Bulworth (1998)

“We stand at the doorstep of a new millennium.”

Mid March, 1996. The time of the California primaries. Bob Dole has secured the Republican Presidential Nomination. President Clinton runs unopposed by other Democrats. The populace is unaroused . . .

And so, with little fanfare or attention, incumbent Democratic Senator Jay Billington Bulworth (Warren Beatty) prepares to embark upon the final weekend of his primary campaign to return to the Senate for yet another term.

But the depressed Senator is facing financial ruin and hasn’t slept or eaten anything for three days. He’s distracted, exhausted, going mad.

He arranges $10 million in life insurance for himself and hires a hitman to assassinate him so his 17-year-old daughter will benefit from the insurance.

Thinking he has three days left to live, Bulworth ends up on the campaign trail in – of all places – South Central LA.

As he prepares to speak in a black Baptist church, he begins his usual meaningless prepared speech (“We stand at the doorstep of a new millennium”), then pauses, discards his notes and asks for questions from a roomful of angry Afro-Americans.

And then – filled with a sense of freedom at his impending death – he answers them. Truthfully . . .

“We tell you what you want to hear, and once you’ve voted, we discard you”.

“We take money in campaign contributions from corporations to buy policy and legislation that makes your lives shit”.

“Democrats do nothing for black people because they know black people won’t vote Republican”.

And magnificently, “If you don’t put down your malt liquor and chicken wings and get behind somebody other than a running back who stabs his wife, you’re never gonna get rid of someone like me!”

Bulworth’s campaign manager, Dennis Murphy (Oliver Platt), has a meltdown and hits a fire alarm to end the church service. But an hour later, in Beverly Hills, Bulworth is insulting a primarily Jewish audience of movie moguls: “How much money do you guys really need?” he asks, observing that they produce “mostly crap”.

Eventually, Bulworth falls in with a large black family in the ghetto, led there by an attractive activist named Nina (Halle Berry).

He learns how to rap, dresses like a homeboy in shades and phat pants – and gets one too many capitalists angry at him when he takes up liberal causes.

Now, speaking the unspeakable truth, he’s enjoying political speechmaking for the first time in his life.

The media goes nuts. Jay Bulworth becomes a national sensation just for telling the truth and his popularity skyrockets. Along the way he is continually accosted by a hobo poet (Amiri Baraka) spouting (apparently) mystical verse.

Warren Beatty spent six years writing, producing, directing and starring in Bulworth. Filmed entirely on Steadicam (except for the opening sequence), the movie’s hip-hop soundtrack went platinum, selling over one million copies.

Jay Billington Bulworth
Warren Beatty
Nina
Halle Berry
Dennis Murphy
Oliver Platt
LD
Don Cheadle
Eddie Davers
Jack Warden
Gary
Sean Astin
Missy Berliner
Nora Dunn
Constance Bulworth
Christine Baranski
Rebecca Bulworth
Sarah Lee Guthrie
Graham Crockett
Paul Sorvino
Mimi
Laurie Metcalf
Denisha
Kimberly Deauna Adams
Leroy
Ernie Lee Banks
Rastaman
Amiri Baraka
Mrs Brown
Adilah Barnes
Uncle Rafeeq
Thomas Jefferson Byrd
Anthony
J. Kenneth Campbell
Rev. Wilberforce
Kevin Cooney
Manny Liebowitz
Stanley DeSantis
Mr Sasser
Edward J. Etherson
Osgood
Leon Frierson
Geoffrey
Robin Gammell
Macavoy
Jackie Gayle
Bill Stone
Jim Haynie
Mrs Tannenbaum
Randee Heller
Marcus Garvey
Brian Hooks
Snag
Mario Jackson
Tanya
Ariyan A. Johnson
Mrs Liebowitz
Mimi Lieber
Bill Feldman
Joshua Malina
Momma Doll
Helen Martin
Ruthie
Armelia McQueen
Cheryl
Michele Morgan
Uncle Tyrone
Lou Myers
Irwin Tannenbaum
Norman Parker
Uncle David
James Pickens Jr.
Aunt Alice
Adrian Ricard
Aunt Harriet
Bee-Be Smith
Fred
Wendell Pierce
Vinnie
Richard Sarafian
Larry King
Himself

Director
Warren Beatty