Good ol' Tim Robbins. He may be a liberal cheesehead, but he's also an outstanding actor and writer. He's done some good work. In recognition, I'd like to offer a modest proposal to both honor his best work- and stick it up his ass.
His best work of all was his classic 1992 political satire Bob Roberts. If you have any taste at all for political movies, especially political comedies, this is an absolute must see. He presented the story as a fake documentary of an evil right-wing folksinger running for the US senate.
Naturally, the key to the success of the whole project is the quality of the songs. Tim Robbins and his brother wrote a bunch of "folk" songs espousing the characters' despicable right-wing views.
They did indeed write an outstanding batch of songs, better musically and more interesting in fact than anything Dylan himself has written in at least 20 years.
Yet they have had very limited exposure, and that is really unfortunate. The movie itself was a big flop commercially. How many political movies have ever been hits?
Moreover, Tim Robbins himself was careful to corral the songs away from being heard out of context. From the notes to the DVD:
Because the music works so well and because the lyrics capture the conservative agenda, both brothers are adamantly opposed to releasing the songs on a soundtrack. "I had it written into the contract that there wouldn't be any soundtrack album," said Tim. "We just don't want to hear these songs played out-of-context on the radio."
That's just a damned shame. These really are some outstanding songs, and they're mostly going to waste.
Here's my proposal then: Some of you musicians should pick out the songs from the movie and learn to play them. Play them around bars, maybe make some simple studio recordings to distribute as MP3s on the net. Truly these songs deserve a wider audience.
Article comments
1 - Rodney Welch
Thanks for reminding me why I hated the movie so much; it was an unfunny, frustrated, ham-fisted farce whose paranoid politics seemed to have been lifted wholecloth out of Gore Vidal's nuttier essays. No wonder he appeared in it; Tim Robbins is the only person in ten years who has taken him seriously. Oh, and Timothy McVeigh.
2 - Al Barger
Rodney, there's just no pleasing you danged liberals. I finally come up with a hardcore left-wing diatribe that I really dig, and then YOU denounce it. Come on, work with me here.
But they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain
3 - mike
Al, you need to get out more. As satire, this is about as funny as American cluster bombs in a Baghdad schoolyard.
4 - Kate Sherrod
I've not seen this movie, but I'm dang well going to look for it now.
And even from a purely (chaotic) neutral standpoint, Al's project demands to be done!
Don't ever, ever make art you're not willing to deal with in your future life. Even if it's a dumb little movie song.
Someday it will haunt you.
Boo!
(did I skeer ya?)