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Bulworth is a 1998 film, starring Warren Beatty and Halle Berry. The story begins as the title character, Senator Bulworth of California, grows weary with his political career and failing marriage. He decides to end his life, taking out a ten million dollar life insurance policy so his daughter will remain well off, and hiring a hitman to kill him in two days' time. With nothing to lose, he spends his final hours telling the public how he really feels about them, smoking marijuana, dressing like a gangsta, and rapping about socialism.
With a new found purpose in life as the voice of the underclass, he begins to regret his decision to hire someone to kill him. Can he stay one step ahead of the assassin's bullet?
Tropes used in Bulworth include:
- Brutal Honesty: Bulworth himself, naturally.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Downer Ending: Bulworth finds out Nina was the assassin sent to kill him. But she refuses to fulfill the contract, seeing up close that Bulworth could really make a difference if he lives. Just when Bulworth gets a good night's rest and wakes up clear-headed and ready to get back to campaigning for real, someone else shoots him.
- Gratuitous Rap: It is quite clear that Sen. Bulworth has not practiced his craft much.
- The rapping gets worse as Bulworth's insomnia does.
- Heroic BSOD: Bulworth. Halfway through the movie he's clearly insomniac and falling apart. But his breakdown is making him more popular (and depending on your political view, more sane).
- Hope Spot: When Bulworth finds out Nina won't kill him after all.
- In the Future, Humans Will Be One Race: When Bulworth is on TV in brutal-honesty mode, he suggests that the U.S.A. should engage in "a voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction". Seeing the blank look on the interviewer's face, he re-phrases it more bluntly: "Everybody just gotta keep fuckin' everybody 'til they're all the same color".
- Irrevocable Order: The hitman Bulworth hires can't be called off.
- May-December Romance: Bulworth (Beatty) falls hard for the much younger Nina (Berry), who seemingly brushes him off with a cutting remark about how old he really is. This is a bit of an In-Joke regarding actor Beatty's notorious womanizing well into... well, when the movie was made.
- Only Sane Man: In a way, Bulworth really is sane, as his breakdown allows him to speak truths he couldn't otherwise say in the current political climate. But it also applies to Bulworth's beleaguered campaign manager Murphy (Oliver Platt) who's trying to keep up with the increasing craziness surrounding him.
- Refuge in Audacity: The more Bulworth acts crazy, the more the public supports him. Dressing up gangsta and dropping the N-word everywhere makes him even more popular.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog
- Suicide by Cop
- Strawman Political
- Throwing Out the Script: Bulworth gets visibly bored of his speech, then gives a very candid answer to an audience question and never stops.
- Vice City: Much of the third act takes place in South Central Los Angeles.
- Your Days Are Numbered