USA: The premiere of "Bobby", which opened the AFI (American film Institute) Film festival in Los Angeles

Record ID: 220056

  • Title: USA: The premiere of "Bobby", which opened the AFI (American film Institute) Film festival in Los Angeles
  • Date: 9th November 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAURENCE FISHBURNE, WHO PORTRAYS EDWARD ROBINSON IN "BOBBY", SAYING: "I think I knew that he (Senator Robert 'Bobby' F. Kennedy) was he was the attorney general. I think I knew that he was his brothers right arm. I think knew he had plans, he had an agenda to change things in this country. I knew that he had a really incredible heart."
  • Embargoed: 24th November 2006 12:00
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  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA42XR5NQXAE71BV081YFJSH7FT
  • Story Text: The premiere of "Bobby", which opened the AFI (American film Institute) Film festival in Los Angeles, packed the Manns Chinese theater red carpet full of young and veteran stars of the film on Monday (November 1).
    For "Bobby" director and writer Emilio Estevez, his new movie about the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 is a call to young people to shake off their cynicism and engage in the political process.
    "We need a Bobby Kennedy to stand up you know a lot of the politicians today massage the truth and I know their doing, and they know we know, they are trying to figure out what we want to hear. Bobby Kennedy stood up and said what was. It was very bold of him to pin his political future on opposing that war ," said William H. Macy Paul, who portrays Paul said at the premiere.
    Estevez's first feature film in 10 years, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival focuses on the lives of people working at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night Kennedy was shot there.
    The ensemble cast includes Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Anthony Hopkins, Christian Slater, and Lindsay Lohan amongst 19 other co-stars who offer a slice of American life during the political turmoil of the late 1960s.
    "I think you know the scene between Sharon Stone and Demi Moore I think is amazing. I think just that shot of Sharon looking in the mirror really said so much,. There is numerous moments that were so phenomenal in the movie," said Christian Slater, who portrays Timmons in the film.
    Real news footage of Kennedy at rallies, mass protests against the war in Vietnam and grim images from the conflict are woven into the narrative, and audiences today are bound to draw parallels with the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    "You know you look at 1968 it was truly the year that shook the world. Look at what happened that year it was just overwhelming. The political upheaval, the political assassinations, and I believe that what happened with specifically with the death of Bobby Kennedy is was that it was the third strike. Someone that was in the ballroom that night described it as the rug being puled out from underneath an entire generation and what followed was a generation in free fall and I think we have fully recovered ," said Estevez at the Hollywood premiere.
    Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy also called RFK, was one of two younger brothers of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and served as United States Attorney General from 1961-1964. He was one of President Kennedy's most trusted advisors, and worked closely with the President during the Cuban Missile Crisis . His contribution to the African-American Civil Rights Movement is sometimes considered his greatest legacy. After his brother's assassination in late 1963, Kennedy continued as Attorney General under President Johnson for nine months. He resigned in September, 1964, and was elected to the United States Senate from New York that November. He was assassinated shortly after delivering a speech celebrating his victory in the 1968 Democratic Presidential primary of California at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
    "It was not only a chance to revisit memories of a time that is filled with promise but to know that a lot of people are going to see this film that did not know very much about the period who maybe able to look back at it and have their curiosity peaked. With that curiosity perhaps go and want to know more about what really happened, what really went on. What was America? What was its promise to the world? Why were we so loved? Why did the Kennedy family and Dr. (Martin Luther) King and that whole period mean so much to they world? How did we lose it?" said social activist Harry Belafonte, who knew Bobby Kennedy and portrays Nelson in the film.
    Estevez enlisted younger stars like Lohan, Joy Bryant, Nick Cannon as well as family and friends like his father Martin Sheen, former fiancé Demi Moore, and close friend Sharon Stone who was so happy she used shared Yiddish words about pride when talking about the director.
    "I have to say what was so fun is when I saw the movie I was sitting next to friend of mine and she turned to me and she went, 'You are all Michael Jordans' and it's a little like that. Everybody is so amazing that you just keep going 'whoa' 'wow' said " Sharon Stone, who who was wearing a floor length black Dior gown.
    Lohan plays Diane an idealistic woman who marries an old friend, at the Ambassador hotel the night of the Kennedy assassination, to save him from the Vietnam front played by Elijah Wood
    "I learned he had so many children . I heard it yesterday when were on Oprah show somebody in the audience yelled it out Emilio and I didnt didnt even know. I think he had, was it, eleven children someone had said from the audience which was incredible that's a lot. I learned so much because I didn't really in school they don't teach you as much about Bobby as they do about the other Kennedys. My sister didn't know as much so it's a nice thing, especially for me that things that people say I do in life, I act and I like to do things with the characters I play and learn from them and send out what I can send out," Lindsay Lohan, who was wearing a black floor length black Chanel gown.
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