A summary of the story. This shall be one paragraph only.
In Bulworth, a Democratic Senator with very liberal or leftist views that were more typical of the 1960s becomes burned out and disappointed by the conservative direction that the country has taken. Senator Jay Billington Bulworth decides to commit suicide by staging his own assassination and takes out a $10 million life insurance policy. Even his name implies that much of was he says is not really particularly sincere or meaningful, and he has already become a ‘moderate’ Democrat like Bill Clinton, taking money from various banks and corporations instead of representing the common people. Like Clinton, his marriage is also a sham and exists only for political purposes, since both he and his wife regularly cheat on each other. At the very least, though, his daughter will get the $10 million while he will do one last favor for the insurance industry in return. Since Bulworth now knows that he is going to die within two days, he decides to just get drunk in public and say what he really thinks on television. He is even seen in nightclubs smoking a joint, and no longer cares about his public image. Indeed, he has no reason to care since he will soon be dead anyway, and even starts singing rap songs and hip hop on TV, explaining his real views about society. Bulworth then becomes involved in an affair with a young black woman named Nina, and soon finds out that she was the assassin sent to kill him. She falls in love with him, however and decides not to carry out her assignment, although someone from the insurance company does when he announces that he will run for president and endorses national health insurance. At the end of the movie, Bulworth is in the hospital and it is not clear whether he will survive or not, but the whole conspiracy has ended up setting him free and also made him a truly popular political leader and presidential candidate. Of course, when that happens, a politician is also very likely to end up as dead as Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
An analysis of the dynamics of race relation as portrayed in the plot of the movie which shall focus on the following questions:
What is the "Senator's" analysis of the politics of race?
What do you learn from the Senator's relationship with the Black community and with his "assassin"?
In this film, the rapper and hip hop culture represents the poor, the marginalized and disenfranchised, and various minority and immigrant groups who live in segregated ghettos. America’s political and economic elites really could care less about these groups, and with few exceptions they never have and never will. To the real rulers of this society, basically the bankers, plutocrats and large corporations, the masses are just a source of cheap labor or a law enforcement problem, which is why the U.S. prison population is larger than all other Western nations combined and the majority of inmates are black and Hispanic. This is the reality of the American system, which Bulworth serves very faithfully. Maybe he once had ideals and stood for something when he was young back in the 1960s, although in the case of a politician like Bill Clinton even that much is highly dubious. In any event, Bulworth-Clinton has long sense sold out to the corporate elites that he once opposed, and on some level the voters seem to realize this. Only when he makes one final corrupt deal to get $10 million for his daughter can he finally just let it all go and tell the truth about the system and his place in it.
In this movie, then, the rapper and hip hop culture represents the political and economic reality of American society and the oppressed and alienated groups within in, rather than the usual ‘bull’ that politicians like Bulworth have been selling. For the first time in years, and perhaps even the first time in his life, death has freed Bulworth to tell the truth about the country, and this actually makes him genuinely popular. People simply are not used to hearing such candid and direct remarks from politicians any more, much less any criticism of the wealthy and powerful interests that pay them. Bulworth swears and curses all the time in his hip hop persona and even uses the “f-word” freely in a way no politician would ever dare to do in public. No one has ever really attempted to address the poverty, segregation and inequality faced by blacks and other minority groups in many years, not since the 1960s at any rate, so when they actually hear a white politician speaking the truth for once, they are astonished. Bulworth’s own assassin even falls in love with him, which is somewhat improbable given that she kills people for money, but even to someone as tough and cold as her, Bulworth represents the kind of honesty, hopefulness and willingness to deal with the country’s difficult racial and economic problems that most politicians avoid.
What are the most important lessons that you learn from this movie about race relations in the US at this moment in history? You may want to reflect on this question in the light of the upcoming Presidential and congressional election.
In the 2012 election, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are no mystery at all when it comes to issues of race, immigration, social class or economic justice. They are running for office to ensure that the wealthy and large corporations receive another large tax cut and that the whole neoliberal system of ‘free trade’, offshoring of jobs and neoliberalism continues to expand around the world. Romney and his party could care less about blacks and do not even bother to campaign in inner-city areas, while in private the candidate makes remarks to wealthy donors that he is not interested in the bottom 47% of the population at all. He also comes across as quite phony and insincere even by the standards of American politics, and will change his views from one day to the next if he thinks it will gain him a few more votes. Romney is essentially a very wealthy and privileged man who is mainly interested in serving his own class and the big capitalist interests that are funding him. In this he is no different from most other Republican politicians, and indeed many Democrats like Bill Clinton (Bulworth), and receives billions of dollars in campaign funds from various elite interests.
So Romney is an open book on all these issues, at least for anyone who is even remotely awake and paying attention to the election. If they are not aware of this by now they should simply go back to sleep. Since the 1960s, the Republicans have used a Southern Strategy in every election to appeal to lower class white voters by using racial and religious prejudices to get them to vote against their own economic interests. This has been working very well for them over the years and it still is or a man like Romney would not be getting nearly 50% of the vote today, and even more than that in the Southern states. For four years, the Republicans have demonized Obama by asking to see his birth certificate, calling him a Kenyan Muslim and a Communist, or any other insult that will make him seem like an ‘alien’ or ‘other’. In reality, of course, Obama’s policies have not been particularly radical or even ‘liberal’ by the standards of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman or even Lyndon Johnson, and his policies like Obama Care and cap-and-trade were borrowed directly from the Republicans. He almost never talks about racial issues and seems reluctant to be defined as ‘black’ at all, although he will certainly receive most of the black and Hispanic vote in this election. In many ways, he has been a disappointment to his supporters, but they will still vote from him because the Republican alternative is simply much worse.
REFERENCES
Beatty, W. (Producer and Director). (1998). Bulworth [Motion Picture]. USA: 20th Century Fox Studios.
