Expecting to be met with a satiric, lighthearted romp of absurd, hyperbolic proportions, I was instead met with a scathing indictment of the American political landscape, a distressing depiction of partisanship deception, an uncannily accurate foreshadowing of contemporary neo-conservativism, and, most importantly, a sobering reminder of the vigilance required to remain an informed, unbiased, and rational agent. In short, Bob Roberts is the tonic that I didn’t think that I wanted, but absolutely needed.
Driving the picture is a senatorial race between the titular Bob Roberts, a young, charismatic, and conservative country singer, and the diametrically opposed incumbent Senator Brickley Paiste, an older, unalluring progressive policymaker. Paiste is shown as old, slow, and less engaging than his contemporary competition, Bob Roberts, as his more wholesome and rational ideas are eschewed in favor of Bob Roberts’ more incendiary, regressive, and emotive songs. As Bob Roberts’ senatorial race lead increases, so do his stocks in different corporations, both national and international. Quick scenes inside Bob Robert’s campaign bus reveal an entourage of businessmen, trading stocks and bonds over phones and computers, exposing the unscrupulous ethics of his bout.
Bob Roberts, written, directed, and starring Tim Robbins, becomes less of the billed mockumentary that made the SNL skit-turned-movie initially famous, and more of a waking nightmare of a duplicitous, business-driven takeover of American politics. The humor, over time, serves not to relieve the viewer but, rather, disorient and disturb. Scenes much like when Bob Roberts falls on his own motorcycle come to mind, as his cronies rush to his immediate aid while the documentarians spin the mishap.
The movie is at its most chilling when Bob Roberts’ political campaign frames a neurotic investigative journalist, Bugs Raplin, played by Giancarlo Esposito, for a shooting during a rally, which subsequently afflicts Bob Roberts with a faux paraplegia, in order to inflame and entrench his followers. This is clearly presented to the audience when we see Bob Roberts, in a wheelchair, tapping his foot along to a song that he is performing at a rally. It is these kinds of scenes that go far in suggesting that Bob Roberts is the Anti-Christ, much like when his most allegiant of followers are shown adorning inscriptions on their foreheads and applauding the killing of Bugs Raplin, the one man outspoken enough to unearth Bob Robert’s true nature.
Much of the way in which the tone of the film is received is a consequence of the year that it is viewed. Being the year 2017, the movie is informed by our current political and social troubles, making many directorial and script decisions feel targeted and at the audience’s expense. But perhaps it is precisely in this tone and at this expense that make Bob Roberts the most prescient and provocative of cautionary tales. We must take heed of the danger posed by the Bob Roberts campaign, the ideas of the rational but antiquated incumbent Senator Brickley Paiste, and the conspiratorial frustrations of the investigative journalist, Bugs Raplin. For it is in these songs, ideas, and frustrations that the true ethos of the Bob Roberts film exist: be informed! Well, that and drugs stink.