Bobby

Bobby, written and directed by Emilio Estevez, is a wonderful film that illustrates the need that a country--and it's citizenry--has for effective and inspired leadership, and the despair that can occur when that leadership is denied.

The film takes place almost exclusively within the Ambassador Hotel, during the 12 hours or so before Robert F. Kennedy was shot shortly after making a speech. Although Kennedy himself is a minor character in the film (his face-time on camera is from archival film footage, after all) his presence and the hope his possible election to the presidency has for a country in chaos is as much a character as those portrayed by the cast.

It was 1968, and the US was experiencing turmoil. Each of the individuals portrayed in Bobby are struggling in their own ways with an unpopular war, race relations, poverty, oppression and a government that was becoming less and less "of the people." The characters handle the distress that's occurring in their personal lives in various ways: pretending the distress doesn't exist, making poor choices, through alcohol and drug use, for example.

Where Estevez is most masterful is in how he overlays that distress with the promise that Kennedy offers. And then, how that promise is stripped away when Kennedy is killed.

It may have more to do with my politics than the film itself, but I really enjoyed Bobby. And I believed it, which for me is the true measure of a drama.