Bobby

Another rare trip to the cinema last night (we had free Odeon tickets from the Evening Standard for Thursday so my eldest son and I went to see what we could). We watched Bobby (a 15 so some few scenes I'd have preferred on the cutting room floor). 'Bobby' is Robert Kennedy who ran for president but was shot in the Ambassador Hotel, June 6, 1968. The film follows the (fictionalised) lives of several characters who were there in the time leading up to the death that day, intercutting with archive footage and climaxing with the assassination.

We enjoyed the film. I watched on two levels. First, as a moving film about hope and disappointment it was very moving. (Just once or twice it was over-sentimental but most of it just right). I also enjoyed the era setting which, though a little clumsy at times, was interesting to me as one old enough to remember 1968 (I was 9). On another level it was a straight piece of liberal/Democrat propaganda and probably bears little relation to reality (that's a political opinion I guess). Producer Emilio Estevez son of Martin Sheen (both in it) are known Democrats. I'm also familiar with the real Kennedy story which, of course, is rather murky. But however you slice it, when a man who has given people hope is shot down in cold blood simply because he is running for office something has gone badly wrong and to be unmoved by it is to evidence a heart of stone.

Here's a good link