Line #30 Film/Bulworth


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bulworth_poster.jpg]]
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3	''Bulworth'' is a 1998 American political satire film directed by and starring Creator/WarrenBeatty, who also co-wrote the sceenplay. Joining him in the cast are Creator/HalleBerry, Creator/OliverPlatt, Creator/DonCheadle, Creator/PaulSorvino, Creator/JackWarden, Creator/IsaiahWashington and Creator/ChristineBaranski.
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5	The story begins as the title character, Senator Jay Bulworth of California, grows weary with his political career and failing marriage. He decides to end his life, taking out a $10 million life insurance policy so his daughter will remain well off and hiring a hitman to kill him in two days' time. With nothing to lose, he spends his final hours letting the public know how he really feels about them, smoking marijuana, dressing like a gangsta rapper, and rapping about socialism.
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7	Finding a newfound purpose in life as the voice of the underclass, Bulworth begins to regret his decision to hire someone to kill him. Can he stay one step ahead of the assassin's bullet?
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10	!!This work contains examples of:
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12	* AngstComa: [[spoiler:Bulworth falls into one of these towards the end of the film]].
13	* BaitAndSwitch: Bulworth seems to think a sunglasses-wearing man in black who's stalking him is the guy who Vinnie's hired to kill him. [[spoiler: He's actually a news photographer trying to get a photograph of Bulworth. Nina is actually the one who's been hired by Vinnie to kill Bulworth, but she decides not to kill him]].
14	* BrutalHonesty: Bulworth himself, naturally.
15	* CharacterTitle
16	* CoolOldGuy: Bulworth becomes this once he decides to speak whatever comes to mind, arrives to Larry King Live dressed like a gangsta rapper, and says on a live TV broadcast "the real way to end racism is that people should fuck each other".
17	* DeadpanSnarker: Creator/AaronSorkin did uncredited work on the script, so naturally there are plenty of examples of this trope.
18	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Bulworth finds out Nina was the assassin sent to kill him. [[HopeSpot But she refuses to fulfill the contract]], seeing up close that Bulworth could really make a difference if he lives. Just when Bulworth gets a good night's rest and wakes up clear-headed and ready to get back to campaigning for real, someone else shoots him, leaving his fate uncertain.]]
19	* {{Gratuitous Rap}}:
20	** It is quite clear that Sen. Bulworth has not practiced his craft much.
21	** The rapping gets worse as Bulworth's insomnia does.
22	* HeroicBSOD: Bulworth. Halfway through the movie he's clearly an insomniac and falling apart. But his breakdown is making him ''more'' popular (and depending on your political view, ''more'' sane).
23	* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:When Bulworth finds out Nina won't kill him after all. Some other assassin -- and it's never said who hired ''that'' guy -- shoots him the next morning.]]
24	* HypocriticalHumor[=/=]KnewItAllAlong: Murphy has been upset about the way Bulworth has gone off message thanks to his HeroicBSOD until members of the media (including [[AsHimself Larry King]]) congratulate him on Bulworth's new strategy; Murphy immediately turns around and acts as if it was his plan all along.
25	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: As befitting a movie with uncredited work by Creator/AaronSorkin:
26	-->'''Bulworth:''' You said you didn't have to know who it [the guy who's the target] is.\
27	'''Vinnie:''' Hey, I'm just the liaison, that's all. I don't want to know who this is. I don't wanna know from nothin', and I don't want no one to know nothin' about me. I need to talk to you, I call Eddie Davers, You need to talk to me, you call Eddie Davers. That way, nobody knows from nothin', including Eddie Davers.\
28	'''Bulworth:''' Fine, fine.\
29	'''Vinnie:''' Except for one thing.\
30	'''Bulworth:''' What's that?\
31	'''Vinnie:''' I gotta know who this guy is.\
32	'''Bulworth:''' You said-\
33	'''Vinnie:''' Yeah, but that was in the, uh, abstract.
34	* InLoveWithTheMark: [[spoiler:Nina]] is revealed to be Bulworth's assigned assassin, but decides to not fulfill the contract after realizing his potential and also falling for him.
35	* InsistentTerminology: Bulworth calls the hit he's planning on himself the "[[UnusualEuphemism weekend research project]]", and when Vinnie talks about how he's never done a meeting where he doesn't know the identity of the guy he's going to off, Bulworth corrects him, "You mean research."
36	* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: When Bulworth is on TV in brutal honesty mode, he suggests that the USA should engage in "[[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness a voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction]]". Seeing the blank look on the interviewer's face, he re-phrases it more bluntly: "Everybody just gotta keep fuckin' each other 'til they're all the same color".
37	* IrrevocableOrder: The hitman Bulworth hires can't be called off.
38	* MayDecemberRomance: Bulworth (Beatty) falls hard for the much younger Nina (Berry), who seemingly brushes him off with a cutting remark about how old he ''really'' is. This is a bit of an InJoke regarding actor Beatty's notorious womanizing well into... well, when the movie was made.
39	* MeaningfulName: His bizarre acts of freestyling the hard, nasty truths of American politics make him ''worth the bull''shit of the current "status quo".
40	* NoNameGiven: The [[spoiler: news photographer]] played by Creator/GrahamBeckel is billed simply as "Man with Dark Glasses".
41	* {{Only Sane Man}}: In a way, Bulworth really ''is'' sane, as his breakdown allows him to speak truths he couldn't otherwise say in the current political climate. But it also applies to Bulworth's beleaguered campaign manager Murphy (Creator/OliverPlatt) who's trying to keep up with the increasing craziness surrounding him.
42	* OnSecondThought:
43	-->'''Nina:''' Yo.\
44	'''Bulworth:''' Yo, yo, yo to you!\
45	'''Nina:''' Later.\
46	'''Bulworth:''' Uh, I was hoping for sooner!\
47	'''Darnell:''' (''Nina's brother'') [[MySisterIsOffLimits What'd you say?]]\
48	'''Bulworth:''' Uh...later's good.
49	* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy: A political example.
50	* RefugeInAudacity: The more Bulworth acts crazy, the more the public supports him. [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy Dressing up gangsta]] [[NWordPrivileges and dropping the N-word everywhere]] makes him even more popular.
51	* {{Satire}}: The film is an angry satire of the American Democratic Party's Liberalism in TheNineties.
52	* ShootTheShaggyDog: After all that self-discovery and personal growth, [[spoiler:Bulworth is shot. By someone else -- the hitman (or rather hit''woman'') he hired decided not to, noticing that he had a chance of making things better for people, [[InLoveWithTheMark and had fallen in love with him]].]]
53	* SuicideByAssassin: Bulworth is so depressingly fed up with his cookie-cutter campaign and how he feels like he's sold out that he decides to hire someone to kill him.
54	* ThrowingOutTheScript: Bulworth gets visibly bored of his speech, then gives a very candid answer to an audience question and never stops.
55	* {{Vice City}}: Much of the third act takes place in South Central Los Angeles.
56	* WalkAndTalk: Or rather, run and talk; when Bulworth is walking out of the airport, into meetings, or anywhere, when he thinks some is going to kill him, he walks very fast or even runs, so Murphy and Feldman have to struggle to keep up with him.
57	* {{Your Days Are Numbered}}: Putting out a hit on himself frees Sen. Bulworth to say what he really thinks.
58	----
59	-->''"You can't be no ghost, Bulworth, you gotta be a spirit."''

Context Film / Bulworth