Warren Beatty's Bulworth is the Network (1976) of the 90s. It's an unapologetically political film about a prominent man who gets so fed up with the state of American society that he cracks and decides to rebel. But whereas Network followed a news anchor, Bulworth follows a Democratic Senator named Jay Billington Bulworth. Disgusted with how he has had to abandon his socialist beliefs in the name of re-election, Bulworth hires a hitman to kill him after taking out a gigantic life insurance policy for $10 million. With the hit scheduled to take place within two days, Bulworth engages in the most dangerous form of catharsis known to politicians: he tells the truth. He insults his wealthy donors, concedes to a black rally that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans actually care about them, and he undertakes a journey of self-discovery in a black ghetto. Unfortunately, his devil-may-care honesty makes him extraordinarily popular. And for the first time in years, Bulworth begins to believe that he might actually be able to make a difference. Now if only he can call off the hit...Bulworth is an outstandingly audacious film. Beatty gives one of the most powerful performances of his career as the beleaguered Bulworth and his transformation from shell-shocked politician to modern day prophet is outstanding. Some may find his adoption of black fashion, behavior, and speech to be condescending and even patronizing. But I saw it as the expression of a man who has become so disillusioned with his white, upper class persona that he could only hang on to his sanity by adopting another: the cultural paradigm of the people he should have been fighting for and helping for so many years. Some might say that Bulworth went insane. I say that his final moments saw him recover the sanity that he had lost so long ago.
9/10
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