1992 movie starring, among others,
Tim Robbins,
Alan Rickman,
James Spader and
Gore Vidal. Robbins plays a
right-wing senatorial
candidate who will stop at nothing to win
election.
Roberts' gimmick is being a right-wing folk singer, whose claim to fame is an album called "The Times Are Changing Back Again." In other words, Bob Roberts is Bob Dylan's talent wrapped in Sonny Bono's ambition.
That ambition is largely unbridled - Roberts resorts to all kinds of underhanded tricks to win election. At the very least, I can recall (spoiler alert!) faking an assassination attempt (and paralysis), slander, libel, and violence.
Robbins not only starred in the film, he also directed and wrote it, and composed the right-wing folk songs Roberts sings. Worried that the songs would lose their meaning and could be used to promote far-right views outside the context of the movie, Robbins refused to release a soundtrack album, even though the songs are inspired, to say the least.