| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Bulworth (1998) |
| Director | Warren Beatty |
| Writer | Warren Beatty, Jeremy Pikser |
| Lead Actor | Warren Beatty |
| Cast | Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino |
| Genre | Comedy, Drama, Romance |
| Release Date | May 15, 1998 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 48m |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 6.8/10 |
BULWORTH is Warren Beatty’s furious satirical broadside at the sorry state of contemporary politics. The actor writer producer director, now 61, is a notable artist, a longtime liberal Hollywood force creatively involved in significant movies (Bonnie & Clyde, Shampoo, Reds) for 35 years. Bulworth is sassy and gutsy but not smart.
Beatty’s Bulworth is a U.S. senator from California, an old liberal depressed by having to look conservative to get reelected, and weary of fatuous campaigns and TV commercials, of squeezing money out of fat-cat donors and flattering the correct interest groups. In despair, he sells out to an insurance lobbyist for a $10-million policy on his life and arranges to have himself assassinated.
Wary of a bullet any minute, he starts to tell people that money is really all that counts in politics today. Infatuated by a beautiful black activist, Nina (Halle Berry), he has an epiphany about race. He takes on the culture, hip talk and point of view, rapping his speeches, repeating almost verbatim the arguments from Nina and others about why blacks are oppressed in our society.
As Bulworth plunges deeper into South Central Los Angeles and the slum milieu of Nina’s family and associates, the stereotypes multiply.
The basic plot is old: A guy wants to die but finds a reason to live, tries to call off the hit but can’t. The added twist is that the pol who loses his mind and tells the truth (thinking it will ruin him) becomes a hero.
It’s fiercely well-intentioned, scores points against the power of money and is suitably scornful of late 1990’s politics. But if this is revived Capra, it’s short in warmth and humanity, and almost impossible to sit through. But credit Beatty with zapping movie humanoids to a few moments of brain life.
For more movies like BULWORTH (1998) visit Hurawatch.
Also watch: