Bulworth Film Analysis Essay

Introduction

Politics in America has continued to be corrupt and banal since the past years and a more reason why various films have been developed to deal with this form of politics through humor and exaggerations, for instance, the Bulworth film. The film has vital elements in the plot such as the frontal attack on racism and campaign financing in US politics. Bulworth, a Democratic Senator vying for a re-election orders a hit on his life after taking a massive life-insurance policy for his family. With a threat of the imminent death awaiting him, he finds fun in telling the people the truth through the use of rhythms, hip-hop music, and even culture (Beatty et al., 1998). Despite the satire in his spirit, the offensive words spouted raw from the Senator's mouth shocked the audience a great deal.

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Bulworth film views such aspects of politics like power, conflict, social and public activity as strategies that politicians embrace to win votes even though they do not deserve being leaders. Bulworth, through the character of the incumbent Senator, views politicians as people who are only interested in the back pockets of huge businesses and cares less about the needs of the voters. Forces such as greed, hypocrisy and self-interest drive every campaign, factors that Senator Bulworth had had enough of and was ready to do right. For instance, in the South Central Speech scene, a woman in the audience asks Bulworth on the promises made regarding the federal funding for community rebuilding. Bulworth answers, "We all came down here, Bush, Clinton and all of us had pictures taken, and you told us what you wanted to hear and we pretty much forgot all about it." The answer shocks the audience who roar in astonishment and wonder. According to this film, politics of playgrounds is what people like to hear thus end up voting for wrong people When Bulworth freely tells the people that he together with other politicians made false promises just to please them, shows exactly a playground where children negotiate on who gets to play and with which toys ( Beatty et al., 1998). The politicians as mentioned earlier only focuses on satisfying their pockets and heaping wealth in their name at the cost of citizens who suffer day in day out to fight for their rights. A further example in the same scene regarding the South Central Speech is where another woman asks on the initial plans to give them health, life, and house insurances and the fearless senator boldly says, " well because you haven't contributed any money to my campaigns..... have you?" From this answer, we are convinced that greed and self-interest are what drives politicians who are always ready to take more from the needy citizens. The fact that power determines the freedom of one getting what he or she wants shows how politicians grab that which do not belong to them greedily and mercilessly given the authority they have.

Through a legitimate concern, the film perceives aspects of politics as games that lack essence in the fact that there is lack of an intrinsic nature that can provide direction or guidelines for the politicians. In this case, it is conclusive that political aspects have no quintessential acts or subjects but rather emerges through the day to day interactions with people through actions that are aggregated into collectivities (Coleman, 1968). A further perception of the film on these aspects is that most politicians embrace the art of politics as a social activity. In the rap scene, Bulworth says "you make your contribution then you get your solution, as long as you gonna pay am gonna do it all your way." In this rap, the Senator satirically reveals how politicians embrace selfish motives through making the citizens work hard to yet they earn nothing but benefit them. Through a sociological perspective, Bulworth is trying to show how the politicians give empty promises that please the audience who have no wisdom to understand and look through an inner vision on the truth of the message just the same way the audience is enjoying the rape without listening to the words being said.

Discursively, the film relates to the class readings regarding the political strategies that politicians embrace in getting votes they do not deserve. For instance, in showing the arrogance of the politicians in the Cops scene, Bulworth together with young boys abuses the cops without apology because he is the senator. The boy standing next to Bulworth tells the police, "go fuck your mummy... P sucker!" Bulworth looks at the boy and tells him, "That's great!" From this scene, we are clear to relate the fact that politicians are arrogant and selfish victims who will use sweet words to get votes and afterwards treat voters as nothing. In case this argument was not true, then after Bulworth seeing the boys insult the cops, he could have responsibly handled the issue not by hitting a cop but by talking to the boys and letting them know what they did was wrong. Furthermore, we are clear to learn that after being voted in as leaders, politicians misuse their power through using the security services in doing illegal errands. Though the boys had wrongly mistreated the officers, the Senator tells the cops to go off before getting their names and releasing them from duty.

Conclusion

Additionally, having been taught in class on politics being a dirty game, the scene on racial deconstruction shows how politics values no race, ethnicity or gender. While doing the interview, Bulworth tells the interviewer that, "rich people always stay on top." In this perspective, what Bulworth means is that rich people, in this case, are the whites who have power and all resources to live a life that is so different from that of the blacks who have to struggle all their lives to get what they want (Lakoff, 1985). The statement hurts black people in the sense that the 26-year-old black girl follows the Senator in the car to argue her point regarding black people as evident in 'Black Leaders' Scene. In the car, the girl argues on the need for leaders to energize civil movements for the good of both the black and white people. However, Bulworth reacts to the girl's argument by asking, "how old are you...how old do you think I am?" In this case, it is clear to understand that politicians are heartless and do not care for anything that hurts the voters.

References

Beatty, W., Berry, H., Cheadle, D., & Pikser, J. (1998). Bulworth. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Coleman, J. S. (1968). Modernization: political aspects. International encyclopedia of the social sciences, 10, 395-402.

Lakoff, R. (1985). The Politics of Language.