Movie Reviews

There's a really interesting concept behind Bulworth, and Warren Beaty's acting as the title character makes this a very good movie.

Senator Jay Billington Bulworth begins the film in the midst of a nervous breakdown, unbeknownst to his family and coworkers. He buys a $10-million life insurance policy, then hires a hit-man to kill him the next day. Prior to the hit, Bulworth continues on to one of his regularly-scheduled speeches, namely, at an all-black church in South Central L.A. His breakdown begins to take a public form here, when instead of telling the audience what they want to hear, he instead launches into a politically-incorrect, brutally honest speech about politicians' views on urban ghettos. He does, however, befriend three young black women (one of them played by Halle Berry), whom he decides to bring along in his limousine on the day's campaigning. Later in the day, they visit an all-black nightclub, and Bulworth begins to almost 'transform' into a black guy, making some of his public speeches entirely in rap.

It sounds a little goofy, and at times it is. But Warren Beatty (who also wrote and directed) does a great job of playing the character as straight as possible. He never appears to be hamming it up, trying to play a rapping black dude; instead, it really seems as though his mental condition has lead him to believe that he really is a black guy, and so it never seems over-the-top. The majority of the film, then, involves Bulworth getting to know a number of people from a poor South Central neighbourhood, all the while being pursued by the hitman he hired at the beginning of the film.

As a film about an American senator, Bulworth thankfully doesn't get too overly patriotic (indeed, the film might be seen as rather anti-American, considering the stance that it takes on status-quo politics in America). This is a really good movie, with some good messages, and some very funny moments.