I'm both surprised and not that he's reported to have done some uncredited script polishing, because "Bulworth" is the sort of Clinton-era left-wing political fantasy of a more honest and more liberal--basically the same thing in this schema--Democrat that I would imagine Aaron Sorkin would've wrote entirely himself were he a better writer. It's still a flawed picture, what with its odd mixture of 1970s-style political thriller, such as "The Parallax View" (1974) that also starred Warren Beatty, who is also credited with penning the screenplay and directing this time, with more recent trends of politically-incorrect shock jocks and trolls and none-too-funny gags involving drug use by panicking political aides, and I wouldn't be surprised if many make more out of what it says about class, corruption and race than it deserves, or considered it in a slight way prescient of the Trump administration, but the central premise here of politics as theatre is apt.
The rapping along with the speechifying and TV mockery is great, and in so far as "Bulworth" says anything profound regarding race, profanity or other issues, it's in that cultural and representational frame. The TV interview scene is even rather moving. Beatty is the star and everyone else is merely playing spectators or providing material for him to absorb and later enact--theatrically, that is, not necessarily legislatively--but that's rather the point. This isn't the place to argue whether a suicidal white sexagenarian political hack affecting supposed black youth culture and out of his mind for lack of sleep and food would make for good governance, but it's an amusing curiosity when placed within the cinematic stage of fiction where it belongs.
The rapping along with the speechifying and TV mockery is great, and in so far as "Bulworth" says anything profound regarding race, profanity or other issues, it's in that cultural and representational frame. The TV interview scene is even rather moving. Beatty is the star and everyone else is merely playing spectators or providing material for him to absorb and later enact--theatrically, that is, not necessarily legislatively--but that's rather the point. This isn't the place to argue whether a suicidal white sexagenarian political hack affecting supposed black youth culture and out of his mind for lack of sleep and food would make for good governance, but it's an amusing curiosity when placed within the cinematic stage of fiction where it belongs.