MovieChat Forums > Bob Roberts (1992) Discussion > American's seem to hate this film....

American's seem to hate this film....


It seems a lot of Americans judging by the user comments really detest having a satire directed at them. Although the film is a spoof it is frighteningly spot on. Robbins really hits the mark with Bob Roberts, i find it very funny, alarming, and brutal in its targets. And those songs! Pure genius! I'm English, probably why i love it so much.

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I think you have a point there. Even if this film is simply a masterpiece in the genre, it doesn't seem to be very appreciated in the United States.

Please everybody, tell us your opinions, because this movie is so full of truth and shows how power can corrupt people, how people can get mad just because they are convinced that they're right. Is'nt that a good point for a movie???

Since I am Canadian, I am making you right LeonardPine, but if there is anyone around here that did like, or not, this movie, I would like to know why.

Let's discuss !!!

Have fun

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Perhaps because the truth hurts. And since Tim Robbins is American, perhaps alot of his fellow countrymen feel he shouldn't be having a go at his own nation. If there's one thing many Americans hate, it's satire directed at themselves.

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If there's one thing many Americans hate, it's satire directed at themselves.

I'd thank you to watch your generalizations there my friend. After all, being English, people in glass houses right?

I personally loved this movie, but I only found out about it recently, about 10 years after it was released. It was released with an R rating, which is odd since there is only one scene with "colorful language" that gave it such a millstone.

Most people in America never saw this movie or have heard of it, that's the real issue. It's only starting to see a second life in DVD release.

Just like a movie like Bulworth was intentionally mismarketed so was Bob Roberts the movie shot in the foot. In and out of theaters in about a week from what I understand.

Speaking as a very proud American, I can guarantee you that George W. Bush and his like do not speak for all of us. Some of us, in fact, are huge fans of satire with societal importance, as I would say this movie most certainly is.

This movie was excellent, we need more like it. Yet Hollywood is a place filled with pimps and degenerates, where good men are shot down and left to die like dogs. To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson.

-C.

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[deleted]

I'd thank you to watch your generalizations there my friend. After all, being English, people in glass houses right?


Are you serious? The biggest, most far-reaching work of political entertainment created in the USA in the last decades was The West Wing, a serious drama about a noble president trying to do the best he can with a team of altruistic do-gooders.

The British, in turn, have given us warped comedies like Yes, Minister; Yes, Prime-Minister, The Thick of It and In The Loop, which is still the best movie satire of the war on terror since 9/11. And it took Brits to do it.

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

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Well, pretty much every nation in Europe (if not every culture in the world) has had satire leveled at it at one time or another. The Brits have taken their share of shots and rolled with the punches...the French, even moreso...the Italians, the Irish, the Germans...need I go on? The idea that Europeans have never been the "victims" of satire is ludicrous and could only be made by someone who simply doesn't think things through before they run off at the mouth. But when Americans see themselves as the butt of the joke, they aren't willing to accept it, let alone take their shots and laugh it off.

So the E.U. have their own unified flag and currency...you're right, they must be just like America...even though many nations in Europe have more progressive laws regarding drugs (and far less drug addiction than the U.S. as a result, I might add), not nearly as many of their own people behind bars (per capita), etc., etc. And while the U.S. Government spends an overwhelming percentage of its taxpayer dollars on war (and the capacity to make war), nations like Holland are using that money for things like free education, free health care, public housing, and various other programs that benefit the people who live there, as opposed to murdering people won't don't live there...which is the best way the U.S. Government can think to spend tax dollars.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Government is attempting to create a U.S.-controlled world empire...not through treaties, but through intimidation and brute force. The U.S. Government (or at least certain powerful forces operating within it) are seeking nothing short of a totalitarian New World Order not unlike Orwell's vision of Oceania in his book 1984...using the media as a weapon to make it impossible for common people to think about matters of global importance, through convenient doctrinal definitions which run counter to the actual meanings of key phrases like "democracy," "free trade," "special interests," etc.

And you people sit on your hands and let your corrupt politicians pull all of you into it. Maybe if you had a little fight in you like Europeans (who still have the balls to hold general strikes and get things done in their countries) I would give a rat's ass for anything you have to say. Pardon the paraphase.

As for the movie, I'm an American who happens to think it's one of the best pieces of satire to be released in the past 25 years. Kudos to Tim Robbins for making a film that is simultaneously informative, entertaining, and biting in its cut-to-the-bone use of irony and wit.

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Sorry, but the Europeans are socialist pussies who keep getting invaded. They don't have any balls, least of all france. Europe has given us socialism, communisim, and naziism the last 100 years. So, no thanks. I would suggest you try again stupid. Eurpoe hasn't done all that much but bend over and take it from some other invader.

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"Sorry, but the Europeans are socialist pussies who keep getting invaded. They don't have any balls, least of all france.

Eurpoe hasn't done all that much but bend over and take it from some other invader."

That's unfair on the French-their military ventures in Indo-China served as a shining example for the US to copy!!

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aHAHHAHAAHAHAAHAHA!

and what is Mare-Ka, if not a bunch of ol You're A Pee-ins runnin around in cowboy hats?

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[deleted]

"Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?" - Kurt Vonnegut

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I'm an american, born and raised, but as a progressive liberal; I feel I am out of place in this country. And the more I learn about western europe, especially UK and France, the better it sounds. Hell, I hate the cold (live in Phoenix, AZ), but might actually expatriate if it gets any worse here. Not joking either, I've had it with the republicans.

Anyways, as far as the film goes, I haven't seen it, but heard it is very similar to Silver City, which I have seen (and own on DVD). Will check it out when I get some money.

L: I'm talking about a little place called Aspen
H: I don't know Lloyd, the french are a ssholes

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'They don't have any balls, least of all france'

I love that statement esp from Americans. If it wasnt for the French, you guys wouldnt be a country. Real pussies they are.

Are you feeling stupid cause I know I am! -Homer

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....and all those invaders were European, you stupid uneducated moron. The average fat ass and grossly obese right wing American would probably crap their pants and die of a massive coronary, at the sight of invaders from somewhere else.

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I'm American and I liked it. I hadn't even heard about it until a couple weeks ago, and I'm hoping it'll have a resurgence. I do agree, though, that you Brits have a better grasp of satire than us Americans. Comparatively, we are pretty easily offended. (And yet lately, it seems we're only offended by all the wrong things). Spot on!

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I think that some Americans must have a good grasp of satire and humour and so on because you make lots of good TV programmes which are highly praised in the UK.

It's just a pity that you have so many ghastly politicians. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are pretty right wing by most standards.

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Re UK two party system.

I agree up to a point. But New Labour is not as right wing as the Democrats. Cannot (quite) see Blair endorsing capital punishment, for one thing, he knows it would provoke a very fierce rebellion indeed. Plus there are other parties (Lib Dem, Scottish Nationalists, Plaid Cymru, Northern Irish parties and George Galloway for Respect) in parliament. And two Green Euro MPs (let us draw a veil over UKIP) representing UK in European parliament. Think that in the US there are only the 2 parties in their parliament.

Anyway, I am sure that there are lots of Americans who liked this film, and more who liked what it was trying to say even if they didn't particularly like the actual film.

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You're probably one of those pompous, Guardian reading Labourite bores too!
Q: What are they doing? Why do they come here?
A: Instinct, memory, what they used to do.

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If jakefree's remark was directed at me, I am 37 years old and have always voted and never, ever voted for the Labour Party.

I'm not boring, but I would rather be dull than rude.

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Unless you are also Leonard Pine, no!

What are they doing? Why do they come here?
Some kind of instinct, memory, what they used to do.

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To jakefree, 6 Sept: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek, I'm not. So I revealed my age for no reason!

Maybe it would be clearer if you made remarks like, "Leonard Pine, I thought that was quite a pompous comment". Maybe it is not fair to dismiss him as pompous. After all, you both seem to like the same film. Perhaps you could have a more interesting debate if you seemed less inclined to judge a whole person by a couple of remarks, which may have been atypical of Leonard as a whole.

I suppose I'm a bit touchy because a couple of people on a separate message board really started being nasty to me without it ever being clear to me why.

I think that it would be nicer to criticise individual remarks rather than entire people. Few people are entirely predicable in their opinions, anyway, imho.


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Ol Originial Poster must be proud of Lapdog Blair.

Anyway, I am a proud Mare-Kan and I love to see my country satirized. Not as much as I love to see Britain sodomized, but nearly. Oh, and if you think I'm serious about Britain, I'm sorry. It's called 'joking' - something satirists do without telling you.

Bob Roberts is funny.

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I think the bigger issue is that most Americans want entertainment that is more escapist in nature. Even many who would agree with the politics would likely be bored by this film. I like it personally, but I am not surprised that more people don't.

http://scarypersonals.com

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so true

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The mistake made throughout this thread is to lump 300 million people into one opinion, simply because of geography.

Americans who don't know their history might be offended at a movie which isn't even scathing, as satire goes. The fact that the targeted party could get muddled shows how generally the barb is directed at politics and the campaign process. Americans who are insecure about their reasons for backing a certain candidate might be offended at seeing the zealotry which too richly foreshadowed our latest presidential campaign.

I laughed throughout this film when I first saw it about 15 years go. I watched it again recently and I still marvel at some of the subtle insults - the way Bob would rather wander lost in the building than to just stop and respond to a question.

A story like this should make one question what they see in the "real" media. I'm afraid that some people aren't confident enough in the system or in their personal beliefs to question anything.

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Only the stupid Americans hate this film. I love it.


"...And far away in his cage, the monkey smiled with his all-seeing eyes."

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I love this movie, and I live in Belgium - the laughingstock of pretty much every country in the world, with practically no satire culture of its own. I think that the appreciation of self-deprecating humour (or other forms of satire) is more likely a character-defined than a nation-bound feature.

-What is your nationality?
-I'm a drunkard.
-That makes Rick a citizen of the world.
Casablanca

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