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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Full Frame
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • 17 Deleted scenes
  • Audio commentary - Tim Robbins and Gore Vidal
  • 1 Cast/crew biographies
  • 152 Photo gallery
  • Animated menus

Bob Roberts

AV Channel/AV Channel . R4 . COLOR . 102 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Bob Roberts (Tim Robbins) is an only child that grew up on a commune, a folk singer and a self-made millionaire. He's also running for the senate in Pennsylvania. The perfect example of a child of hippie parents rebelling against his upbringing, he could easily be described as more right-wing than the rightest of rightmost things - he's anti-'60s, anti-social protest, anti-drugs and most definitely pro-money - but he also rides a motorcycle. His albums have included the likes of The Freewheelin' Bob Roberts, Times Are Changin' Back and Bob on Bob, and have appropriated many of the iconic images of the free love '60s (essentially if Bob Dylan hadn’t existed he'd have had nothing to plunder), but with his hyper-Republican twists making for a rather jarring kind of rebel conservatism.

His democratic adversary is one Brickley Paiste (Gore Vidal), who has held his seat for thirty years and could be viewed alternatively as either a down to earth, sensible, concerned about the actual issues campaigner, or as a jaded, don’t rock the boat fence sitter content with the status quo. However, when Bob's image over substance money train (well, bus actually) comes to town Mr Paiste is in for quite the challenge, facing accusations of an affair with a campaign worker (thanks to a skilfully framed photograph that magically fell into the hands of a newspaper from somewhere) and finding himself on the back foot as the Roberts all-singing, all-dancing cult of personality juggernaut aims to ride roughshod over him.

"This is America, virtue always prevails..."

Whilst Bob has his fans, and many rabid ones at that (keep an eye out for a truly frightening young Jack Black (High Fidelity) for starters), he certainly has his detractors. The most fervent of all would be leftist journalist Bugs Raplin, who believes he has uncovered a Roberts-led scam that put a savings and loan out of business ostensibly to pay for housing for the poor, but the funds from which were in actuality used to purchase South American drug transport planes under the auspices of the Roberts created Broken Dove Foundation, an organisation supposedly founded to give money to clinics and the like to help espouse his anti-drugs beliefs. Yes, spot the irony. Bugs is terrier-like in his pursuit of his believed truth, and has quite a few run-ins with the Roberts senatorial campaign before it would appear that the decision was made to do something about him.

Presented in mockumentary style a la This is Spinal Tap, or more recently Waiting For Guffman or Best in Show, Bob Roberts (the film) is held together by fictional British documentary maker Terry Manchester. He and his crew follow Bob on the campaign trail, riding in his trading floor on wheels bus, and are granted full access to all that ensues on the campaign trail. See Bob on talk shows, see Bob host beauty pageants, see Bob perform Sinead O'Connor-like on Cutting Edge Live (a rather obvious homage to the famed Saturday Night Live, where the idea of Bob Roberts also germinated in a 1986 short film by Robbins), see Bob strum his guitar, hear Bob sing - and witness Bob's smarmy rhetoric sucker the voting public...

  Video
Contract

To be honest, the source print used for this incarnation of Bob Roberts isn't exactly in the greatest shape, the main problem being an infestation of white speckles throughout the flick. The other thing I found extremely curious was the decision to present the film, released theatrically in 1.85:1, as full frame (well, actually it's apparently 1.50:1, but the difference is negligible). The US release of this disc also suffered the same fate, and apparently it was from a decree by the filmmakers themselves - perhaps in keeping with the documentary basis of the story. I still find it extremely irksome watching a DVD in a different ratio to what it was made in, and whilst some research indicated that they just opened the matte so we get more vision top and bottom, the framing of some shots would dispute this.

Other than the visual acne attack the film scrubs up quite well, and a quick comparison with the cut scenes will demonstrate quite well how shocking it could have been. There are a few noticeable examples of aliasing, most notably on those usual culprits, venetian blinds. Still, at other times guitar-strings and the like come up fine, so the job done here is quite a good one. Colour and contrast fare quite admirably, whilst the only other instances of dreadful vision occur with many of the shots of monitors and TV sets, however this is to be expected, as basically they looked crap in the original film. The layer change is noticeable, but not particularly intrusive.

  Audio
Contract

Well, it's in Dolby 2.0 Stereo. Whilst this would not usually be something to write home about, in this case it suits the documentary style of the film quite well. Dialogue is remarkably clear at most times, which is quite a feat considering the manic hundreds-speaking-at-once style of many of the film's scenes. Naturally surround activity is at a bare minimum, but then this isn’t the type of film you purchase to get a fix of sonic-wows from anyway.

  Extras
Contract

A reasonable assemblage of extra stuff is on offer, all of which is accessible via some nicely animated menus that are easily navigable.

Tim Robbins and Gore Vidal commentary: Hmmm, this is a little misleadingly titled, as it is essentially a Tim Robbins commentary, with some separately recorded comments from Gore Vidal intercut, commencing around the 39-minute mark. Tim's piece was recorded in December 1999, and he seems quite chuffed to have Bob released on DVD, as a couple of passing comments make it quite clear that he's none too jazzed about the virtual burying treatment his film has received from its distributor. Whilst rather laidback, I found this quite the fascinating little commentary, balancing technical and writing information behind certain scenes nicely with tangential escapes into comments on US politics to general issues faced in bringing the low-budget film to completion. We also find out that they accepted an 'R' rating for the film rather than a 'PG' simply to keep one instance of the phrase "cocksucker" in the film, which is admirable in light of the censorial savagings many seem to let their films undergo nowadays to broaden their potential audience. Gore's parts are also of reasonable interest, although it is a shame that the two couldn’t be in one place together to work off each other - especially in light of their roles in the film.

Theatrical trailer: Opening with the line "America is a mess", sadly so is this trailer. Running for just under two minutes, it's full screen and in utterly dreadful condition, however as trailers go it is definitely worth a peek.

Out-takes: Well, deleted scenes really. Around half an hour in duration, there are seventeen cuts included here. There are a couple of songs and many one-on-one interviews, and in all the quality is pretty much uniformly dreadful, featuring dropouts galore (the video disappears for a number of seconds at one point) and an incredibly distracting thrum in the background throughout. Regardless of these problems, those with even minimal interest in Bob Roberts should find much to entertain within.

Tim Robbins profile: Eight pages of information on Mr Tim, incorporating a filmography that is right up to date at the time of writing this.

Photo Gallery: Divided into four sections, these can be left to play through, or skipped via the chapter selection button on the remote. In all there are 152 photos, ranging from behind the scenes shots to some from the film itself to stills of many of the newspaper articles used in the film. Thorough, but ultimately pretty useless.

  Overall  
Contract

As a DVD Bob Roberts presents quite good value. The video and audio are by no means wonderful, however they could also have been much worse. The extras department is fairly well stocked with interesting inclusions, although the region 1 version features three commentaries whereas we only get the one - this disc being assembled locally seemingly from scratch. Still, at least it would appear that we were given the best of those commentaries that were available. Oh and the US got an infinitely more striking cover than we did, too!

An incredible array of actors were assembled for Bob, from the sadly rather underused here Alan Rickman (who is at his usual snippy best), to famed author Gore Vidal as Paiste to Giancarlo Esposito's brilliant portrayal of the desperate Bugs Raplin to writer/director/lead Tim Robbins' powerhouse performance as the title character. Cameo spotters are in for a treat, with the likes of the aforementioned Jack Black popping up to the swoonsome John Cusack, James Spader, Helen (icky) Hunt, Fred Ward, Peter Gallagher and the utterly wonderful Mrs Robbins, Susan Sarandon.

Bob Roberts is the type of film that will by no means be everybody's cup of tea. However, if you are into flicks that are wickedly insightful, and at times subtly whilst at other times blatantly observationally cynical this should be right up your alley. Needless to say anybody out there with even a passing interest in the machinations of US politics, and to a certain extent any politics, should list this as a must see.

And you don't have to put up with John Travolta in this one, either...


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      And I quote...
    "Anybody out there with even a passing interest in the machinations of US politics, and to a certain extent any politics, should list this as a must see..."
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Speakers:
          Home Built
    • Surrounds:
          No Name
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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