Daily Dialogue — January 2, 2019

Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth: It’s up to the people to decide what the state of California and the nation will do. [starts rhyming] Ooh, what we’ll do, the nation we’ll do. It’s up to you, what’ll we do / What we’ll do, well, it’s up to you. [starts rapping] You know, it ain’t that funny, you contribute on my money/ You make a contribution, and you get a solution/ As long as you can pay, I’m gonna do it all your way/ Yes, the money talks and the people walk.

Tanya puts some background rap music.

Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth: Yeah!/ Now, let me hear you say it/ Big Money! Big Money! Big Money! Big Money! Big Money! Big Money! One man, one vote/ Now, is that really real? The name of our game is “let’s make a deal”/ Now, people got their problems, the haves and have-nots/ But the ones that make me listen pay for 30 seconds spots.
Cheryl, Tanya: 30, 30 seconds! 30, 30 seconds!
Sen. Jay Billington Bulworth: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! / Yo, Bank of America, this table over here, Wells Fargo and Citibank, you’re really very dear/ Loan billions to Mexico, and never have to fear, cause taxpayers, taxpayers take it in the rear!/ And over here, we got our friends from oil/ They don’t give a shit how much wilderness they spoil/ They tell us they are careful, we know that it’s a lie/ As long as we keep driving cars, they’ll let the planet die/ Exxon, Mobil, the Saudis and Kuwait, if we still got the Middle East, the atmosphere can wait/ The Arabs got the oil, we buy everything they sell/ But if the brothers raise the price, we’ll blow them all to hell./ Now let me hear you say it: Saddam! Hussein! Saddam! Hussein! Hmmm! Hmmm!

Cheryl, Tanya: Saddam! Hussein!

— Bulworth (1998), screenplay by Warren Beatty & Jeremy Pikser, story Warren Beatty

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Politics.

Trivia: The film was Oscar nominated for the Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Academy Award in 1999 for Jeremy Pikser (screenplay) and Warren Beatty (story/screenplay) but lost out to Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard for Shakespeare in Love (1998).

Dialogue On Dialogue: Political satire is really challenging to pull off and Bulworth pushes the envelope conceptually: “A suicidally disillusioned liberal politician puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters by affecting the rhythms and speech of hip-hop music and culture.”