Nixon ««««
R, 192m. 1995
Cast & Credits: Anthony Hopkins (Richard M. Nixon), Joan Allen (Pat Nixon), James Woods (H.R. Haldeman), J.T. Walsh (John Erlichman), Powers Boothe (Alexander Haig), Bob Hoskins (J. Edgar Hoover), E.G. Marshall (John Mitchell), David Paymer (Ron Ziegler), David Hyde Pierce (John Dean), Paul Sorvino (Henry Kissinger), Mary Steenburgen (Hannah Nixon), Larry Hagman (Jack Jones). Screenplay by Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson and Oliver Stone. Directed by Oliver Stone.
Oliver Stone’s personal interpretation on the rise and fall of Richard Nixon has all the unique qualities of a Shakespearean tragedy.
In JFK (1991), when Kevin Costner’s New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison presented his case to the jury in 1969 on the Kennedy Assassination, he called the American people “Hamlets,” children of a slain king. If President John F. Kennedy was, in Stone’s mind, Julius Caesar, then President Nixon is a modern day Prince of Darkness.
The film opens with a shot of the White House, dimly lit and vacant during a heavy thunderstorm, illuminating like the gothic mansion out of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992).
In a small stateroom upstairs is President Nixon (Anthony Hopkins) alone in the dark, sitting near a fire gazing at the portrait of his idol, Abraham Lincoln, which hangs above the fireplace.
“Death paved my way to the White House,” he says to himself.
In Nixon, the deaths of the president’s brother from tuberculosis and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal have taken such an emotional toll on him, all he has left to turn to is alcohol and painkillers as his precious secret tapes reveal his past sins. Nixon’s only way to redeem himself is to resign from office.
Having fired most of his presidential staff over the Watergate burglary, Nixon cuts everyone off who mean the most to him including his beloved, outspoken but stoic wife, Pat (Joan Allen).
“If you only knew how much I love you,” Pat tells him.
Much of what is seen in the film is speculation from the president’s early home life in Whittier, California and Pat’s intentions of divorce to the 18 1/2 minute gap found on the Watergate tapes. No one knows what was said but Stone suggests it was Nixon’s knowledge of Track 2, an assassination plot to kill Castro. It is incomplete documentation as the movie’s opening statement says, but Stone, along with screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson have come out with a book called Nixon: An Oliver Stone Film (1995) citing more than 200 sources of where the scenes were inspired from.
Nixon’s supposed meeting on Nov. 21, 1963, with a bitter wealthy Texas oilman named Jack Jones (Larry Hagman-whose performance echoes his J.R. Ewing role on TV’s Dallas (1978-1991) is one example. When Jones tells him JFK won’t run in the ‘64 election, the scene is inspired by information in J. Gary Shaw’s Coverup, David Peter Scott’s book, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993), and the late H.R. Haldeman’s, The Haldeman Diaries (1994).
Although Anthony Hopkins doesn’t look or talk like Nixon, what makes his performance work is the way he brings out the pain and emotion the man, in real life, was possibly feeling.
Like Shakespeare’s plays, the president speaks in second person venting out his ambitions as Stone invokes hints of tragic irony.
“Nixon was born to do this,” the President tells his White House staff on his plans to bomb Cambodia as blood oozes from his steak. “If necessary I’ll drop the big one if I have to.”
Stone once again proves he is not just a motion picture director but a director of cinematic artistry. Clouds race across Washington marking the passages of time. The best scene is as Nixon delivers his speech at the 1968 Republican National Convention, news footage of civil unrest and anti-war demonstrations are shown in the background. Incidents which take place during the president’s first term.
By film’s end, I was convinced, as has been previously reported in Bob Woodward’s and Carl Bernstein’s book, The Final Days (1976), the Watergate scandal may have taken a mental and physical toll on the president. Stone, however, doesn’t lose sight of the fact Nixon was possibly one of the best leaders the nation had when it came to foreign policy as demonstrated in his meetings with Mao and Brezhnev.
“History will treat you far more kindly than your contemporaries,” Henry Kissinger (Paul Sorvino) tells the President shortly before they kneel together to pray on the eve of his resignation.
The epitaph of Nixon’s presidency is when James Woods’ Haldeman tells John Erlichman (J.T. Walsh) what they should have advised the president to say to America and the press when the scandal broke in 1972 in order to secure his future.
“I was wrong. I covered up. I’m sorry,” Haldeman says. “But we never opened our mouths. We failed him.”
The downfall of Richard Nixon is he held so much power within his grasp. What a waste for him to have lost it all because of a burglary.
©12/20/95
R, 192m. 1995
Cast & Credits: Anthony Hopkins (Richard M. Nixon), Joan Allen (Pat Nixon), James Woods (H.R. Haldeman), J.T. Walsh (John Erlichman), Powers Boothe (Alexander Haig), Bob Hoskins (J. Edgar Hoover), E.G. Marshall (John Mitchell), David Paymer (Ron Ziegler), David Hyde Pierce (John Dean), Paul Sorvino (Henry Kissinger), Mary Steenburgen (Hannah Nixon), Larry Hagman (Jack Jones). Screenplay by Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson and Oliver Stone. Directed by Oliver Stone.
In JFK (1991), when Kevin Costner’s New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison presented his case to the jury in 1969 on the Kennedy Assassination, he called the American people “Hamlets,” children of a slain king. If President John F. Kennedy was, in Stone’s mind, Julius Caesar, then President Nixon is a modern day Prince of Darkness.
The film opens with a shot of the White House, dimly lit and vacant during a heavy thunderstorm, illuminating like the gothic mansion out of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula (1992).
In a small stateroom upstairs is President Nixon (Anthony Hopkins) alone in the dark, sitting near a fire gazing at the portrait of his idol, Abraham Lincoln, which hangs above the fireplace.
“Death paved my way to the White House,” he says to himself.
In Nixon, the deaths of the president’s brother from tuberculosis and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal have taken such an emotional toll on him, all he has left to turn to is alcohol and painkillers as his precious secret tapes reveal his past sins. Nixon’s only way to redeem himself is to resign from office.
Having fired most of his presidential staff over the Watergate burglary, Nixon cuts everyone off who mean the most to him including his beloved, outspoken but stoic wife, Pat (Joan Allen).
“If you only knew how much I love you,” Pat tells him.
Much of what is seen in the film is speculation from the president’s early home life in Whittier, California and Pat’s intentions of divorce to the 18 1/2 minute gap found on the Watergate tapes. No one knows what was said but Stone suggests it was Nixon’s knowledge of Track 2, an assassination plot to kill Castro. It is incomplete documentation as the movie’s opening statement says, but Stone, along with screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson have come out with a book called Nixon: An Oliver Stone Film (1995) citing more than 200 sources of where the scenes were inspired from.
Nixon’s supposed meeting on Nov. 21, 1963, with a bitter wealthy Texas oilman named Jack Jones (Larry Hagman-whose performance echoes his J.R. Ewing role on TV’s Dallas (1978-1991) is one example. When Jones tells him JFK won’t run in the ‘64 election, the scene is inspired by information in J. Gary Shaw’s Coverup, David Peter Scott’s book, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993), and the late H.R. Haldeman’s, The Haldeman Diaries (1994).
Although Anthony Hopkins doesn’t look or talk like Nixon, what makes his performance work is the way he brings out the pain and emotion the man, in real life, was possibly feeling.
Like Shakespeare’s plays, the president speaks in second person venting out his ambitions as Stone invokes hints of tragic irony.
“Nixon was born to do this,” the President tells his White House staff on his plans to bomb Cambodia as blood oozes from his steak. “If necessary I’ll drop the big one if I have to.”
Stone once again proves he is not just a motion picture director but a director of cinematic artistry. Clouds race across Washington marking the passages of time. The best scene is as Nixon delivers his speech at the 1968 Republican National Convention, news footage of civil unrest and anti-war demonstrations are shown in the background. Incidents which take place during the president’s first term.
By film’s end, I was convinced, as has been previously reported in Bob Woodward’s and Carl Bernstein’s book, The Final Days (1976), the Watergate scandal may have taken a mental and physical toll on the president. Stone, however, doesn’t lose sight of the fact Nixon was possibly one of the best leaders the nation had when it came to foreign policy as demonstrated in his meetings with Mao and Brezhnev.
“History will treat you far more kindly than your contemporaries,” Henry Kissinger (Paul Sorvino) tells the President shortly before they kneel together to pray on the eve of his resignation.
The epitaph of Nixon’s presidency is when James Woods’ Haldeman tells John Erlichman (J.T. Walsh) what they should have advised the president to say to America and the press when the scandal broke in 1972 in order to secure his future.
“I was wrong. I covered up. I’m sorry,” Haldeman says. “But we never opened our mouths. We failed him.”
The downfall of Richard Nixon is he held so much power within his grasp. What a waste for him to have lost it all because of a burglary.
©12/20/95
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