Nixon

Rating:
Summary: Oliver Stone's Best
Review: Oliver Stone is a remarkable filmmaker when he doesn't let his conspiracy theories intrude too much in his filmmaking, and "Nixon" may be his best effort. Stone takes a surprisingly sympathetic look at Richard Nixon, presenting him as a tragic figure, who was molded and shaped by forces and figures beyond his control. This is a wonderful movie, well worth repeated viewings. As with most of Stone's films, it is less history than great storytelling, but it offers a fascinating and thought-provoking look at an American original, one of our most controversial Presidents, and yet one who embodied many of the paradoxes of the American character and nation itself. As Stone's Nixon says to a portrait of JFK in one of his final moments as President: "The people looked at you and saw what they could be, they looked at me and saw what they are."

Rating:
Summary: Reliving the Nixon Presidency
Review: President Richard Nixon was known for mostly negative things, like the war in Vietnam, the economic crisis at home, and most importantly, the Watergate scandal that brought him down. This movie, directed by Oliver Stone, attempts to summarize some of the key events in Nixon's early life and presidency into one long film.

Stone's portrayal of Nixon is more balanced and more sympathetic than I expected it to be. It is known that Stone is no fan of conservative policies and when I first watched this film I expected Stone to bash the former president left and right, giving him no credit for some of his accomplishments and complete and total blame for his failures. But Stone actually treats Nixon fairly, and when you finish watching the movie, you feel a little bit of empathy for the former president.

Anthony Hopkins is cast in the role as Nixon, and he is quite good, as are most of his co- stars, particularly those who play his wife, Pat, and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. Hopkins may not look much like Nixon in reality, but the makeup people did a good job getting his facial expressions, hair, and crows feet to resemble the thirty- seventh president. And Hopkins performs very well when he mimics Nixon's mannerisms and voice. This is quite an accomplishment for a man with a British accent.

Nixon isn't good enough to rank as a five- star film, but it is still very good and entertaining. It is not one- hundred percent historically accurate, and there are some scenes where Stone adds own assumptions about Nixon and his personality. But since this isn't an official documentary, I don't blame the director for adding his own take on things. And besides, the majority of the film is pretty accurate and it keeps your attention even during the slower parts.

Nixon, the man, wasn't perfect and neither is this film. But "Nixon" is still a good flick and it's the type of movie that people 40 years of age and older will really enjoy as they relive the tense moments during the Nixon presidency. The Vietnam War, the Arab oil embargo, and the Watergate scandal that caused the first and only resignation in U.S. presidential history are all part of the Nixon legacy, and this movie brings them all back to life for viewers to reminisce and debate.


Rating:
Summary: A great movie, with a limited audience.
Review: This was a very well done look at one of America's most important presidents. Oliver stone aviods taking sides (for the most part) and offers a film that focuses on the Whys, rather than the unfortunate events themselves.

Suprisingly though, this kind of political biography has a very limited audience. many people will expect a fahrenheit 9/11, but get something alot closer to the godfather. Even among those with historical knolwedge, it seems like most completely misunderstand the film and the man (judging partially from the other reviews here). like it is said in the movie "we never really knew who Richard Nixon was."

Rating:
Summary: Oliver Stone's Richard the Third
Review: Oliver Stone's "Nixon" isn't really the cinematic biography of American Commander-in-Chief and Paranoid Extraordinaire Richard M. Nixon, but more like a latter day "Richard III". Stone need only have given the ogrish Nixon (played fascinating and disturbingly by the gifted Anthony Hopkins) a hunchback and had him kill a few kids in the Tower of London to have completed the deal.

I am a big Nixon fan, if only for his strangeness, for his political eccentricity in a political system where only the bland, the smiling, the sound-biteable, the contempibly predictable is rewarded. Nixon, to me, has always seemed like an anachronistic creation of pure will, a force of random Brownian motion, a misunderstood Machiavellian demon, hopelessly paranoid, unmistakably brilliant, brutally deformed, unequivocally human, a misshapen creature.

Stone turns that on its head, and suggests that at worst Nixon may just have been naive. Driven, yes. Ambitious, yes. Duplicitous, only when it suited him. But naive. And that, truly, is the fascination with this lavish little probe into the mind and madness that was Richard Nixon, and the insanity that was the America he helmed. Oliver Stone's "Nixon" is flawed, oddly talky, features an impossibly gorgeous Joan Allen as the impossibly dowdy Pat Nixon. But with all that against it, it is compulsive. It is fascinating. It kept me up all night, for all 212 of its minutes (get the Director's cut). Can more be said?

Perhaps. Stone, who helmed "Natural Born Killers" and "Wall Street" and "JFK", is incapable of making a bad moviek, and "Nixon" is no exception. But like those other cinematic feats, Stone has a peculiar knack for glorifying his monsters: "Wall Street" became nothing so much as a Wall Street investment banking recruiting video for finance neophytes frothing at the mouth to become the next Gordon Gekko. "Natural Born Killers" made mass murder look sexy.

Same with "Nixon": far from a gnomish American Machiavelli, Nixon comes across as a sympathetic dupe, manipulated by his Quaker California youth, by his hopeless class insecurity, by the very real fear and lack of confidence made manifest in this sweating middle class creature, contrasted unseemingly with the sweatless WASP Prince John F. Kennedy.

"Nixon", then, is surprisingly sympathetic, a toxic stew of Nixon's paranoia and the insanity over which he ruled. Stone is a brilliant director, but he is capable of terrible stuff: here an editor is called for, and the team of Brian Berdan ("Mothman Prophecies") and Hank Corwin ("Natural Born Killers") cull the bad stuff while emphasizing the good. Director of Photography Robert Richardson, who loves MTV-quick cuts juxtaposed with ethereal, epic, jaw-dropping long shots (he has rolled out all of Stone's work---all of it!---"Natural Born Killers", "JFK", "Wall Street", "Platoon"---and gone on to helm both "Kill Bill" flicks as well as "Wag the Dog" and the lush Victorian "Four Feathers") does that voodoo he does so well.

Frankly, though, "Nixon" is an actor's movie. The acting is nearly uniformly superb, with the exception of Joan Allen (Pat Nixon, Nixon's dearly beloved), who was yummy to behold but totally failed the sniff test. Anthony Hopkins doesn't look a thing like Tricky Dick, but totally owns the movie and compels respect: and what a complicated role! James Woods does his thing as Haldeman, sneering and brooding the whole time. The late great J.T. Walsh brings up the rear as the crafty Erlichmann. David Hyde Pierce is nervous and spot-on as John Dean, though John Diehl is underwhelming as the legendary GG Liddy.

But again, this is an actor's Nirvana: Paul Sorvino as Kissinger (pure caricature)! Bob Hoskins as the cruel J. Edgar Hoover! Ed Harris as the murderous Howard Hunt! Uber-liberal Sam Waterston as the truly demonic (I mean truly demonic) Richard Helms (love the contacts, bro!). And best of all, the inimitable, tightly contained Powers Boothe as Alexander Haig, always in "charge here", always ready to blow. Did I mention the score is by John Williams? I didn't? It works (duh!).

"Nixon" is one of Stone's masterworks, easily rivalling "JFK" for pure consumptive paranoid entertainment. Absolute power may not corrupt absolutely, but it sure does entertain---absolutely.

Rating:
Summary: Full of Theories, Lots of Talking...
Review: Like most of Oliver Stone's work, "Nixon" is full of conspiracy theories and ho-hum, lavish production values, overlong and quite winded. The casting of Hopkins as Nixon is puzzling, but interesting. Suprisingly he is believable. The big star here is Joan Allen as Pat Nixon. She looks, sounds, acts, breaths, eats, and drinks Pat Nixon. A well deserved oscar nomination (actually she should have won-I've never seen such a dead on performance). Like "JFK," this film features an all-star cast (ala Love Boat). Characters fall in and out all the time, making it hard to follow at times. Filmed and shown before Nixon's death, I would like Stone to 'revisit' this subject matter now to see if anything changes. But wait! That would be something George Lucas would do, and he's NO George Lucas. May the conspiracies be with you always, Oliver. Maybe his next project should be a remake of "Fahrenheit 9/11." But, wait, they're aren't enough consipracies in that subject matter, are they? Nice effort. It's like a pretty package-well wrapped, but very little inside.

Rating:
Summary: Let me make this perfectly clear:
Review: ...the viewer feels disconnected throughout and finds it hard to relate to this series of flashbacks and anecdotes that unfold like a conspiracy buff's pot-based daydream. Not that it's all that boring or untrue-just overstylized and aloof. Would have preferred Rip Torn as Nixon; Hopkins doesn't convince.


Rating:
Summary: Absorbing and engrossing
Review: When Anthony Hopkins was cast as Richard Nixon in Oliver Stone's bio of the 37th President, many were leery of the casting choice. I myself pictured Hopkins doing a combination of Nixon and Hannibal Lecter: "I'm not a crook -- and if anyone thinks so, I'll eat their liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti .... SLURP!!" However, Hopkins does do a marvelous job and disappears into the role without becoming a standup comedian's caricature. Even though Nixon does and says vile things throughout the film, the audience still has sympathy for the character -- even those like me who found the real Richard Nixon dispicable.

Stone portrays Nixon as a tragic figure who had the intelligence and the electoral mandate to elevate himself and his administration to greatness, but let it all slip away by becoming bogged down in the quagmire of Watergate. Nixon complains incessantly about how the Kennedys are everything he is not. However, it becomes clear that his hatred of the Kennedys is based as much on his loathing of himself as on any real scorn shown him by the "Eastern establishment."

Stone, as in JFK, takes certain liberties with Nixon's story and acknowledges as much in a disclaimer before the story begins. Even those who believe President Kennedy was assassinated as the result of a conspiracy, for example, would find it hard to believe that Richard Nixon was involved, even tacitly, in the plot to kill JFK. Stone also takes liberties with his portrayal of Richard and Pat Nixon's marital relationship. Even though some incidents are no doubt true, it's pretty clear that some scenes between the two are conjecture on Stone's part.

However, these are minor quibbles. Nixon is a penetrating, engrossing biography that both portrays him as a ruthless, vicous, paranoic lunatic and a character who elicits sympathy from the audience. The supporting cast is amazing and includes James Woods, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, David Hyde Pierce, Annabeth Gish, Kevin Dunn, J.T. Walsh, Powers Booth, Paul Sorvino, Edward Herrmann, Larry Hagman, Dan Hedeya, Tony LoBianco, Bob Hoskins, E.G. Marshall, David Paymer, Tony Goldwyn, Fuyvush Finkel and Saul Rubinek. However, the standout supporting player is Joan Allen as Pat Nixon who is a dead ringer for the former First Lady. Allen's portrayal shows the emotional pain Mrs. Nixon endured behind the seemingly placid facade she presented to the American public. Coupled with Hopkins' Nixon, it's an acting tour de force that carries the film.

After all the vile things he does during the course of the film, Nixon, the night before his resignation, is reduced to staring at a portrait of his idolized archenemy John F. Kennedy and proclaiming that "... when they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are." Even the most die-hard member of Nixon's enemies' list can't help but feel pity for Richard Nixon during this scene. It's a great achievement by Oliver Stone to make this bitter, corrupt and wretched man worthy of the audience's sympathy at the same time we disdain him.

Rating:
Summary: Citizen Nixon
Review: 'Nixon' comes off as a greater success than Stone's 'JFK', in part due to the subject of the film itself. President Nixon always had an awareness of his place in history and did much to construct and protect his public image. Oliver Stone's mixture of drama and documentary footage allows the audience to disengage somewhat from the subject and contemplate the historical legacy of this much maligned president. Stone has been obvious in his references to two great fictional American icons, Citizen Kane and Willy Loman of Arthur Miller's 'Death Of A Salesman'. The story of the film is close to 'Kane' in its investigation of the trappings of power, but Nixon's personal character has all the eager despair and bewildered arkwardness of Willy Loman. Probably the last American President who best representated the American Dream through his rise from a lowly grocer's son, Nixon nevertheless remained paranoid about his position in the halls of the elite and like Loman felt the over bearing need to prove his abilties.

Unlike Stone's 'JFK' information and detail are not as important as mood and nuance. Shooting from the bottom up, Stone tries to artifically create the ambience of power but instead the low-lighting, sinister looks and b&w flashbacks creates a pseudo-narcotic atmosphere. An obvious allusion to Nixon's alleged pill-popping.

Time and time again Stone has been attacked for the historical inaccuracies of his movies. However most American historians contemptuous of the purported 'scientific' basis of history espoused by Marxist historians, would be the first to confirm that history isn't a minor fact-obsessed 'science'.

Rating:
Summary: Nixon
Review: Outstanding performance by Hopkins. He is what made this picture. Stone's conspiracy theory begins to wear a bit thin.