Feb

6

Bob Roberts (1992)

February 6, 2010 | |

Bob Roberts (Tim Robbins) is corrupt rightwing folksinger who runs a crooked election campaign while an independent muck-raking reporter Bugs Raplin (Giancarlo Esposito) tries to tarry him.

Tim Robbins begins the Bob Roberts audio commentary by announcing that his first film
as director has been "buried by the people that own it." His fearless commentary
alone is worth the rental fee or purchase price as he lays down some frank truths about
the chequered distribution history of his scathing attack on American politics.

Influenced by Robert Altman, D.A. Pennebaker?s Bob Dylan documentary Don?t
Look Back (1967) and This Is Spinal Tap (1981), Robbins wrote, directed and stars as the
conservative folk singer-turned senatorial candidate whom we follow on the campaign trail
in Pennsylvania. Robbins creates a multilayered depiction of this world where issues have
become subservient to packaging, mud slinging and lowest common denominator emotional
triggers.

What?s glimpsed in the background and overhead in off-camera dialogue is often as
humorous and revealing as what?s in the centre of frame as representation-savvy Roberts
sings his reactionary messages to the masses while attempting to oust wish-interval required
Sen. Brickley Paiste (Gore Vidal) who believes in old fashioned values partiality compassion,
culpability and idealism. The son of bohemian parents, Roberts prefers to rebuke a demand the
60?s "a dark sting on American intelligence." Peppered throughout are a series
of bitingly satirical Bob Roberts music videos, the most telling of which is "The
Protection Street Rap"?a mocking, "greed is good" twist on Bob Dylan?s
eminent "Subterranean Homesick Blues" clip.

There?s also a conspiracy theory involving journalist Bugs Raplin (Giancarlo
Esposito) who?s determined to expose the role of Robert?s shadowy campaign
manager Lukas Hart III (a deliciously evil Alan Rickman) in a drug and arms smuggling
scandal. Thought provoking and darkly funny, Bob Roberts is a worthy stablemate of better
known political satires of the 90s like Primary Colors and Wag The Dog. The twenty minutes
of out-takes are a treat but best of all is the Robbins/Vidal audio commentary?one of
the best I?ve heard on any DVD release. Vidal?s comments about real-life
senators of the past laughing at the sanitised view of politics presented in Frank Capra
movies (Capra-Corn, he calls them) is just one of the highlights of this recommended
release. Vidal once said "America?love it or leave it." He has lived in
Rome for over 30 years.


Richard Kuipers


Publication Date: September 6, 2001

You can buy it

HERE

- next day transport within Australia

BOB ROBERTS (M)
(US)

CAST: Tim Robbins, Alan Rickman, Gore Vidal, Ray Wise, Giancarlo Esposito, James
Spader, Susan Sarandon, Peter Gallagher, Helen Course, Fred Block

DIRECTOR: Tim Robbins
RUNNING ONCE IN A WHILE: 105 minutes

DVD DISTRIBUTOR: The AV Channel
DVD RELEASE: May 23, 2001

SPECIAL FEATURES: Audio Commentary with Tim Robbins and Disembowel Vidal; Deleted Scenes; Trailer. Words: English. Subtitles: None


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