Name: Retro Film Review: Nixon (1995)
Item: Nixon
Rating: 40
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Americans tend to think of the world in simple terms, and that includes even their nation's history. Third quarter of 20th Century is often seen as the conflict between two forces embodied by two very different US Presidents. The first one of them was John F. Kennedy - great statesman, courageous reformer and embodiment of youthful idealism that was supposed to bring USA into new Golden Age. Opposed to him was Richard M. Nixon - evil, corrupt, reactionary, genocidal and power-hungry paranoiac that nearly destroyed American democracy. While Kennedy's assassination proved to be one of greatest American tragedies, Nixon's disgraceful removal from the Oval office was one of great American triumphs. This perspective, implanted by 1960s and 1970s salon leftists into Hollywood and the rest of the world, was the reason why Nixon, 1995 biopic directed by Oliver Stone, represents one of the greatest surprises to come from Hollywood in the past decade.

The plot begins in June 1972, at the moment when the infamous "Plumbers" prepare for the Watergate break-in, and ends in August 1974, with the resignation of President Richard Nixon (played by Anthony Hopkins). The well-documented events that unfold in between are intertwined with Nixon remembering the events that marked both his life - traumatic childhood in 1920s California – and the history - Checkers speech, 1960 and 1968 elections, Vietnam War and his foreign policy triumphs.

Four years before this film Oliver Stone in JFK had accepted the traditional "Kennedy as-saint" gospel, so most people expected Oliver Stone to make a hatchet job of 37th US President in Nixon. Others expected the film to be flooded with wild conspiracy theories. Nixon didn't meet such expectations. Oliver Stone instead gave surprisingly serious, three-dimensional and humane portrayal of disgraced American leader, obviously being fascinated with many contradictory and enigmatic details of his character and biography. While Stone doesn't shy away from showing what brought such infamy to Nixon, he also gives his human side and even some redeeming qualities - his patriotism, dedication to family and the potential for true greatness. But, just like the protagonists of classic tragedies, Nixon failed to meet such potential due to his own human weakness. This powerful message, underlined with Stone's clever idea to turn White House into some sort of haunted Gothic castle, is however muddled with Stone succumbing to his old conspiracy theories and sensationalism in the most inopportune moments. Idea that the same people who had killed Kennedy - the "dark forces" - played part in Nixon's downfall is intriguing; putting those forces in the form of Texas oilman played by Larry Hagman (who had played similar role in 1970s soap Dallas) makes this idea into parody of itself.

Another problem with the film is casting. Anthony Hopkins tries his best to impersonate Nixon, but the Welsh actor under heavy make-up is simply hard to associate with the real-life president. Joan Allen as First Lady Pat Nixon, Paul Sorvino as Kissinger and Powers Boothe as Alexander Haig don't seem to have such problem (and the Boothe delivers truly chilling performance). Narrative structure of the film also makes things difficult for viewers - in the first hour the plot meanders between June 1972 and December 1973 and goes back to June 1972 only to catch the classic linear structure in last two hours. Film also suffers because of Stone's desire to make it look "cool" by combining different film stock, using MTV-style editing and putting Chinese and Cyrillic characters in the scenes that feature Nixon's meetings with leaders of China and Soviet Union. Watergate scandal is, on the other hand, carefully recreated in all of its infamy, but those who want to find something more about it could do better if they watch television documentary.

At the very end of the film, when Hopkins' Nixon gets replaced with the documentary footage of 37th President, the audience would get impression that the real character was more intriguing and interesting than the one portrayed in the movie. Some day in the future the lessons from this film will serve the makers of Clinton.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on April 29th 2003)