Description: Believing his career is over, Senator Jay Bulworth (Beatty) takes out an enormous insurance policy - and a contract on his own life. but his impending death fills him with an outrageous desire to break the rules and tell it like it is.
Amazon.com essential video: Jay Bulworth is your typical senator going through a nervous breakdown. The empty speeches, lies, money, and pressure have led him to plan his own assassination on a weekend trip home to California just before the election. However, a cord snaps in him and like Jim Carrey's rambling lawyer in Liar, Liar, Bulworth can only tell the truth. This new freedom turns Bulworth on and he spews the ugly truth about politics: he tells mass media they are as corrupt as insurance companies; lambastes a black church for not having leaders; and riles the Jewish power elite of Hollywood. He enters South Central running away from advisors (including a bemused Oliver Platt) and mixing it up with a potential new girlfriend (Halle Berry) and a local boss (Don Cheadle). He offends across the board, even developing an inherent knack to rap his speeches. And the public loves it. The weekend becomes a clarifying point for Bulworth: he finds a reason to live.
Beatty's rude and relevant comedy is a one-joke movie, but the joke is pretty good. It's a courageous film that is always sharp even though it loses narrative focus. Beatty's hilarious raps are so inspired they deserve repeated viewings. As usual, Beatty surrounds himself with a great crew, Ennio Morricone's music and Vittorio Storaro's cinematography being especially noteworthy. Beatty and Storaro even have the audacity to imitate two very famous photographs in the film's final seconds. The script by Beatty and Jeremy Pikser won the L.A. Film Critics award and was nominated for an Oscar. --Doug Thomas
Bulworth - worth the price now even more than then So, ever heard of someone who gets in trouble for saying the unpopular thing? What would happen if a politician told part of the truth many people did not want to hear? Outrageous satire of what may or may not be true in politics (you decide), but it's more true in 2008 than in the year this film was made!
gutter language = gutter movie
I rented this when it was new. Liked it very much except for the language. It's about as bad as it gets. I've heard and used it all but the constant use of the 'MF' word ruined it. Liked it so well I would have bought it if the language wasn't so stupid.
Warren Baetty = prick Yes back in 2000 I rented this garbage it wasted an hour and half and 18 minutes of my life the only decent film was Dick Tracey anyway a very talentless prick.
A flawed gem Warren Beatty's Bulworth is an ambitious, slightly muddled satire that bears the earmarks of a labor of love. Beatty co-wrote, directed, co-scored, produced, and starred in this 1998 Twentieth-Century Fox film about a disillusioned, Democratic California senator who puts out a hit on his own life. The film features a fine ensemble cast, with many of Beatty's Hollywood acquaintances filling the ranks. Familiar faces like those of Jack Warden and Josef Sommers make up some of Bulworth's friends, while Oliver Platt provides some comic relief as Bulworth's piggish chief of staff. More stars make appearances throughout the movie.
One of the movie's faults is its poor editing. The audio is terrible--some of the dialog is inaudible--and much of the film is very dark. I believe some of the quick edits and scene jumps were intentional, but it is actually difficult to see what is going on some of the time, let alone keep up with the frenetic plot. Because of the difficulty I myself had in following the movie the first time I saw it, I have summarized its basic driving events here.
As our story opens, we find Bulworth sitting alone in his office, at night, watching videos of his campaign's television advertisements over and over. He weeps and sobs during the opening credits, and in the morning, the office comes alive. Oliver Platt bursts in, beginning his stream-of-consciousness chatter that continues almost ceaselessly throughout the film. Bulworth is being inspected by his doctor, who questions him about his eating and sleeping habits. Bulworth stares at the television, practically catatonic, flipping channels. A deal sealed later in the morning reveals that Bulworth is taking out an enormous life insurance policy, and plotting his own death.
Bulworth boards a plane to Los Angeles and gets very drunk. When he arrives at the airport, he begins to become afraid. Second thoughts about his impending death crowd into his head, and he ducks and covers at every loud noise.
Bulworth's campaign managers take him to a church in south central L.A., where he faces a huge crowd of loud, stirred up black people. The senator decides to let it all hang out now that his future is sealed. He frankly and without bias states the nature of politics, and of the Democratic party's neglect of the southern California black communities in their times of need. The people in the church shout so angrily, and Bulworth says such outrageous things, that Platt's character, Dennis Murphy, pulls a fire alarm in order to escape the building. While sitting in the car before pulling away, Bulworth is accosted by two twenty-something girls from the church, who ask for jobs on his campaign. In the crowd, Bulworth spots Nina, portrayed to devastating effect by Halle Berry, and he is smitten. Nina and the two other girls enter the limo and accompany Bulworth to his next stop.
Bulworth, exhilarated by his confessions and by the presence of Nina, suddenly regains his appetite, which he had lost for several days. Munching from a bucket of fried chicken, he arrives at the home of a rich campaign contributor and proceeds to wolf down the delicate hors d'oeuvres while laying bare the true motivations of everyone in sight.
This time, Murphy and the rest of the white staff--including the cameraman (Sean Astin) of a CNN news team that is following the senator "on the campaign trail" for 24 hours--end up in Bulworth's limousine with all of the black women. They proceed to a nightclub called Frankie's, in Compton, where all sorts of interesting things happen. Bulworth dances wildly with Nina and others until the early morning. He is coming alive again, energized by the new crowd he has found, feeling his manhood reawaken, and practicing his new favorite form of expression: rapping--well, sort of.
In the morning, Nina skips out of the club early, and the others proceed to a large hotel, where a giant campaign breakfast is being held for Bulworth. He strides in late, his shirt stained with food, misses his cue, and blows off his speech. Spotting Nina in the crowd, he starts rapping again, accompanied by a handy small tape player carried by one of the other black girls from the church. Bulworth spills his guts on all the bigwigs in the room, and they look daggers at him. It's not long before all hell breaks loose, but Nina pulls Bulworth aside and asks him to take her up to his hotel room. The campaign staff prevents this, and Bulworth and Nina end up back in the limousine.
With the prospect of sex with Nina ahead of him, Bulworth's one idea is to cancel the hit on his life. He now wants to live, but he cannot make contact with the man who arranged the killing. He drives the limo away with Nina in the back, and they hide in a friend's garage. Bulworth and Nina sit close and have an intimate conversation--one that reawakens yet another part of Bulworth. Nina is bright and cynical, as well as possessed of mesmerizing beauty.
The couple is interrupted by Bulworth's friend Davers, who promises to call the appropriate person to cancel the "weekend research project," as he and Bulworth call the murder. Assured of his safety, Bulworth jubilantly drives away with Nina.
Bulworth's new personality is now off and running, and Beatty is so gloriously affable that it works. Following Nina about like a puppy, he perfectly portrays a man suffering a mental breakdown of some kind, who chooses to follow his heart and not bother about what goes on in his head. In a way, Bulworth has already died, and has now been reborn with a new interest in life. Nina is his angel, and he clings to her desperately.
In his travels through Nina's neighborhood, Bulworth encounters a drug dealer with a small army at his command, brilliantly played by Don Cheadle. Really, Cheadle steals his scenes, and one might wish there had been a bit more of his character in the movie, instead of the goofy campaign and CNN staff. In any case, Cheadle is the next torchbearer for what Bulworth is preaching (though neither he nor Bulworth realize it then) and he burns with appropriate intensity.
Bulworth next finds himself being interviewed on national television--the tension between him and the host is delicious--and he regurgitates much of what Cheadle said to him, but is cut off by a real attempt on his life. Fear takes him again.
Much of Berry's dialog sounds like it has been dubbed, and not too well. Her meek little voice still ends up being swallowed by the pounding cacophony of the rest of the soundtrack. The audio on this film needs to be re-edited--it was poor in the theater and is no better on the current DVD release.
Nina takes Bulworth to her home again and puts him to bed in a small shed in the garden. Before he can sleep, he tells her about the hit on his own life, and Nina reveals that it was she who was hired to kill him. She needs the money to get her brother out of debt to Cheadle's hustler character.
Bulworth sleeps for nearly three days, and in the meantime the news tells Nina's family that Bulworth has won the primary race, and is being touted for president. Before long, his whereabouts leak to the press, and television crews surround the house. Before long, Bulworth appears, immaculate in his newly cleaned suit. He prepares to depart, and asks Nina if she is coming. She hesitates, but joins him in the end. They share a kiss, and Nina gets into his limousine. Before he can join her, Bulworth is shot from above, and collapses. Cheadle and his men immediately cover the scene, protecting Nina.
The film closes with the words of an old man in rags, shuffling along the street and crying, "Don't be a ghost! Be a spirit!"
In the film, Bulworth gives up on his own life, signing its worth over to his daughter, and begins to purge his soul on the subject of political funding and the priorities of senators. He is brought out of wallowing in his own filth by Nina, who bewitches him. Motivated by Nina, his own newfound power of truthtelling, and exposure to the problems of some of the inner city blacks in Los Angeles, Bulworth is reborn. His death at the end of the film shows what really runs the world, and especially the politics of the United States: money. His new ideas and the spirit with which he injects his supporters are insignificant compared with a threat to big business. However, he began the film as a man sick of the world and of his own role in it, and by the end of the movie he has been reborn, and is killed at the moment that he gets what has driven him on his strange journey: Nina's affection. He dies a perfect being, clean of sin, and being all that he could have been. We should all die so well.
This film is imperfect, but I love it for what Warren Beatty tried to do. He largely succeeds--the real holes that I found are Halle Berry (model, yes; actress, no), the audio editing, and a little too much of the silly campaign and CNN crews, whose acts wear thin quickly.
standing on the doorstep of a new millennium What's a Bulworth? Warren Beatty stars in and directed this movie that had all the earmarks of being a tremendous boondoggle. A pork barrel project if ever there was one. The premise is that a Senator hires a hit man to kill himself so his family can collect on the insurance. He has made some bad investments on pork belly futures, and you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Knowing that he is going to die soon, he feels free enough to do something no politician has ever done before: he starts telling the truth. Next thing you know he's fallen for Nina (Halle Berry) and has become the most ridiculous white rapper since Vanilla Ice.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster? But wait, it is a great movie! Spike Lee WISHES he could've made Bulworth. It is so good that by the time it gets to Warren's Adrian Brody moment, you are actually rooting him on. Nina, played by Halle Berry, is his muse, his inspiration, the object of his desire, and his assassin, all rolled into one. She is smokin' hot, yet never has to even take off her top. She's like a kosher ham sandwich. I don't know how she does it!
--------------------------------------- Nina: ...Yo. Bullworth: Yo. Yo, yo, yo to you. Nina: Later. Bullworth: I was, uh, hoping for sooner. ---------------------------------------
Christine Baranski is Constance Bulworth, the wife. William Baldwin is Constance Bulworth's Lover (uncredited). Oliver Platt is Dennis Murphy, Bulworth's campaign manager. He has his hands and nose full trying to keep the Senator in line and himself in lines. Larry King is Himself. Though it is quite a stretch, he actually does OK. Same for George Hamilton and John McLaughlin. Don Cheadle is notable as L.D., a drug dealer. Isaiah Washington is Darnell, Nina's Brother. You might not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago, for playing that doctor on Grey's Anatomy who went with Sandra Oh. Jack Warden, who passed away on July 19th, 2006, played Eddie Davers, a spear carrier for the Senator. I remember him from Shampoo, another Warren Beatty vehicle that was also political, in its own little conditioner, rinse, and repeat way, from the pre-bicenntennial year of 1975. Mimi, a television technician who monitors the footage of the Senator's meltdown, is played by Laurie Metcalf. If you wonder where it is you've seen her, perhaps it was on Roseanne, where she was the sister.
--------------------------------------- [after watching Bulworth lose it on TV] Mimi: Now - would we be eligible for an Emmy, or a Peabody? ---------------------------------------
I don't know Mimi. Ask Bill O'Reilly.
Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth gets away with saying the most outrageous things. He is also like a kosher ham sandwich. I don't know how he does it! I was extremely dubious when I heard the concept and saw a clip of Beatty as Bulworth in his rapper duds. How can this movie NOT suck? Plan 9 From Outer Space move over! Ishtar II, The sequel. But my fears proved to be unfounded. Warren Beatty has really created a classic character, and crafted quite a movie. Senator Jay Billington Bulworth, you have my vote.
--------------------------------------- [Repeated line] Bullworth: You know, we're standing on the doorstep of a new millennium. ---------------------------------------
Career Highlights of Warren Beatty:
Bulworth (1998) .... Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth Bugsy (1991) .... Ben 'Bugsy' Siegel Dick Tracy (1990) .... Dick Tracy Ishtar (1987) .... Lyle Rogers Reds (Special 25th Aniversary Edition) (1981) .... John Reed Shampoo (1975) .... George Roundy Bonnie and Clyde (1967) .... Clyde Barrow Music From The Sound Track Of 'Mickey One' Played By Stan Getz Composed By Eddie Sauter (1965) .... Warren Beatty was Mickey One, title character of this Kafkaesque thriller {Don't know if it's available on DVD, but the soundtrack by Eddie Sauter and Stan Getz is, and it's gorgeous}. Splendor in the Grass (1961) .... Bud Stamper "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" .... Milton Armitage (6 episodes, 1959-1960) - The Fist Fighter (1960) TV episode .... Milton Armitage - The Smoke-Filled Room (1960) TV episode .... Milton Armitage - Dobie Gillis, Boy Actor (1959) TV episode .... Milton Armitage - The Sweet Singer of Central High (1959) TV episode .... Milton Armitage - The Right Triangle (1959) TV episode .... Milton Armitage (1 more)
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