Beatty’s political affinity shines through in ‘Bullworth’

“Bulworth.” Directed by Warren Beatty. Written by Beatty and Jeremy Pikser. Running time: 107 minutes. Rated R (for strong language, drug use and adult content).

On the eve of the 1996 California primary, Sen. Jay Bulworth (Warren Beatty) is teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

Exhausted from lack of sleep and weak from lack of food, he sits in his dark office, his grief-stricken face caught in the flickering light of a television. There, on screen, his campaign commercials run in endless, nauseating loops. Bulworth pours himself a drink and listens, his eyes closing against the mindless blathering of his own political dogma: “We stand at the doorstep of a new millennium.”

Those words — repeated over and over in his commercials — are meaningless to him, the sound of his voice hollow. This politician, you see, is not standing at the doorstep of a new millennium, but at the doorstep of his own soul — which he has deemed cold, empty and without worth.

Is this what his life has amounted to? A bundle of lies? At what point, exactly, did he sell out? When did the liberal Democrat stop serving the poor and become the lapsed idealist serving the rich?

Unable to go on, Bulworth secures a $10 million insurance policy against his life, makes certain that upon his death the money will go to his daughter, and then arranges to have a hit man assassinate him.

The result is absolutely freeing — both for Bulworth and for this smart, entertaining film. With death lurking at every corner, Bulworth is suddenly a man with nothing to lose. At last, he is liberated to speak the elusive truth, to flay political correctness to the bone, to talk — indeed, to rap — bluntly about today’s important issues without fear of ticking off those corporations that routinely funnel millions into his campaign fund.

How controversial is Bulworth? At a black church in South Central Los Angeles, he tells the congregation, “If you don’t put down that malt liquor and chicken wings and get behind somebody other than a running back who stabs his wife, you’re never going to get rid of somebody like me.” Boozing his way over to a function in Beverly Hills, he attacks a group of wealthy Jewish film producers by telling them, among other things, that their movies are “crap.” When asked on live television how to ease racial tension, he suggests that everyone should simply “f— everyone else” in order to create one huge interracial gene pool.

Strong stuff? Absolutely. But consider Bulworth’s metaphorical name: Does his bull have some worth? That’s for audiences to decide.

As for Beatty, he is very good here, which is no surprise given his own passion for politics. A political animal to the core, he not only made “Reds,” but he also passed up leading roles in “The Godfather” and “The Sting” to work for McGovern in 1972. Beatty himself has said that he knows “what it feels like to be a suicidally depressed Democrat.” Those feelings — along with his unflinching wit — are precisely what give “Bulworth” its considerable edge.

Grade: B+

Video of the Week

“As Good As It Gets.” Directed by James L. Brooks. Written by Mark Andrus and Brooks. Running time: 138 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for strong language, violence and adult content).

“As Good As It Gets” is one of those rare films where good writing actually matters, fully drawn characters thrive and the chemistry between them simmers. Directed by James Brooks, “As Good …” is a great, heartwarming film that earned its two principal actors — Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt — Academy Awards for their performances. It comes highly recommended.

As Melvin Udall, an obsessive-compulsive author of 62 romance novels, Nicholson is in top form. No one else could play this part. Nasty by reflex, his character is a racist, sexist, mean-spirited homophobe who makes Jesse Helms look like a card-carrying liberal. When asked how he writes such believable female characters, Udall replies: “I think of a man — and I take away reason and accountability.” Ouch.

Still, there is something about him that catches the eye of Carol Connelly (Hunt), a pretty, no-nonsense waitress who, along with a gay artist named Simon (Greg Kinnear), gradually begins to understand that beneath Udall’s toxic exterior there is a man of substance, a kind heart — and a wealth of good just waiting to be drawn out.

As romantic comedies go, this film is a gem.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews films each Monday in the NEWS.