Review of Bulworth (1998) by Steve J — 10 Dec 2007

Bulworth has been on my list of "movies to see" for quite some time, and I finally got around to watching it. The premise is pretty simple. Beaty's character, Jay Bulworth, is the incumbent California senator in the 1996 election.

Then he completely loses his mind. In addition to taking out a hit on himself, Bulworth starts saying what he really feels, no matter how offensive.

Along the way (in addition to taking up rap as a hobby and hanging out in South Central L.A.), Bulworth falls in love with a young black woman, played by Halle Berry. Eventually he realizes that he doesn't want to die. Unfortunately, there are complications.

Bulworth has a lot of things to say about the state of politics today, race relations, and even the entertainment industry. Whether Beatty (who wrote and directed the movie) is attempting to advance a personal agenda or simply telling a good story I'm not sure, but parts of the movie get a bit preachy.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the movie is the ending. There were two possibilities for the ending: the way the story should have ended, and the Hollywood ending. What happens isn't really a surprise, but the fact that the Hollywood machine allowed the ending is pretty unusual. There's also a nice visual reference for conspiracy buffs, if you watch closely.