In 1992 maverick director Robert Altman made one of the most astonishing comebacks in movie history. He never really went away, but the films he made in the previous decade paled in comparisons with his classics from the New Hollywood heyday of the seventies.
The Player was the Robert Altman movie we were pining to see. It's a suave, ironic expose of Hollywood and its movers and shakers. The film helped set the tone for the independent wave of the nineties and put Altman back where he belonged: At the forefront of American cinema.
Tim Robbins played an oily yet charismatic studio executive who has disdain for screenwriters and who would stop at nothing to keep his place in the pecking order. The Player has a large cast of characters, with a whole lot of cameos and bigger roles from a galaxy of famous movie stars.
I'm not sure of the details of the gestation of Bob Roberts, but it was written and directed by Tim Robbins, with some of the same cast-members of The Player. In this one Robbins plays a folksinger/right wing politician.
Bob Roberts is a broad political satire, made in the mockumentary style of This is Spinal Tap. The pseudo documentary follows Roberts on a tour through Pennsylvania.
Bob Roberts, the character, expounds his conservative agenda with smiles and homespun charm. He's not an authoritative father-figure like Nixon, Reagan, or Bush, hated by the young generation. No, Bob Roberts is a radical conservative, preaching a better life by virtue of American values such as wealth, greed, and that old time religion. H's good-looking, pleasant, and charming.
I am loath to give too many details in my reviews, but I feel it necessary here. Bob Roberts is shot while on the campaign trail. His political enemies are blamed and he only becomes more powerful because of it.
It's strongly hinted that the assassination attempt was not only planned, but faked.
The parallels between Bob Roberts and Charlie Kirk are inescapable. Both are handsome youngish men, appealing to the youth with promises of fortune and Heaven above. Consider this newscast quote from the movie:
After the attack on Bob's life, the media outcry is unprecedented. His face echoes across the American landscape, on the covers of magazines, in newspapers, and on television news broadcasts. Roberts is proclaimed an American hero, a martyr of the new right.
When I heard of the Charlie Kirk assassination, my first thought was that it may have been staged in order to make him a martyr. I don't really believe that, but who knows what to believe anymore? In this age of AI we can't trust video. As far as I'm concerned we've never really been able to trust the media.
As always, our artists, our creators, predict things to come. Not with precise accurate detail, but definitely in the ballpark. Bob Roberts is amazingly prescient.
Tim Robbins is magnetic in Bob Roberts. He's so good you almost, almost, like his character. I had an old friend who turned to the far right. The satire in Bob Roberts completely escaped him. He loved the movie and for him it was an honest look at a good politician. Confirmation bias is a powerful thing and few of us are immune to it.
Giancarlo Esposito is phenomenal as a radical journalist who is dedicated to the downfall of Bob Roberts. The reporter has evidence of corruption from the Roberts administration, but it is ignored and dismissed by nearly everyone. He is ultimately framed for the assassination. Esposito's range is astonishing as he goes from firebrand activist to terrified victim.
As with The Player there are a lot of famous faces in Bob Roberts. Susan Sarrandon, Gore Vidal, Ray Wise, Peter Gallaghar, John Cusack, Pamela Reed, James Spader, Fred Ward, Alan Rickman, Tom Adkins, Helen Hunt, David Strathairn, Fisher Stevens, and Bob Balaban all have good parts. Bob Roberts also marks the feature film debut of Jack Black. Black plays a frightening zealot Roberts follower. I'd have never guessed he would become a comedy legend.
Bob Roberts is funny, it's entertaining, and it's also terrifying.
Now we live in world of paranoia that could have been dreamed up by Philip K. Dick. Anything we see could be an illusion. They really are watching us and recording all our information and data. Any one of us could be the next victim of the industrial-political regime.
Written by Mark Sieber
The Player was the Robert Altman movie we were pining to see. It's a suave, ironic expose of Hollywood and its movers and shakers. The film helped set the tone for the independent wave of the nineties and put Altman back where he belonged: At the forefront of American cinema.
Tim Robbins played an oily yet charismatic studio executive who has disdain for screenwriters and who would stop at nothing to keep his place in the pecking order. The Player has a large cast of characters, with a whole lot of cameos and bigger roles from a galaxy of famous movie stars.
I'm not sure of the details of the gestation of Bob Roberts, but it was written and directed by Tim Robbins, with some of the same cast-members of The Player. In this one Robbins plays a folksinger/right wing politician.Bob Roberts is a broad political satire, made in the mockumentary style of This is Spinal Tap. The pseudo documentary follows Roberts on a tour through Pennsylvania.
Bob Roberts, the character, expounds his conservative agenda with smiles and homespun charm. He's not an authoritative father-figure like Nixon, Reagan, or Bush, hated by the young generation. No, Bob Roberts is a radical conservative, preaching a better life by virtue of American values such as wealth, greed, and that old time religion. H's good-looking, pleasant, and charming.
I am loath to give too many details in my reviews, but I feel it necessary here. Bob Roberts is shot while on the campaign trail. His political enemies are blamed and he only becomes more powerful because of it.
It's strongly hinted that the assassination attempt was not only planned, but faked.
The parallels between Bob Roberts and Charlie Kirk are inescapable. Both are handsome youngish men, appealing to the youth with promises of fortune and Heaven above. Consider this newscast quote from the movie:
After the attack on Bob's life, the media outcry is unprecedented. His face echoes across the American landscape, on the covers of magazines, in newspapers, and on television news broadcasts. Roberts is proclaimed an American hero, a martyr of the new right.
When I heard of the Charlie Kirk assassination, my first thought was that it may have been staged in order to make him a martyr. I don't really believe that, but who knows what to believe anymore? In this age of AI we can't trust video. As far as I'm concerned we've never really been able to trust the media.
As always, our artists, our creators, predict things to come. Not with precise accurate detail, but definitely in the ballpark. Bob Roberts is amazingly prescient.
Tim Robbins is magnetic in Bob Roberts. He's so good you almost, almost, like his character. I had an old friend who turned to the far right. The satire in Bob Roberts completely escaped him. He loved the movie and for him it was an honest look at a good politician. Confirmation bias is a powerful thing and few of us are immune to it.
Giancarlo Esposito is phenomenal as a radical journalist who is dedicated to the downfall of Bob Roberts. The reporter has evidence of corruption from the Roberts administration, but it is ignored and dismissed by nearly everyone. He is ultimately framed for the assassination. Esposito's range is astonishing as he goes from firebrand activist to terrified victim.
As with The Player there are a lot of famous faces in Bob Roberts. Susan Sarrandon, Gore Vidal, Ray Wise, Peter Gallaghar, John Cusack, Pamela Reed, James Spader, Fred Ward, Alan Rickman, Tom Adkins, Helen Hunt, David Strathairn, Fisher Stevens, and Bob Balaban all have good parts. Bob Roberts also marks the feature film debut of Jack Black. Black plays a frightening zealot Roberts follower. I'd have never guessed he would become a comedy legend.
Bob Roberts is funny, it's entertaining, and it's also terrifying.
Now we live in world of paranoia that could have been dreamed up by Philip K. Dick. Anything we see could be an illusion. They really are watching us and recording all our information and data. Any one of us could be the next victim of the industrial-political regime.
Written by Mark Sieber
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