Common Sense Note
Parents should know that this movie is all about satirizing and subverting the American political process, a complicated topic that most kids probably won't get. Also, Jay and Constance Bulworth are in a loveless marriage. Constance is having an affair that's made explicit by the fact that she's shown lying in bed naked (nothing provocative is shown) with her lover. Jay flirts with Nina and tells the audience that he can get lots of p---y because of his powerful role in the Senate. Jay swears a lot, talks about being suicidal, drinks, smokes pot, and plans to have himself killed. His staffers snort cocaine. Children are shown with guns and as drug dealers.
Families can talk about whether they agree with Bulworth's statements and whether they think the film is effective. What do you think of the film as a political satire? Did you learn anything new from watching it, or does it reaffirm what you already believe? What do you think would happen in real life if a politican behaved the way Jay Bulworth does?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Heather Boerner
Before we had John McCain's 2000 "Straight-Talk Express" we had BULWORTH, a political satire as subtle as a hit man and as outlandish as a drag queen.
Warren Beatty co-wrote, directs, and stars in this cracked political fairy tale. He's the eponymous Bulworth, an incumbent California senator running to keep his seat in Congress. An old-school 1960s liberal, Bulworth has tacked to the right on everything from affirmative action to health insurance for the poor in order to get and keep high-powered conservative campaign contributors.
What we see of Bulworth in the beginning of the film is an image of a Democratic Party with no soul. So Bulworth, running on three days of no sleep or food and in the midst of a nervous breakdown, goes out and gets some soul -- black soul. Alternately rapping, swearing, and hitting on young Nina (Halle Berry), Bulworth lays out the facts of his political life.
"I've got to raise $10,000 a day every day I'm in Washington. I ain't gettin' it in South Central," he says in strained ghetto cadence. "I'm gettin' it in Beverly Hills. So I'm votin' in the Senate the way they want me to and I'm sendin' them my bills. But we've got babies in South Central dying as young as they do in Peru. We've got public schools that are nightmares. We've got a Congress that ain't got a clue!"
What's fun about Bulworth is Beatty's commitment to the part and the ideology. He's willing to be the clown and plays it well. And there's certainly something thrilling about seeing him babble at the prospect of kissing Berry. But for all of the film's entertainment and supposed truth-telling, there's something profoundly irritating about a satire that's so smug in its omniscience and so toothless in its bite.
If you like Bulworth, consider other political satires, including Wag the Dog, Primary Colors, and Bob Roberts -- or even Good Night, and Good Luck, a historical drama by another famous Hollywood liberal.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentBulworth's wife is shown in bed with her lover in a non-explicit love scene. |
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ViolenceBulworth plans to have himself killed. Child drug dealers carry guns. Bulworth is shot. |
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LanguageExtreme profanity, including almost every expletive you can think of. |
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Social BehaviorA political satire, the movie attempts to show Bulworth making good on his political convictions and exposing political hypocrisy. At the same time the film includes some extreme stereotypes of urban culture. |
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CommercialismKFC is mentioned by Bulworth and then you see him in his limo getting a bucket of chicken. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoBulworth drinks and drives and smokes pot, and his advisers snort cocaine. |
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