by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A Rated R 120 min
It was 1968, the unpopular Vietnam war was raging, Dr. Martin Luther King had just been assassinated, and protesters were marching in the streets. The presidential election was in full throttle, with Senator Bobby Kennedy running on the anti-war ticket. Set against this tumultuous background, writer/ director, Emilio Estavez wrote and created a brilliant film involving 22 people who had gathered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, June 5, 1968 where Senator Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Unquestionably, their lives were changed forever. Four of the 22 people were hit by stray bullets, but all survived.
Most of the scenario carefully develops the 22 individual characters as interested parties in Kennedy’s visit, either because they worked there, or because they had traveled to the Ambassador Hotel to witness Kennedy’s speech. With a star heavy cast, the movie was shot as a docudrama, seamlessly fusing actual color footage of the event with newly shot scenes to give the viewer the sense of watching a well edited documentary.
Ironically, Estavez’s scenario suggests that 1968 exists as a parallel universe to 2006, with many similarities to today’s unpopular Iraq War and how it effected the mid-term election. However, the Vietnam war was much more divisive. It tore the country apart, dividing it into two opposing sides–for or against the war. As the war dragged on into the early 1970s, an overwhelming majority of Americans wanted it to end. It took until 1975 when we finally pulled out, leaving over 58,000 dead American soldiers. A character in the film summed up the mood of the liberal thinkers of the time. He said, “We lost Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy is our last hope.” Many people felt that way, so when Bobby was gunned down by Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan, it sent shock waves of hopelessness across the land.
The cast of A-listers each have separate vignettes which vacillate with the other sequences. Anthony Hopkins plays John Casey, a retired doorman of the Ambassador. He loved his job, and when it ended he couldn’t stay away. He went to the lobby every day to play chess with his pal, another retired Ambassador employee, Nelson (Harry Belafonte). William H. Macy plays Paul Ebbers, General Manager of the hotel. His wife, Miriam (Sharon Stone) is a hairstylist at the hotel salon. Ebbers is having a torrid affair with a young telephone receptionist Angela (Heather Graham). Miriam finds out about her husband’s affair from Timmons, who tells Miriam out of revenge for being fired by Ebbers.
In the kitchen, Christian Slater portrays the Food and Beverage Manager, Timmons who treats the kitchen staff like servants, stepping on their civil rights. Laurence Fishburne plays the head chef, Edward, who is somewhat of a wise philosopher. Freddy Rodriguez plays Jose, a Busboy who is forced to work a double shift. He gives his coveted baseball tickets to Edward as a gesture of friendship.
The live entertainment staff is skillfully portrayed by Demi Moore and Emilio Estavez, who are Virginia and Tim Fallon. She is the featured artist at the hotel. But her career is on the downslide, and she is a chronic alcoholic. Her beleaguered agent is portrayed by David Krumholtz (Numbers). Tim is fed up with his wife’s drinking, bitchy attitude, and playing second fiddle to her career. His only friend is his dog. Martin Sheen and Helen Hunt play a power VIP couple, Jack and Samantha Stevens. He is a big time stock broker and she is a socialite. They are there to schmooze with Kennedy and his entourage.
A rough cut of Estavez’s film was screened at Venice to generally high acclaim. As the bloody scene unfolds, excerpts of Kennedy’s speech rings out across 38 years to inspire this generation, ending the film on a positive note. All these people are caught up in the excitement of Kennedy’s visit. By June 5, RFK had won five out of six presidential primaries, including that one day in California. Spirits were high at RFK’s speech. Afterwards, everyone wanted to be near him–to touch him–to photograph him. He was their savior.
Indeed, Bobby was the rock star of American politics and the one person who could end the bloody nightmare of Vietnam. The chaos that followed Bobby out of the building through the kitchen provided the ideal cover for Sirhan Sirhan to make his move. When the gunfire erupted and the bullets flew, four of the characters, who the viewers get to know, lay wounded on the floor, and RFK was mortally wounded nearby.
Estavez wove all the complex elements together with precision, combining a true tragedy with a fictional story that penetrates the heart like a flaming arrow, knowing that, in the end, the assassination will turn everything upside down.
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