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No bull here >> Warren Beatty's Bulworth is a hilarious stab at American politics by MATTHEW HAYS
Beatty plays Senator Jay Bulworth, who is caught up in the throes of a bid for re-election while suffering from a nervous breakdown. In the midst of a bout of depression, he hires a hit man to have himself offed. Now that he knows he's going to die, the good senator does what he's never done before: he begins, unapologetically, to tell the truth. Potentially offending key Democratic Party demographic groups, Bulworth tells both blacks and Jews exactly what's on his mind. His handlers look on in horror until Bulworth takes the country by storm, shooting to the top of virtually every opinion poll, a nation responding in desperation to this solitary point of candour. Though decidedly left-leaning political films have been deemed out of vogue, Beatty has a long history with the Democratic Party (serving as advisor to RFK, George McGovern and Gary Hart) and his political roots are crystal clear here. Beatty is soon donning hip hop attire and rapping about the indignities suffered by the nation's marginalized. Not only has he managed to astutely mock the American political spectrum (his point: there isn't one), he has also managed--better than Woody Allen did with Everyone Says I Love You--to make a successful musical, too. Much of Bulworth's message may have been said before (i.e. that blacks are left out of the political system and are ignored by both parties), but somehow it seems refreshing just because it's so rare to hear these days. Just when everyone had given up on the left and decided rampant capitalism is the only way to go, Beatty cries foul. While the film's politics can be dismissed as being essentially too vulgar or simplistic, it remains a relief to see them at the very least being tackled. Bulworth is sheer liberal baby-boomer wish-fulfilment fantasy: ignore the polls and speak the truth, Beatty is saying, and the people will follow. The problem with this theory is, most people don't want to hear the truth. Remember Michael Dukakis and Kim Campbell, acknowledging that tax hikes and poor long-term unemployment stats were probably a reality, respectively? No one wanted to hear it. Sadly, the truth doesn't generally pay in politics. But that's a minor point in an otherwise brilliant contemporary political satire. Beatty probably deserves an Oscar nod for his performance in this film; he's resoundingly unselfconscious in a role many other heartthrobs might have had trouble filling. And one other, small moment, but one I feel terrifically significant: Beatty slips in a line to love interest Halle Berry towards the end of the film: "I'm too old for you," he says. It may seem small, but consider that we've never heard those words from the likes of Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Richard Dreyfuss, Jack Nicholson and (in particular) Woody Allen, who seem to spend all their films bedding women half their ages while never acknowledging the age gap. Finally, Beatty has done this. Let's hope it's a beginning to the end of Hollywood's cruel, sexist double standard, which says men are virile Energizer bunnies while women are all but finished by 38. Bulworth opens this Friday, May 22
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It would seem a risky thing to put your money on Warren Beatty to make a breakthrough film about the American political system. His track record is far from stable; his CV includes such sublime films as Bonnie and Clyde, Shampoo, The Parallax View and Reds, but also lists such less-than-marvellous entries as Ishtar and Dick Tracy. But here it is: Bulworth is the best of the recent crop of political films, a sharp, incredibly funny and wicked take on the hypocrisy of a political candidate laid bare.