Review of Nixon (1995) by Trailesque — 08 Apr 2018

I wasn't a fan of this on first viewing, mostly because I didn't buy Hopkins as Nixon, and found segments of it dull. But recently I have come to appreciate it more - it is a very ambitious film, and overall it does a fine job of telling the Nixon story, of course with a fair amount of Stonian poetic license. For example, Stone concludes that the notorious missing 18 minutes of recorded conversations must have been about the JFK assassination, a speculation I don't recall seeing anyplace else. Most of the performances are first rate, Joan Allen's in particular. Hopkins gets the voice right, but his attractive features fail to convey Nixon's famous ugliness, and he doesn't bring to life the man's nastiness and vindictiveness. There are a lot of interesting visual techniques put into play here, as usual for a Stone film, and the script is impressive too.

Tricky Dick Nixon was a hated figure, mostly because of the Vietnam War, and this was something that clearly weighed on him. The film is surprisingly sympathetic and portrays him as a basically decent man who went astray in a couple of areas. It is difficult to understand today why he had so many supporters. Perhaps he conveyed an image of steady, serious leadership? All in all, a good political biopic that held my attention for 3.5 hours - that is something noteworthy right there.