Tim Robbins responds to conspiracy theorists who link his film to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump

A scene from the 1992 film Bob Roberts has set the Twittersphere abuzz following Saturday's events.

Since Saturday, the political world has been shaken by the attempted assassination of the former American president Donald Trumpinjured in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. An event that quickly touched the cultural planet, crystallizing around conspiracy theories worthy of the greatest films.

One in particular has been the victim of the most improbable speculations: the Bob Roberts of Tim Robbins. Released in 1992, this dramatic comedy written, directed and starring the Californian filmmaker (also starring Giancarlo Esposito And Alan Rickman) satirizes a (fictional) Pennsylvania folk singer's Senate campaign.

In the film, in order to rise in the polls and win the election, Bob Roberts stages a fake shooting. A sequence like a reference to a deeply American imagination, and taken up in cinema since the assassination of Kennedy in 1963 and which was inspired even before that, by that of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Bob Roberts is one title in a list as long as your arm: The Manchurian Candidate, Dead Zone, Who Killed the President?, In the Line of Fire, Parallax View, The Great Bombing, I Didn't Kill Lincoln, Jackie, JFK, Scandal.

Yes, but here's the thing: the United States is in a relentless ideological battle that sees the presidential election fast approaching, after the shock of the shooting, conspiracy theories quickly came, with Republicans accusing Democrats of having stirred up hatred directed towards the figure of Trump; others accusing the presidential candidate of having orchestrated this shooting, citing the Tim Robbins film as an example.

An accusation that did not please the filmmaker at all, who, being progressive and opposed to Donald Trump, did not hesitate to use his X account to clarify things:

“To all those who draw a parallel between my film Bob Roberts and the attempted assassination of Trump, let’s be clear. What happened yesterday was a real assassination attempt on a presidential candidate. Those who deny that the assassination attempt was real are truly in a deranged state of mind. A human being was shot yesterday. Another human being was killed. These may not be human beings you agree with politically, but it’s a disgrace. Stop feeling blind hatred for these people. They are fellow Americans. This collective hatred is killing our souls and consuming what’s left of our humanity.”

A statement that echoes the speech delivered by the President Joe Biden from the famous Oval Office of the White House, and for whom, “In America, everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, and hate should have no safe haven.”.

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