MovieChat Forums > Bobby (2006) Discussion > I guess I just didn't get it...

I guess I just didn't get it...

posted 16 years ago by jenniferthebeader
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I was really looking forward to this film, but I was disappointed. While the scenes of RFK's speeches, public apprearences, and the scenes with his campaign staff were powerful and moving, I found most of the movie to float along without direction. For example, what did Demi and Emilio's characters have to do with anything? And Ashton and the kids dropping acid? I found it irrelevant and boring. I know that they were trying to give you a look at what was happening at the Ambassador that day to give you a feeling of what it was like to be there, I thought they did WAY too much of that. I know I am in the minority here, but I thought it should have been a real, in-depth look at Bobby as a person and as a public figure, as well as the events that led to his death. During the film, I was struck by how similar RFK's platform was to Obama's: "a way to honorably withdraw from an unpopular war." As a nation, it is sad we have not moved past that in forty years!

[–] PurpleNiobe 16 years ago

For example, what did Demi and Emilio's characters have to do with anything?

From what I heard, Demi and Emilio represented two famous people who were there performing the day of the assassination…Rosemary Clooney and another gentleman whose name I can’t remember.

Some other people had commented that Demi, Sharon, Joy Bryant, Helen Hunt, Lindsey and Heather Graham’s characters all represented where women found themselves in society and how the change people felt Bobby would bring would help women in America as well. Personally, come of the characters I could’ve done without, but not enough to make me hate the movie.

And Ashton and the kids dropping acid?

This one was obvious to me. The two boys were suppose to be out campaigning for votes, but I believe they became too nervous and chickened out when they found out which area of town they were to be going door to door (not the best of neighborhoods). They instead found their way to Ashton (whose only purpose was to be a drug dealer) and had their first experience with Acid, and spent the day slacking off.

The boys later felt VERY guilty about this and felt they wasted the day not getting RFK the votes that could help him win. This almost sent them into a panic as they were 19 years old, draftable, and therefore still able to end up getting shipped off to Vietnam. And if RFK didn’t become the next president, this is where they felt they were headed.

I know I am in the minority here, but I thought it should have been a real, in-depth look at Bobby as a person and as a public figure, as well as the events that led to his death.

I don’t think you are in the minority…this movie has always been a mixed bag of reviews. People seem to either love it dearly or felt it was boring and pointless. I enjoyed this because of how it was portrayed. I’ve already seen movies and documentaries of RFK and his life and who he was as a person. I enjoyed watching this as a character study. These were normal, every day people who ended up becoming a part of history, even though it was tragic.

When the hurly-burly's done. When the battle's lost and won.

[–] Owlwise 11 years ago

I understand your feelings, but the thing to remember is that this film was never intended to be an in-depth examination of RFK. It's about the symbolic & cultural dreams & burdens he carried & embodied for a generation, and how it felt to lose all of that in a moment of violence. I was 14 when he died, and I can attest to the horrible shock, especially after the murder of MLK just a couple of months previously. And of course I had been a younger child when JFK was murdered, so for an entire nation there was that bloodstained reminder as well. The diverse cast was a microcosm of America; their stories couldn't help but intertwine with that of RFK; and all tbeir lives were torn apart by his death.