Warren Beatty is a successful actor, director and producer. In addition to the entertainment industry, he has been publicly involved in liberal and democratic causes for the greater part of his life. He was seven when Franklin Roosevelt was reelected in 1944; the first presidential election that he was aware of. (Thompson p.24) Beatty has taken politics seriously for more than 30 years. After stumping for Robert Kennedy, Beatty strategized for George McGovern. (Kirn) As the sixties gained steam, Beatty became close to many blacks who were active in the struggle for civil rights , and the era was clearly central to his political development. (Gates) When Hart sought the Democratic nomination in 1984 , Beatty was one of his closest advisors. (Hirschberg) He was also a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War. He was an active worker for Jimmy Carter’s election in 1978. (Munshower Pg. 88) He has since forged a complex web of connections in Congress, giving him inside access to the system. (Kirkland) A skilled campaigner, a professional-level politico, an enthusiastic barnstormer, and the obvious sincerity of his alignment to the liberal cause is enough to nurture the suspicion that Beatty intends to someday toss his own hat into the ring. (Munshower Pg. 89) Still, he has yet to run for actual office. Perhaps this is because he has the great luxury of not having a career as a politician and yet can still say what he wants to say to a vast audience. (Beatty) “If I want to say something I can just sort of get it out in this medium (the cinema). I’m a really lucky guy to be able to do that — and I do it well. So it would seem goofy to go and do it badly in public office.”( Kirkland) Nevertheless, when the possibility of a Beatty candidacy was broached in the late nineties he did not rush to deny it. Many years before Bulworth, he had confided to Orson Welles that he was serious about someday being the President of the United States. (Thompson p.25) Warren Beatty has made other films with political themes. Shampoo, a comedy of manners brought into focus by the 1968 election-night festivities around which it revolves, was used by the actor to express his disillusionment with the nation’s political indifference, and the hypocrisy and lying that takes place in politics. (Munshower Pg. 85) He also received an Oscar for Best Director for Reds, a 1981 drama about the American Communist John Reed and the Russian Revolution. Whether ofr not Beatty was planning to use Bulworth as a springboard for the Democratic nomination for the 2000 presidential race, it is clear that he was trying to represent to the American voting public what Sen. Paul Wellstone once referred to as “The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.” (Holhut) It is that disenchantment with the Democratic Party, the “terrible sleepiness” that he sees in the American electorate and the rise of the influence of big business and the media in politics that drove him to make Bulworth. (Koltnow) Beatty decries “an age of technological innovation that allows such a sophisticated knowledge of the demographics that it’s become necessary for a politician to follow rather than lead. (Gates) He goes on to say, “What we call the golden era of American film, from the late sixties to the late seventies was a wonderful period in movies and politics. It was a period when you didn’t know that you would lose, in the box office and in the voting booth, if you did the right thing. Now you know – you will lose.” (Gates) Bulworth is the story of a man who has nothing left to lose.

Synopsis of the Film

The movie begins with a prologue, which sets the stage. It is mid March of 1996. The California Primaries are in progress. Robert Dole has secured the Republican nomination and Clinton is unopposed. The population is apathetic.

Jay Billington Bulworth, a sixty-year old, white, old guard liberal is the incumbent California Senator running for re election. He is in the pocket of the special interests, specifically the insurance industry. We are subjected to various snippets of campaign commercials for Bulworth for Senator, run ad nauseam as the credits roll. Sitting in the dark in his office, watching the commercials on videotape, and sobbing uncontrollably, is Senator Bulworth. He hates his life and the hypocrite that he has become. He hasn’t eaten in three days and is facing financial ruin because of poor investment strategies.

He has made an arrangement with the insurance companies for a ten million dollar life insurance policy, payable to his daughter. This in exchange for his help in preventing a bill disadvantageous to the insurance companies from being reported out of committee. What the insurance companies do not know is that Bulworth has paid a mob connection to have himself killed within the next two days.

The knowledge of his impending demise is liberating, and he begins to speak frankly about political issues. He says things that everyone knows are true but are afraid to express because of the political fallout that is sure to follow. While at Grace Church, addressing a group of urban dwelling African Americans, he departs from his canned speech and admits that he cares nothing about African American issues because they do not contribute enough money to his campaign. When asked if he is saying that the Democratic party doesn’t care about the African American vote, he says,
“Isn’t that obvious? You got half of your kids out of work and the other half are in jail, do you see any Democrat doing anything about it? Certainly not me.”
His appearance is cut short by his campaign manager who pulls a fire alarm thus ending the appearance.

As he leaves the church two key characters are introduced into the plot. An aged, homeless black man, (played by the revolutionary black playwright/poet Amiri Baraka), who is presented as a type of prophet, and appears throughout the film. The other is Nina, a street-wise, beautiful, politically hip African-American woman who has been raised by 60’s activists (Grynbaum) who was present in the audience and has now captured the senator’s eye.

Invigorated and refreshed by this cathartic confession, Bulworth’s appetite returns and he has his driver stop for some fried chicken. This causes him to be late for an appearance at a fundraiser sponsored by the film industry which is being held in a private home. He tells the assembled producers that they make a lousy product and that the only reason he is there is because they are rich Jews who will contribute lots of money to his campaign. His appearance is again cut short by his campaign manager who is unsure of what to think about this strange and sudden change in his candidate.

On the move again, he invites a couple of Nina’s fly girlfriends to ride along in the limousine. He is intrigued by the rap music they are playing and the street slang that they use. They take him to an after hours club. As they arrive at the club, the prophet appears at the limousine door and says to Bulworth,
“Bulworth! Boobop Shu Bam! … Can you sing Bulworth?… You got to sing! But you got to be a spirit Bulworth … You got to be a spirit. But the spirit will not descend without – song. You got to sing fool! Don’t be a ghost Bulworth!”

They stay at the club dancing all night and doing drugs. He begins to talk in rhymes. Nina is becoming attracted to him. When the awake the next day Bulworth is off to a large fundraising event at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel organized by the various corporations who pour money into his campaign. When he steps up to the podium at the dinner, he again departs from his speech and begins to rap, haltingly at first but with the help of a little music from his newly acquired friends, more confidently. In doggerel, he accuses and exposes the basic greed and corruption of the corporations who have been supplying him money in order to buy his influence in the Senate. He saves the lion’s share for the insurance companies and their opposition to national health care. He sings.
“You can call it simple payer or the Canadian way. Only socialized medicine will ever save the day! Come on now! Let me hear that dirty word! SOCIALISM!!”

Bulworth leaves the dinner, and Nina attempts to lure him up to his hotel room where the hired killer awaits. She is unsuccessful and Bulworth leaves in his limousine, Nina and her two friends in tow. He moves quickly from place to place afraid that he is about to be shot. He pays a visit to conservative white church, but stays only a moment, increasingly worried about the hit man he has hired. Nina and Bulworth flee in the limo. Bulworth has decided to call off his murder and drives to the house of his mob contact to wait for him. While they wait he asks Nina, why she thinks there are no more black leaders. She replies,
“Some people say it’s because they all got killed, but I think it’s because of the decimation of the manufacturing base in the urban centers. You see Senator, an optimistic energized population throws up optimistic energized leaders and when we shift manufacturing to the sunbelt and the third world you destroy the blue collar core of the black activist population.” Bulworth is stunned, obviously he has underestimated her.

“Some people would say the problem is purely cultural. But the power of the media that’s continually controlled by fewer and fewer people, add to that monopoly of the media, a consumer culture that’s based on self-gratification, now you’re not likely to have a population that wants a leadership that calls for self-sacrifice. But the fact is, I’m just a materialist at heart. If I look at the economic base, high domestic employment means jobs for African Americans. World War Two meant lots of jobs for black folks. That is what energized the community for the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties. An energized, hopeful community will not only produce leaders, but more importantly it will produce leaders they will respond to. Now what do you think, Senator?”
Bulworth meets his contact and makes arrangements to call off the hit. His next stop is a televised debate between himself and the challenger for his senate seat. Asked about his new campaign strategy he replies, “Our campaigns are financed by the same guy that pays you folks your money, so what are we talking about?” He starts to talk about the payoffs he has received for voting the way the corporations tell him t. Once again, his campaign manager intervenes by cutting off the power, effectively ending the debate. Soon after, his campaign manager meets backstage none other than talk show host Larry King, who tells him that there has been a groundswell of public support for the Senator’s frankness, and that he wants to have him on his show. The campaign manager immediately changes his opinion of the Senator’s actions and starts to take credit for them.

Receiving word that his mob contact has thus far been unsuccessful in calling off the hit, Bulworth flees the debate, falling into a fountain as he runs. His clothes soaked, Nina takes him home to her family. He changes into some hip-hop clothes given him by one of Nina’s relatives, while she takes his suit to the cleaners. Now fully assimilated into black street culture, he ventures out into the hood late at night looking for Nina, who has not yet returned from the cleaners. He runs into a gang of street youths selling drugs for the local dealer, L.D. He convinces them to let him buy them ice cream and after, walking away, he turns back to see a police car pull up on the boys. One of the officers begins to harass the boys and pushes an ice cream cone into the face one of the youths. Bulworth returns and pushes an ice cream cone into the officer’s face and throws him across the hood of the squad car. Bulworth is almost shot before the officers recognize him and beat a hasty retreat. Nina watches all this from the shadows. L.D. also witnesses the interaction and takes Bulworth back to his house telling him that he knows where Nina is. Back at L.D.’s house, Bulworth questions the use of children as street dealers. L.D. sarcastically asks him what he knows about and says,

“I provide for these little brothers. I’m giving them entry-level positions into the only growth sector occupation that’s truly open to them right now. That’s the substance supply industry… Ya’ll don’t give a sh-t about it! You greedy ass politicians! That’s what you tell me when you all vote to cut them school programs, when you all vote to cut them funds to the job programs…How’s a young man going to take care of his financial responsibilities working at Burger King, he ain’t! And please don’t even start with that school sh-t! There ain’t no education goin on up in that motherf—ker.”

The senator is unimpressed with the explanation and leaves in L.D.’s car. His next appointment is an evening news program where he will be interviewed along with other candidates up for reelection. There he repeats his statement that it is obvious that the Democratic Party cares nothing about its black constituency. When questioned about his recent use of obscenity he makes the case that the real obscenity is the disenfranchisement of the poor by the special interests and large corporations that control the Congress by the large amounts of money that they contribute. While doing this, he repeats word for word the things that Nina and L.D. have been telling him. He finishes by asking the interviewer why the broadcast frequencies were given to away by the Congress rather than sold for the billions that they were worth and suggests that the legislators were bought off with contributions from the broadcasters.

“It’s hopeless you see, if you’re running for office without no T.V.
If you don’t get big money you get a defeat,
Corporations and broadcasters make you dead meat.
You’ve been taught in this country there’s speech that is free,
But free do not get you no spots on TV.
If you want to have senators not on the take,
Them give them free airtime they won’t have to fake!

Telecommunications is the name of the beast,
They’re eating up the world from the West to the East.
The movies, the tabloids, TV and magazines,
They tell us what to think and do and all our hopes and dreams.
All this information makes America fat,
But if the companies are out of the county how American is that?”

Nearly escaping death from a falling klieg light, he takes the limo back to the hood with Nina. She confesses to him that she was hired to help kill him but now she has changed her mind and he is safe. After five days without sleep, Bulworth collapses on the bed, out cold. On the wall behind them is the photograph from the 1968 Olympics of two African-American athletes with fists raised. That image, captured on TV screens around the world, was an expression of black power and a protest against conditions of blacks in America.(Grynbaum)

Jay Billington Bulworth awakes the next day to discover that he has won the California primary, taking over seventy percent of the vote. The press is camped outside Nina’s house in anticipation of the Senator’s victory speech. Bulworth has recovered his composure, his campaign face, and his blue suit, fresh from the cleaners. L.D. is present at the home, having decided to abandon his life of crime and become a civic activist. Bulworth glad hands his way around the living room looking every inch the senator, but as he is about to walk out the door he turns to look at Nina and asks, “Are you coming?” He waits a moment but she doesn’t get up, and so he turns and makes his way into the waiting crowd. At the last moment, Nina comes out the door and joins him. They kiss as the cameras roll. The prophet says, “Why you lookin’ like you never seen this before?” The lovers are happy. The senator has recaptured the idealism and commitment of his youth, and Nina has found in Bulworth a great champion of the poor who needs her love and support. She enters the limousine and he is about to follow when suddenly a shot rings out, and he is hit, face down in the street.

We do not know if Bulworth survives the attack on his life. Late that evening, outside the hospital the prophet walks. Repeating once again his charge to the senator as the movie ends.

“Hold on, we don’t need no ghosts! We need a soul. You got to sing Bulworth! You can’t be no ghost, but you got to be a spirit, Bulworth, you got to be a spirit! And the spirit will not descend without – song! We need a spirit Bulworth, not a ghost! Not a Ghost!”
The prophet walks towards the camera and breaks the fourth wall. Looking at the audience one last time before he leaves he says, “You got to be a spirit. You can’t be no ghost.” Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, we are left with the hope that even if Bulworth dies, the truth in his message will live on if we are willing to let it live in us.

Analysis

Bulworth, co-written with Jeremy Pikser, co-produced with Frank Capra III, directed, and starring Warren Beatty was an attempt by Beatty to give a wake-up call to the Democratic Party to return to it’s liberal and populist roots, and possibly as a trial balloon for a Beatty presidential run in the 2000 election. “This picture has … a message,” says Beatty, “My political conduct has changed. I now think as a person who deals in mass media.” (Hirschberg ) “I have witnessed too many assassinations of people who were saying the right things, whether those assassinations were by bullet or tabloid scandal. Many people have been hurt by these assassinations. I have been hurt by them. I have strong feelings about them, and that is why I made this movie.” (Koltnow) Beatty employs motifs of death and rebirth to suggest the healing power of embodying one’s political consciousness.(Grynbaum)

In the opening scene the campaign commercials beginning with the line, “We stand at the doorstep of a new millennium” is an obvious reference to the Clinton phrase “Building a bridge to the twenty-first century.” Bulworth is crying not only for his only feet of clay, but also for the Democratic Party’s abandonment of its principles. Beatty has referred to himself “an old-time, unrepentant, bleeding-heart, tax-and-spend” liberal”, also saying “We don’t need a third party, we need a second party.” (Beatty) On the wall in Bulworth’s office we see a real picture of Beatty with Robert Kennedy.(Watson) This is a thinly veiled notice that what we are about to witness is not necessarily a work of fiction, but a personal manifesto.

The film takes the message and sound of African-American hip-hop culture seriously and compels a serious minded white liberal audience to do so. (Grynbaum). Using the vehicle of rap music, Bulworth is on the same wavelength as Eddie Murphy’s The Distinguished Gentleman, in which the protagonist satirizes Washington D.C. politics as the biggest con game in the world. (Political Film Society) In contrast, Bulworth leaves us with the hope that men of honor and compassion may yet prevail if we but recognize and rally around them. Nina is converted from assassin to ally as she hears Bulworth publicly proclaim her political and economic philosophy. The drug dealer L.D., is transformed into a positive force in his community when he realizes that he is no longer disenfranchised, as he hears Bulworth repeat verbatim the complaints that he had made about the political system. L.D. now has a representative voice in the political process.
It is undeniable that Mr. Beatty’s central political philosophy and concerns are the central focus of this film. One need only a brief review of his remarks given upon being honored by the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action at the Eleanor Roosevelt Annual Awards Dinner at Beverly Hilton Hotel on September 29, 1999.

“Does anyone doubt the role of campaign contributors in keeping the defense budget as high as it is? Or trying to privatize Social Security? Or stifling gun control? Or hampering environmental protection?

Does anyone doubt that campaign contributions help buy subsidies for nuclear, coal and oil while solar and wind energy go pretty much unattended or that campaign contributions set ridiculously under priced fees for private grazing, mining and lumbering on public lands, or cause the 70 to 80 billion dollar digital spectrum to be given away to the broadcasters for nothing in the telecommunications bill that both Democratic candidates supported?
Broadcasters are not only among the biggest campaign contributors, they have the power to decide the candidates you see and for how long you see them.
It’s a rare man in public office who’s got the guts to go up against the broadcasters. (And it’s a rare man in Hollywood who’s got the guts to go up against the broadcasters.)

A democracy becomes a plutocracy under these conditions. A state in which the wealthy class rules.
Is there no protest anymore?”

Bulworth presents the idea that America is divided by class, that elected officials serve mostly the interests of the rich, and that black America has been ravaged by the globalization of the economy. (Hirschberg) Nevertheless, this is not what the majority of Americans think or what the Democratic Party, with which Beatty has a life-long involvement, thinks. (Hirschberg) The film is surrealistic in its presentation of very real political and social milieus. Consider the senate offices, segregated churches, the news coverage, the private political meetings in wealthy homes, the after hours hip hop club, the televised debate, the public fundraiser, the hood, the crack dealers house, the well kept home in an impoverished neighborhood, the police harassment, the political interview, the campaign headquarters. I have personally been present at, a participant in, or a witness to, all of these in real life. In my experience, they are authentically portrayed. But not Jay Bulworth’s speech and actions. These were fantastic, improbable, thrilling. What if such a thing were to happen! I was reminded of Lech Walensa in the Gdansk shipyard, or better yet, Boris Yeltsin standing on a tank in front of the Russian parliament in 1991. Where are American politicians with such chutzpah? Beatty’s connections with politics and the media made it relatively easy for Beatty to create a realistic atmosphere for Bulworth to operate in. The appearance of Larry King at the televised debate is particularly noteworthy, reminiscent of the appearance of H.V. Kaltenborn in Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

In the closing scenes, when Bulworth is shot down, Beatty uses subliminal techniques to identify the character (as well as himself?) with slain political heroes Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. After he is shot, Bulworth is shown face down in a position and lighting very similar to the photographs taken of RFK immediately after he was shot down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Immediately afterward, Bulworth’s supporters are shown pointing slightly upward and to the left to show the direction from which the shot came, almost identically recreating the footage taken of supporters of Martin Luther King Jr. pointing from the balcony where he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Conclusion

Bulworth is a politically astute film from an artist who has dabbled in politics for 30 years. (Watson) Beatty says that a movie, no matter how political its themes, has to entertain. (Hirschberg ) What set the early 2000 race apart from those of previous years, is that Americans were aware of how puny a role they got to play in picking the next president. (Matthews) The Republican declaration for Bush appeared all but unchallenged if the amount of money put forth for the candidate was any indicator. Gore, a party pol who had been groomed all his life for the presidency and had paid his dues, appeared to be the inevitable choice for the Dems. Gore, a senator’s son grew up living a life of privilege. (Holhut) His unctuous defense of President Clinton and his “accomplishments” in office only served to point out the vacuum at his moral center. (Holhut) Patrick Caddell, the pollster who guided George McGovern to the Democratic nomination in 1972 and Jimmy Carter all the way to the White House in 1976 argued that Bill Bradley’s 18 years as an uncomplaining Capitol Hill insider made the former New Jersey lawmaker an unlikely claimant to the outsider’s role in 2000. (Matthews) Although Beatty, whose name was floated as a possible candidate for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination by the commentator Ariana Huffington, had not ruled out a run for office, neither had he come close to announcing any serious intention.(Booth) But in a variety of ways, including Bulworth, Beatty let the public know that he was ready if called. Consider the remark he made during his speech to the ADA.

“But if an unexpected person showed that he or she had that spirit and the ability to lead, and said to me there was no liberal running for President, no Wellstone, no Jackson, no Kennedy, no Mario Cuomo, and that serious people of good judgment were talking to that person about running, if I didn’t think they were nuts, it would make no difference to me whether that person had become well-known as a basketball player, or a businessman, an actor, a wrestler, a grocery clerk or a drum majorette.”

Why didn’t Warren Beatty declare his candidacy for the 2000 presidential election? I think it is obvious that after the release of Bulworth, the suggestion in print by Ariana Huffington that he run for office, the weeks of build up in the press culminating with his speech to the Americans for Democratic Action, he came to the conclusion that there was simply not enough support for him to win. A man who has never made a rash professional decision in his life, Beatty exudes caution and competence. (Munshower Pg. 155) In an ABC poll of 452 Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters in mid-August 1999, Gore was supported by 61 percent, while 24 percent backed former Sen. Bill Bradley and 9 percent endorsed Beatty. (Marinucci) Perhaps he was also unwilling enter into a process that he would have little or no control over. After all, Beatty has reportedly been known to dictate the type of film stock and lighting used in his television interviews, and actors who worked with him as he directed and starred in 1981’s “Reds” claim he sometimes asked for more than 70 takes on a single scene. (CNNin) But asked by a reporter later if he was leaving the door open for a future run at the White House, Beatty replied: “It seems like that. I’m not saying ‘no’.”(Marinucci) “I’m not running now,” Mr. Beatty said in an interview, in the February issue of Vanity Fair. “I think the question is : Can I be effective at another time? Whether that is in a year , or two years, who knows?” (AP)

Henry Warren Beatty will be seventy-one in 2008, the same age at which Ronald Wilson Reagan had his first year as President. While the public may still regard him with coolness and an amused envy, (Thompson p.282) a Beatty candidacy might be possible simply because it would blow the cheap business of personal background investigations right off the political map, while offering a politician not unaware of the lives, problems and failures of the common folk. (Long) Seasoned Washington figures such as Bill Moyers, Lyndon Johnson’s former press secretary, and Patrick Caddell, Jimmy Carter’s pollster, give the actor a fighting chance at doing for grass-roots liberalism what Reagan did for Goldwater conservatism. (Kirn) Caddell has said that, “If you’re saying with great enthusiasm that it’s all right to lie if you vote right on abortion, that character has nothing to do with the White House, the Democratic party is going to reap the whirlwind.”(Matthews) The Republicans have attempted to capitalize on this obvious truth, but it must also be noted that claims of compassionate conservatism without a show of true compassion are also likely to backfire, especially as the West faces an uncertain economic future in a new global economy. As our standard of living begins to level out with those of people living in the third world, the Republicans, Libertarians, and Conservatives are hoping that the lot of the impoverished masses outside this country will begin to measure up to ours. True, the promise of great riches for the savvy entrepreneur is offered no matter what the country of his or her birth, and a better lifestyle for all is possible in the long run. But our lives are lived in the short run, and there can be a lot misery produced in a generation where the love of profits is placed above the love of man. Another, and perhaps more realistic scenario is one that has capitalists moving their assets to less regulated markets where they can make greater profits upon the backs of the desperate, while Americans begin to gain an better understanding of the poverty that their ancestors experienced. If this is the reality we face, we can expect that the pendulum of politics will once again swing sharply toward the side of labor and left-leaning liberal philosophy. There may yet be a time for a madly euphoric, if vulgar, truth telling visionary like Jay Billington Bulworth, or his alter ego, Warren Beatty.

Works Cited

Associated Press. “Beatty Says for Now, No Bid for President”. New York Times January 4, 2000
Beatty, Warren. Speech given upon being honored by the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action at the Eleanor Roosevelt Annual Awards Dinner. Beverly Hilton Hotel, September 29, 1999
Booth, William. “Warren Beatty Stops Short Of Presidential Candidacy”. Washington Post September 30, 1999: A6
CNN Interactive. For Warren Beatty, Reputation Not Always Tied to Reality. http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9805/22/warren.beatty. Web posted on: Friday, May 22, 1998 4:50:39 PM EDT
Gates, Jr., H. L.. “The White Negro, With ‘Bulworth,’ Warren Beatty Puts His Career on the Color Line”. The New Yorker. May 11, 1998: 62
Grynbaum, R.N., Ph.D, Gail A.. “Bulworth’s Alchemical Hip-Hop” Quadrant: Journal of the C.G. Jung Foundation of Analytical Psychology. XXIX:2 Summer 1999
Hirschberg, Linn. “Warren Beatty is Trying to Say Something”. The New York Times May 10, 1998: E38
Holhut, Randolph T.. “Is Warren Beatty the Last Real Democrat?” Albion Monitor. http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9910b/warrenreal.html , Web Posted
November 1, 1999
Kirkland, Bruce. “Raging Bulworth”. Toronto Sun, May 10, 1998
Kirn, Walter. “President Bulworth”. Time v. 154 no8, Aug. 23 1999: 35
Koltnow, Barry. “Bitter Laughter: Warren Beatty gets ready for a storm of controversy over his latest film, ‘Bulworth’”. The Orange County Register May 12, 1998
Long, Tom. “Run, Warren, Run! Beatty Could Spice Up Race For Prez”. The Detroit News August 30, 1999
Marinucci, Carla. “Beatty Falls Well Short Of an Announced Run”. San Francisco Chronicle September 30, 1999
Matthews, Chris. “Exploring Warren Beatty’s Chances”. Abiline Reporter-News September 17, 1999
Munshower, Suzanne. Warren Beatty: His Life, His Loves, His Work. New York, St. Martins Press, 1983
Political Film Society. PFS Film Review: Bulworth. http://www.geocities.com/~polfilms/bulworth.html. Accessed November 10, 2001
Thompson, David. Warren Beatty and Dessert Eyes: A Life and A Story. New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1987
Watson, Neal. “Bull’s-eye, Bulworth”. Edmonton Sun March 19, 1999