It is amazing to consider that sixtysomething Warren Beatty has only made 17 films since his debut in director Elia Kazan's 1961 drama Splendour in the Grass.
Amazing, yes, but not surprising. HELLO - Julie Christie, Joan Collins, Cher, Diane Keaton, Madonna and on and on ... the man has been busy, folks. Would you want to go to work?
Beatty's legendary reputation as a ladies' man has tended to obscure an impressive career replete with serious, politically minded films.
Beatty may have a limited range as an actor, but he is a well-rounded talent - one of Hollywood's most accomplished hyphenates - who has produced, directed and usually co-written several of his finest films. He serves all of the aforementioned functions, as well as assuming the title role, in Bulworth, the week's major video release.
If not a huge box-office hit, the film was a critical triumph for Beatty, who is nominated for best original screenplay for Sunday's Oscars.
A scathing, often-riotously funny indictment of the absurd cost of American political campaigns and politicians who answer first to the corporate interests who pay their freight, Bulworth represents Beatty's most fearless performance - and his funniest.
That may not mean much for a guy who doesn't exactly specialize in comedy, but the buttoned-down Senator Jay Billington Bulworth's abrupt transformation to Puff Senator, the whitest practitioner of hip-hop to ever don a knit cap and a 12-pound gold chain, is inspired stuff.
This is a politically astute film from an artist who has dabbled in politics for 30 years. That is a picture of the real Beatty with Robert Kennedy in Bulworth's office. (Some dabbling.)
Along with his new-found affection for hip-hop, Bulworth finds the truth to his liking, and at each stop along the campaign trail ditches the prepared statement for a bit of frank talk with voters - the kind that loses elections.
Beatty may be the classic limousine liberal, but Bulworth at least addresses the way that huge constituencies in American life - in essence, those without money - are for all intents and purposes disenfranchised from the political process.
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