Wrapping it in the flag and a folk song (9/10)
Original Review by Brian R. Wright, November 19, 2006
Bob Roberts is a timely movie about national political cynicism that was intended to satirize the Republican Revolution of 1994. Others have contended the subject of the satire was the Reagan 80s, against the Gordon Gekko “Greed is Good” crowd.
But it could not be more appropriate to the rise and ascendancy of the Bush II clique.
Roberts, a Pennsylvania Senate candidate , is a rich, smarmy, guitar-strumming, media savvy corporate shill. He sings folk songs about the joys of strip mining, stock-market success, and capital punish- ment for drug dealers.
The review on the IMDB site states Roberts is eerily prescient of Rick Santorum, who won the 1994 Senate race in Pennsylvania by affecting the same style as Tim Robbins in the title role. Like Bob Roberts, Santorum postured as a friend of the common man, yet was a front for powerful corporate interests (esp. the health insurance industry).
The cast is stellar, as writer-director Robbins skewers the lazy, posturing media—actors Fred Ward, Pamela Reed, and James Spader send up good roles—; malicious security hacks (Alan Rickman); and the gullible public itself. Continue reading
