietnam. Helen Hunt plays a housewife unable to find an identity. Kutcher dazzles as an empowering hippie.
The stories told are sometimes those of ordinary people, and sometimes those who led extraordinary lives. There are three things holding them together: The Ambassador Hotel, the love for RFK and the assassination. Some may call this weak writing, a cop-out. They may criticize the lack of cohesion or question the real story here. However, it is obvious that the real story is that of Bobby Kennedy.
Kennedy appears only through old stock footage from the '60s and in audio recordings of his speeches, but somehow the audience is commanded into silence—listening intently to a voice that will never be heard again—a voice that could have changed the world.
Now, as for the two scales again. The writing, the characters—all of that is well-done. It is not perfect, nor is it strikingly innovative or new, but it works. However, the importance level of this movie is immense. Everybody should see it, especially young people who were not around to see Bobby Kennedy. As a film, ""Bobby"" is overflowing with integrity and heart. It is highly recommended to all.
