Bob Roberts

This Tim Robbins-helmed political satire about demogougery makes for an appropriate election-season re-release. “The character of Bob Roberts (Robbins) is a folksinger/self-made millionaire/senatorial candidate. He is a rebel conservative who appropriates liberal touchstones of the Sixties and Seventies for his own agenda. He is a money and information monger whose bid for public service is merely a means to personal ends. He is a populist stumping for self-interest. Non-believers call him a ‘crypto-fascist.’ Bob Roberts skirts most of the hard, really substantive issues involved in an election campaign ñ but that may just be one of its points about demagogues.”