Directed by: Oliver Stone
Premise: A biopic of President Richard Nixon
(Anthony Hopkins). The story cuts back and forth between his presidency and his
youth and early political career.
What Works: Nixon is an ambitious film that
manages to cover the major political events of Nixon’s life while also drawing
an intimate portrait of the man. The structure of the film is very complex and
includes lots of information, including the ins and outs of the Watergate
scandal, Nixon’s relationship with the Kennedy family, and the
administration’s management of the Vietnam War, but the film is assembled in
such a way that it makes sense of all this information and connects it with the
Nixon’s early years growing up on a farm in Quaker family. The cinematography
and editing of Nixon are superb. The film uses lots of interesting angles
within scenes and utilizes all kinds of different film formats. On top of that, Nixon uses lots of news footage and subjective or impressionistic backgrounds. This is
similar to some of Stone’s techniques in Natural
Born Killers, but in Nixon there is a little more restraint and a
greater sense of purpose. The dissolves, time laps photography, montages, and
composite shots work with the narrative structure of the film instead of being
adjunct to it and help convey Nixon’s growing paranoia and the cultural
context of the events. Unlike some of Oliver Stone’s other work, he’s less
hysterical than he was in JFK or Platoon and takes care to get the history right while balancing that with storytelling
principles. The result is a film that holds its subject accountable for his
actions but also manages to create a very sympathetic portrait of Nixon by going
beneath the surface and exploring the political considerations of the time and
the Nixon’s personal demons. The film has some great casting, starting with
Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon. It’s one of Hopkins’ best performances;
the film makers use make up to give Hopkins a look that approximates the former
president and Hopkins captures the mannerisms and voice. It’s a performance
that Hopkins hasn’t equaled since. The rest of the cast is great as well,
notably Joan Allen as Pat Nixon, Bob Hoskins as J. Edgar Hoover, Paul Sorvino as
Henry Kissinger, J.T. Walsh as John Ehrlichman, and James Woods as H.R. Haldeman.
Everybody here is at the top of their game and the script manages to give each
character, but especially Allen as Pat Nixon, the chance to carry the burden of
Richard Nixon’s lies and paranoia.
What Doesn’t: The cut of Nixon available
on DVD has been extended by about twenty minutes to include additional scenes.
While the additional footage makes the story more coherent, the picture quality
of the additional footage is lacking compared to the rest of the film. John
Williams provides the score for Nixon and although it is a good score, it
is a little overbearing in places.
DVD extras: The Election Year Edition of Nixon includes a documentary, deleted scenes, a Charlie Rose interview with Oliver
Stone, commentary tracks, and a trailer.
Bottom Line: Nixon may be Oliver Stone’s best film, as it utilizes all of his best tendencies and
minimizes his negative ones. The picture is a pinnacle of Stone’s filmmaking
skills, drawing on the techniques he used in JFK and Natural Born
Killers but with better research and an improved sense of direction. This is
also one of the great film adaptations of history, especially recent history,
and it is a model for those looking to reconcile storytelling with historical
accuracy.