Nixon (1995) Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Powers Boothe

Biopic of Richard Nixon, President of the United States who under the threat of Impeachment resigned the office after the Watergate scandal.Oliver Stone, director of JFK, Natural Born Killers, Salvador, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Wall Street, W and Snowden is no stranger to political thrillers and in the magnificent Nixon he creates possibly his best work to date.With pitch perfect casting for all the principal players, a beautifully nuanced script that not only captures the underlying political zeitgeist of the time but also, and probably more importantly, Nixon's internal battles with his inferiority complex and possible feelings of self loathing, and a superbly balanced screenplay that keeps you watching, Stone uses his considerable talent for storytelling and plenty of inventive cinematic techniques to produce a film or real and lasting quality. Even with the now infamous Watergate scandal in the mix, which in itself was actually a rather dry affair, Nixon's internal battles with himself, his political failures, his difficult relationships with Congress, the press, his political opponents and his wife and family, his story could have proved just too difficult a task to encompass and convey the man and the time in an interesting way to an audience. Stone and his collaborators have done a magnificent job of exposing the man and the time with a small degree of genius in my opinion.Not an easy film to get going, the original finance seemed insufficient and when the money was finally secured, Stones choice of Hopkins over Hanks or Nicholson did not go down well with the studio. When Hopkins decided he may have bitten off more than he could chew he also nearly left the production. Luckily Stone was able to convince him to stay and give probably the best performance of an American President ever put to film. Hopkins also of course had a plethora of other fine British American and actors to bounce off, most notably, Joan Allen, James Woods and the late Bob Hoskins as FBI director J Edgar Hoover.Stone and his editors style of film-making could almost be called “Stonian” in that it is very distinctive and striking. Often filming scenes in crisp 35 mm colour and grainy 8 mm black and white at the same time and then mixing both stocks together when editing. Add this to purposely filmed mock stock footage, real poor quality shaky stock footage, and finely timed jump cuts, these techniques and many more give the film a semi documentary feel and makes you almost forget you are watching a film. This also gives the film an intimate and almost voyeuristic aspect, especially when we are watching Nixon begin to unravel after 18 months of the Watergate investigation gradually inching closer to the Whitehouse and eventually the president himself. His continued frustration at “not getting his story across” and why the press “hate me” is almost difficult to watch. It is not difficult to imagine yourself in a position where everyone remembers your mistakes but never your successes, and how that might feed into and exacerbate his already sensitive and knife edge relationship with his own psyche. One especially poignant line of dialogue stood out for me during one of his lonely introspective moments whilst looking at a famous painting of the assassinated JFK, “When the public look at you they see what they aspire to be, when they look at me they see who they are!” For me that one line captured the man.Stone was criticised by just about everyone about how Nixon was portrayed. He was either too generous or too mean, he either showed him drinking too much or too little, his regular low moods were either too low or not low enough. In the end the film makers have to make decisions on the information available and do the best they can. Nobody can really know what is in someone else's head, what they may have said or done in private, or how they really felt about someone or something. However artists can use some artistic licence and if used with acre and dignity it can flesh out a life that was partly hidden from the public gaze.Nixon isn't supposed to be a history lesson, if you want that go elsewhere. It's a work of art about a living breathing person who through dedication and quite a bit of luck became the most powerful man on earth. Nixon the film encapsulates the man and the times probably better than any single book could.There are three versions of the film. The original four hour cut never released, the theatrical release at 183 mins and the extended Blu Ray release at 213. I have seen both and the theatrical release is probably the better as a stand alone film. The extended version has two added scenes that add little to the film. His meeting with Richard Helms and an extended wedding scene. Both interesting but not really game changers.I doubt whether any other film-maker could have made Nixon the magnificent success it most certainly is. However unless you have at least some understanding of Watergate, American politics, the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement etc, you may struggle a bit with some of the references during the many discussions regarding policy in the Oval Office. However the films main thrust is Nixon himself and his self destructive and often contradictory nature.The three and a half hours fly by.

Firstly, the Blu-ray image quality of Nixon (US import, Director's Cut, region free) is great; not reference quality but a significant improvement over the slightly fuzzy DVD version, fully doing justice to Robert Richardson's usual gorgeous cinematography. The sound, which for the most part is people talking in offices, is fine but it's John Williams' thunderous, brooding score that really and deservedly takes centre stage.Oliver Stone's Nixon is an incredible achievement: this film is so rich and detailed, it almost overwhelms the viewer with how much it offers up - there's Richard Nixon's life story, from his harsh childhood and the loss of two brothers, his sometimes passionate, sometimes frosty relationship with his wife Pat and finally the presidency itself, its highs and lows. Then there's several decades of political history to cover: the red-baiting post-war years, Track II, Vietnam, opening China, SALT I with Russia, J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Helms, the Kennedy brothers, the various political campaigns Nixon won and lost and of course, Watergate itself, which over-shadows the whole drama. Stone adds a third layer, a kind of psycho-impressionist text, which overlays images, juxtaposes people and events, drops in soundbites out of place, sudden shifts in tone and colour. This is such a rich tapestry, that only a master filmmaker like Oliver Stone could really keep this all coherent and indeed, entertaining, for it's three and a half hour plus running time.The cast is uniformly brilliant; whilst Anthony Hopkins takes centre stage and dominates the film (Nixon has been portrayed on screen many times but this is the best - it's not an impression, it's a suggestion), everyone around him gets to breath and the ensemble cast doesn't put a foot wrong. If I had to single out a couple of performances, Paul Sorvino as Henry Kissinger simply nails the role and Joan Allen as Patricia Nixon gets that steely, brittle determination absolutely spot on.The US Blu-ray import version is also a Director's Cut, which was never released in the UK - there's an extra 28 minutes footage, including two really key scenes: there's a conversation betwixt Nixon and Hoover, where they discuss whether to install an electronic taping system in the Whitehouse to record conversations; the second major new scene is a confrontation betwixt Nixon and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Richard Helms. This significant scene illustrates the conflicted relationship Nixon had with this intelligence agency - was Nixon concerned that the CIA had blackmail material on him, or did Nixon want to get the "Bay of Pigs" documents, so as to keep the CIA in check? It's an uneasy, ambiguous relationship and perhaps key to understanding Watergate, given that the burglars were all Agency-connected. These scenes are not filler but absolutely essential to understanding the story; it's a shame they were originally cut out (presumably due to the already lengthy running time) but it's great that Stone's had an opportunity to put them back in.The main criticism I have of this - and it's not an insignificant one - if you don't have a reasonable grasp of what is already happening, it could be quite hard to follow. Unlike Stone's JFK, which explained the details of the Kennedy assassination clearly and in-depth, which those who didn't know anything prior to watching the film could easily follow, Nixon doesn't make any such concessions; Stone starts hammering away in his usual forcefull manner and characters and events are introduced, dropped and reintroduced without much explanation or exposition. However, if you already have a grounding in the basic facts, or are prepared to do some reading in advance of watching the film (I'd strongly recommend Anthony Summers' superb Nixon:The Arrogance of Power), you'll get a lot back from it.No film can cover every facet of a person's life, particularly one as complex as Richard Nixon's, so this film inevitably leaves certain things out, or condenses them. That's simply how films are made. Neither is this film a hatchet job, that some critics were expecting, given director Oliver Stone's politically overt leftwing credentials - he actually manages to generate, if not actual sympathy, then certainly empathy for Nixon. Indeed, Nixon's success with China and Russia are given prominence and not everything Nixon did wrong (or illegally, such as sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks whilst he was a private citizen) are covered at all. When Martin Scorsese finished making his biopic Raging Bull, its subject, the boxer Jake LaMotta, asked his ex-wife Vikki if he was really that bad. "No, you were worse" she replied. As both Scorsese and Stone have said, you can't include every nasty little detail, as it would unbalance the film and give a distorted, one-note impression (caricature, even) of the person. Neither can a film be made from a sequence of interesting facts and events, there has to be a narrative to propel the story and that's where art meets history.Oliver Stone's Nixon is a massive film in many respects, deserving of a much wider audience. At some points, it approaches a Citizen Kane level of artistry - helped in considerable manner by long-time collaborator Robert Richardsons's stunning camera work. The film is important, intelligently written, full of memorable performances and covers a great many events from post-war American history. It book-ends Stone's JFK quite impressively and if it doesn't quite approach that film's brilliance, not many other films do either.

This is arguably one of Oliver Stone's best yet underrated films about President Richard Nixon. Anthony Hopkins gives an excellent performance in the title role & is blessed to have an outstanding supporting cast acting alongside him.Notable standouts are James Woods, giving a superbly restrained performance, Powers Boothe, Paul Sorvino &, in 2 brief scenes, a chillingly brilliant performance by Larry Hagman.This release is the extended director's cut & while a few scenes should've stayed on the cutting room floor, most add a bit more depth to the story. Also, considering how meticulously constructed this film is, you're more likely to believe it than the more modern true story adaptations that have been made into Hollywood movies.Technically, the blu-ray release does this film the justice it deserves. I previously had an Entertainment In Video DVD copy (UK release) which wasn't enhanced for playback on a widescreen TV & had a compromised Dolby Pro Logic soundtrack. This picture quality is excellent ; you honestly wouldn't believe this film is nearly 30 years. Although dialogue is still rather low in places, it doesn't suffer from the peak distortion that was audible on the DVD release.If you like the kind of films Oliver Stone makes & you want to see how an ensemble can really act, then Nixon is THE movie for you.