Bulworth

Warren Beatty wears his political heart on his sleeve in this satirical comedy about a disillusioned California Democrat Senator, Jay Billington Bulworth, standing for re-election. The senator has a break-down at the peak of the campaign and blows the whistle on the self-serving lies that pass for party policy.  Capra-like he becomes a folk-hero but there’s only one problem, he’s taken out a contract on his own life and he can’t stop the killer.

Beatty’s film which he directed, starred in and takes a writer's credi for is too busy to have much impact as a satire except in the broadest sense but as a comedy it entertains thanks to the exuberant script and Beatty’s energetic performance (credit should also go to the always-rewarding Oliver Platt as Bulworth's campaign manager) as a man going through an identity crisis and finding himself thrown into the deep-end of contemporary black urban culture typified by L.A’s South Central district.

With its use of gangsta rap and black street jive in such a high quality production (the music is by Ennio Morricone, the cinematography by Vittorio Storaro), Bulworth is quite a bold film although one whose inter-racial politics tend to recall comedies like Trading Places (1983) rather than the more politically-considered films of Spike Lee. This is especially so because of its ending that pairs up the sexagenarian Bulworth with a twenty-something black girl (Hale Berry) seeming more than a little incongruous.

If as satire Bulworth is not much more than a series of pot-shots at the venality of corporatised Amerika and its lackeys in Congress and the media, as a comedy it is often eough quite funny . 

 

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