SENDING A MESSAGE: BOB ROBERTS, SCHOOL TIES
It was the late Samuel Goldwyn, former studio mogul, who once said, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union." This was in response to the idea that films - or any works of art - should take on social ills in some way in order to be valid. But while Hollywood has often heeded his "message," turning out films that are strictly for entertainment, there still remains a core of filmmakers who are dedicated to the idea that film, if not being an instrument for social change, can at least shine a light on society's problems in some way. Of course, one of the reasons Goldwyn made his statement is too often the filmmaker is more concerned with the message and less concerned with the film. Tim Robbins' BOB ROBERTS and Robert Mandel's SCHOOL TIES both struggle with this problem.
Robbins comes by his activism honestly, anyway; his father was one of the members of the folk group The Highwaymen, and when he was younger, Robbins was involved in political theater. So it makes sense that his first film as writer and director would be about a political candidate who resembles a younger, "kinder" Pat Buchanan. He also takes the models of Elia Kazan's A FACE IN THE CROWD, the seminal rock documentary DON'T LOOK BACK, and Rob Reiner's seminal rock mockumentary THIS IS SPINAL TAP. The result is a heavy-handed, but on-target, political satire.
Robbins also stars as the title character, who's running for senator against the incumbent Democrat, Brickley Paiste (Gore Vidal). Unlike Paiste, who wants to focus on the issues, Roberts carefully talks in sound bites and homespun aphorisms, made easier by the fact that he also sings folk songs, though they're inversions of the famous protest anthems of before (one of Roberts songs (all the songs were co-written by Robbins and his brother David) is called "The Times are Changing Back," and he also sings about taking inheritance money guilt-free). With the help of his campaign manager Lukas Hart III (Alan Rickman), and his PR manager Chet MacGregor (Ray Wise), Roberts carefully keeps his image of a smiling politician who cares about people's problems while refusing to specify what he might do to solve them (when an anchor (Lynne Thigpen) asks Roberts about something, he replies, smiling, "Are you a communist?"). Even Terry Manchester (Brian Murray), the documentary filmmaker who follows Roberts and his band around, only sees Roberts crack his facade occasionally.
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