You start watching the film and before you know it, you are engrossed, but you dont quite know why!!!
I enjoyed it, all the little stories about the lives of staff etc in the hotel, nothing really major happens until the end, but its still really good.
Worth watching I thought
One of the first things I remember when our family got our first black-and-white television in 1968 was the news reporting of Bobby Kennedy's assassination: the blurred images and shouts of panic caused me to run out of the lounge and tell my mother in the kitchen. She also, of course, remembered the shooting of his elder brother John F a few years before which had already caused her shock and disbelief.
Robert had been instrumental in the peaceful negotiation of the Missile Crisis in Cuba and had earned a reputation as a decent and strong runner for election. The film increasingly took on the form of a Passion Story: Bobby (the film title alone indicates his rapport with the people) appears in contemporary news reel (in colour) as himself and the whole film integrates these clips very neatly into the story-line. Like Christ advancing on Jerusalem to face the crucifixion, we are aware that Bobby Kennedy is also progressing to his own assassination and the whole action is that fatal day which takes place at a hotel. As Christ had spoken to and blessed the crowds days before his death, we feel the presence and expectation of Bobby's arrival having a positive effect on ordinary people who are at the hotel as staff or guests and their lives also are affected positively in anticipation of his visit: couples are reconciled, racial tensions are eased and personal relationships are deepened and this is how the film conveys "Bobby" as a spiritual influence. And the tragedy of his death also causes more reconciliation among these ordinary people.
Bobby Kennedy was clearly adored and raised such hopes of racial reconciliation and a respectful exit from the Vietnam War. News footage reveals his genuine compassion for all people and he did not shirk from going right into their midst to be with them. One scene shows him talking to children in a school about pollution which we would now include in the environmental problem. Now the Trumps and Johnsons of this world have made all this seem as though this all took part on another planet.