Bulworth on VHS, released 1998 by 20th Century Fox, is one of the stranger studio gambles of the late 1990s. Warren Beatty wrote it, directed it, and starred in it as a sitting U.S. senator who has a breakdown, takes out a life insurance policy on himself, and then accidentally finds the will to live by going full hip-hop on the campaign trail. Fox put real money behind it. It got a wide release, an Oscar nomination for Beatty's screenplay, and almost no cultural traction on arrival. That gap between studio investment and public reception is part of what makes the tape interesting now.
The late 1990s were the peak years of the politically satirical studio film, and Bulworth sits at a hard edge of that moment. Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog came out in late 1997. Primary Colors hit in early 1998. Bulworth followed in May of that year, and it went further than either of them, putting Beatty's senator in a Jheri curl wig, rhyming at campaign fundraisers, and saying out loud what most political satire coded in subtext. Don Cheadle is in it. Halle Berry is in it. Oliver Platt. Paul Sorvino. The cast is not a joke. The film just refused to be comfortable, and 1998 audiences were not sure what to do with that. Revisiting it now, the satire reads sharper than it probably did on opening weekend.
A studio film where the senator stops lying, starts rapping, and the whole thing works.
This copy is in good shape for a tape of this age. The case shows typical shelf wear but holds together clean. Check the tape window: the ribbon should sit flat with no slack or bunching visible through the front of the shell. If the ribbon looks loose or has developed any lateral creep against the inside edge, run a pencil-point wind before you play it. The tape itself, if stored upright and away from heat, should be stable. The printed label on the cassette face is worth a look too. Fading or moisture ghosting on the label is usually the first visible sign of storage stress on a Fox home video release from this run.
OWNER VERIFY: Confirm tape is the 1998 20th Century Fox release and not a later reissue or rental dub; check label print and shell markings.
The Rental Counter
Before streaming flattened the difference between movies, VHS was a physical act. Rentals, buybacks, Blockbuster sleeves, promo tapes, ex-rentals with security stickers still on the side. 90s tapes outlived the stores they came from. We keep them in their original cases where possible and note every sticker, sun-fade, and sleeve crease in the photography.
INSPECTED IN STORE / 707 E FREMONT, LAS VEGAS
Inspected in Las Vegas on May 2026. Each piece is a single unit, sold as inspected.
KEEP IT CLASSIC
This bulworth vhs originates from the 90s era[01], represents 20th Century Fox[02]'s output, . Each piece in the shop is a single unit, inspected by hand in Las Vegas before listing. The data manifest to the right records the fields on file for this lot; where a field is empty it has been omitted rather than guessed.
INSPECTED IN STORE / 707 E FREMONT, LAS VEGAS
- VENDOR
- 20th Century Fox
- ERA
- 90s
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Every piece in the shop is a single unit. Once it is gone, it is gone.
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