Review of Bulworth (1998) by Jellyfish O — 23 Mar 2004

[size=3]As [i]Bulworth [/i]opens, incumbent Senator Jay Bulworth (Warren Beatty) sits depressed in his office...watching his own political advertisement over and over again. He can not stand the phoniness of it all, the lies, the promises, the catchy slogans like "Why switch horses in mid-stream?". So begins the story of a senator who throws caution to the wind and decides to say what he really means, a career decision that causes great grief to his chief political advisor (Oliver Platt) and takes Bulworth on an unexpected journey. [i]Bulworth [/i]is at its best and funniest when the Senator is delivering politically-incorrect speeches to a shocked audience. In addition to admitting that politicians don't really care about African-Americans, he also insults a group of Jewish film producers, and manages to expose the horrible condition of the U.S. health care system. The movie crackles with anger and malice, yet that is what makes it funny: Beatty is taking no prisoners in his attack on the facades that constitute modern politics. [i]Bulworth [/i]begins to lose its way when it actually develops a plot. At the beginning of the movie, Bulworth takes out a contract on his own life...yet after he speaks the truth and feels invigorated, he fears that he will not be able to take back that decision. The supposed suspense from this subplot could have been excised without effecting the sharpness of the political satire. Also unwise was a decision by Beatty to create a romantic subplot involving a black woman named Nina (Halle Berry). There is a somewhat simplistic attitude in [i]Bulworth [/i]that shows a white senator embracing the ghetto lifestyle of many African-Americans...as if that automatically makes him more endearing or honest. Even if it is a somewhat juvenile attitude, Bulworth's newfound "blackness" leads to a wonderful scene in which he sings a profanity-laced rap number that tears into several serious social problems. [i]Bulworth [/i]certainly begins to run out of steam as it progresses, and there are moments when Beatty loses complete control of the storytelling. Yet perhaps this is a movie that has to have warts: it is so angry and energetic that a more restrained, safe approach might have tarnished the movie's satirical effectiveness. [i]Bulworth [/i]is a film that will cause debate, one that takes a sledgehammer to the world of politics. It may be flawed and represent a missed opportunity at greatness, but Beatty is swinging for the fences...and the effort by itself is worth seeing.[/size].

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