| Bob Roberts | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Tim Robbins |
| Written by | Tim Robbins |
| Produced by | Forrest Murray |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Jean Lépine |
| Edited by | Lisa Churgin |
| Music by | David Robbins |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 104 minutes[3] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $3.9 million[4] |
| Box office | $8 million[5] |
Bob Roberts is a 1992 Americansatiricalmockumentary film written, directed by, and starringTim Robbins.[6] It depicts the rise of Robert "Bob" Roberts Jr., aright-wing politician who is a candidate for an upcomingUnited States Senate election. Roberts is well financed, due mainly to past business dealings, and is well known for hisfolk music, which presentsconservative ideas with gusto. Many of the scenes mimic scenes fromDont Look Back.
The film is Robbins' directorial debut and is based on a short segment of the same title, featuring the same character that Robbins portrayed onSaturday Night Live. It markedJack Black's film debut.[7]
Bob Roberts takes place in Pennsylvania in 1990. It depicts a fictitious senatorial race between aconservativeRepublican folk singer, Bob Roberts, and the incumbentDemocrat, Brickley Paiste. The film is shot through the perspective of Terry Manchester, a British documentary filmmaker who is following the Roberts campaign. Through Manchester's lens we see Roberts travel across the state and sing about drug users, lazy people and the triumph of traditional family values andlaissez-faire capitalism over the rebelliousness and social justice causes of the 1960s. Even though the Roberts campaign team officially avoids manifestations of open bigotry, their songs, speech and mannerisms are rife withsnobbishdog whistles and racist and sexist innuendos, and Manchester's footage reveals casual use ofhomophobic slurs.
Complementing Manchester's neutral perspective are reflections by Senator Paiste, TV anchor Kelly Noble and investigative reporter Bugs Raplin, among others. Paiste is convinced that Roberts is a master manipulator linked to theNational Security Council, theCIA and themilitary–industrial complex. Throughout the campaign, Raplin attempts to use the documentary being made about Roberts to expose him to the public as a fraud. Raplin believes that Roberts' anti-drug charity, Broken Dove, is connected to an oldCIA drug trafficking scheme, citing Roberts' campaign chairman Lukas Hart III's past in thePhoenix Program as proof. Shortly after an acerbic and disastrous interview with Roberts, Kelly Noble points out that his potential for success comes from subverting stereotypes by using his music, a tool of protest typical of the left during thecounterculture years, as a vector for postmodernfar-right politics.
As the campaign continues, Paiste remains in the lead until a scandal arises involving him and a young woman who was seen emerging from a car with him. Paiste claims that she was a friend of his granddaughter whom he was driving home, but he cannot shake the accusations. Roberts' campaign suffers a setback as well, when Raplin's accusations briefly gain traction and result in asubpoena on Lukas Hart III for unpaid housing loans rumored to be redirected to drug trafficking.
As the election approaches, Roberts is asked to appear on a network's sketch comedy show. When Roberts announces that he will not be playing the song he had originally proposed, a dispute breaks out between the cast and producers of the show. This new song turns out to be nothing more than a thinly veiled campaign endorsement, and an angry staff member of the network pulls the plug mid-performance. As Roberts is leaving the studio, he is seemingly shot by a would-be assassin. Raplin, who has been causing problems for the campaign, is initially linked to the shooting, but he is later cleared when it is found that due to constrictivepalsy in his right hand he physically could not have fired the gun. Following the incident, Raplin contends that Roberts was never actually shot and that the gun was fired into the ground. Raplin's allegations are not confirmed on camera by Roberts campaign member Delores Perrigrew when she is questioned by Manchester, but she does show clear signs of remorse and abruptly quits the campaign.
The campaign is boosted by public support following the assassination attempt, and Roberts wins the election with 52 percent of the vote. Although Roberts claims that his wounds have left him paralyzed from the waist down, he is seen tapping his feet at a celebration party. While Terry Manchester is interviewing Roberts' supporters outside the new senator's hotel, a boy runs up shouting, "He's dead, he's dead, they got him!" When Manchester asks him what he is talking about, the boy shouts, "Bugs Raplin! He's dead! They got him!" A joyful celebration breaks out among Roberts' supporters, the shot changes to an image of his hotel room, and an upright walking shadow suggesting Roberts' profile passes the window before the lights go out. The film ends with a radio news report about Raplin's death at the hands of aright-wing fanatic and a shot of Manchester standing in theJefferson Memorial, looking at the words, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man", inscribed there.
The film's style is drawn from a number of real and mock documentaries, and its shots are crafted to create this effect, in many cases through the use of hand-held cameras. Not only does Roberts' character draw from 1960s-era iconography ofBob Dylan, it also contains scenes inspired by the 1967 documentary,Dont Look Back, made about the singer, employing a similarcinema verité style.[8][9]Bob Roberts also draws fromRob Reiner's 1984 mockumentaryThis Is Spinal Tap, which Robbins states is one of his favorite films,[10] and directly references this during the scene in which Roberts gets lost in an auditorium attempting to find the stage before his performance. In the case ofGore Vidal's character, the majority of the lines were not scripted, and instead Vidal based his role upon his own political beliefs, and his real-life positions on many of the fictional election topics.[11][12]
A soundtrack album was not released because Robbins did not wish the songs to be heard outside the context of the film.[13]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 93% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. Its consensus reads: "Behind and in front of the camera, Tim Robbins delivers a landslide comedic victory withBob Roberts – a shrewdly crackling lampoon of modern politics."[14] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70% based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.[16]
Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, stating: "I likeBob Roberts – I like its audacity, its freedom to say the obvious things about how our political process has been debased." However, Ebert also stated that the thread about theinvestigative journalism doesn't work, commenting "if [the film] had been only about campaign tactics and techniques, I would have liked it more."[17]
While critics and audiences responded to this film by connecting Roberts’ character to various political figures, such asGeorge H. W. Bush and Pennsylvania Representative and later SenatorRick Santorum, Robbins has said that the film related more to the political system in general than any specific politician. Much of Robbins' commentary addresses the role of the media in election campaigns.[18] Some have critiqued Robbins for his approach towardpolitical satire, stating that his references toReagan Era politics and the rebelliousness of the 1960s are simply too anachronistic in the context of the 1990s,[19][20] but others have praised it for framing political commentary as aHollywood comedy.[21] In 2018, Robbins said: "Bob Roberts came true", referring to PresidentDonald Trump.[22] In July 2024, following anattempted assassination of Trump, a conspiracy theory emerged that it was staged akin to what happens inBob Roberts. Robbins condemned the theory, writing onX: "Those that are denying the assassination attempt was real are truly in a deranged mindset."[23]
The film grossed $4.5 million in the United States and Canada and $8 million worldwide.[5][24]
The film won the Georges Delerue Award for Best Soundtrack/Sound Design atFilm Fest Gent in 1992.