Bobby

Bobby is a 2006 American drama film written and directed by Emilio Estevez. The screenplay is a fictionalized account of the hours leading up to the June 5, 1968 shooting of Robert F. Kennedy in the kitchen of The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following his win in the California Democratic Party primary.

Production

In Bobby: The Making of an American Epic, screenwriter/director Emilio Estevez discusses the problems he had developing his script. Suffering from writer's block, he checked into a motel in Pismo Beach where he hoped, free from interruption, he could make some headway with his writing. While talking to the woman working at the front desk, he discovered she had been in the Ambassador Hotel on the evening Kennedy was shot, and later married two young men to help them avoid the draft. Estevez used her experience to mold the character of Diane, and the rest of the story fell into place. The only other character based on a real person is busboy José, who represents Juan Romero, the young man who was photographed cradling Kennedy's body immediately after he was shot.

The character of José has tickets to the Los Angeles Dodgers game in which Don Drysdale is expected to set the record of six consecutive shutouts, but is obliged to work a double shift, forcing him to miss the game. Drysdale did in fact achieve his sixth shutout on June 4, 1968, and was congratulated by Kennedy during the victory speech he delivered just before being shot ^[2].

The Ambassador had shuttered its doors and put its fixtures and furnishings up for auction during the film's pre-production period, giving production designer Patti Podesta the opportunity to purchase much of the furniture and decorative pieces used in the film.

The hotel was scheduled for demolition one week after filming was scheduled to begin. Estevez got permission to film in and around the building during that period, adding to the film's authenticity.

The film's soundtrack is primarily a compilation of music from the 1960s, including "Tracks of My Tears" by Smokey Robinson, "I Was Made to Love Her" by Stevie Wonder, "Ain't That Peculiar" by Marvin Gaye, "The Sound of Silence" (the original acoustic version from the album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.) by Simon & Garfunkel, "Anji" by Paul Simon, "Come See About Me" by The Supremes, "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)" by Herman's Hermits, "Black is Black" by Los Bravos, "Season of the Witch" and "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan, "Wives and Lovers" by Jack Jones, "Magic Moments" by Perry Como, and "Pata Pata" by Miriam Makeba.

The two tracks newly recorded for the film are "Louie Louie", performed in character by Demi Moore, and "Never Gonna Break My Faith," written by Bryan Adams and performed by Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, and the Boys Choir of Harlem during the closing credits.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was shown at the Deauville Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival, the Vienna International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and AFI Fest before going into limited release in the US on November 17, 2006. Playing on two screens, it grossed $69,039 on its opening weekend. It eventually earned $11,242,801 in the US and $9,355,005 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $20,597,806.

Cast

• Harry Belafonte ..... Nelson
• Joy Bryant ..... Patricia
• Nick Cannon ..... Dwayne Clark
• Emilio Estevez ..... Tim Fallon
• Laurence Fishburne ..... Edward Robinson
• Brian Geraghty....Jimmy
• Heather Graham ..... Angela
• Anthony Hopkins ..... John Casey
• Helen Hunt ..... Samantha
• Joshua Jackson ..... Wade Buckley
• David Krumholtz ..... Phil
• Ashton Kutcher ..... Fisher
• Shia LaBeouf ..... Cooper