Review of The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) by Wes B — 30 Jan 2005

[size=2]It seems things don?t change very much with the passage of time. It is 2005, our country is at war, its people are divided, and our president is either admired or despised, depending on who you talk to. In the early 1970s, when ?The Assassination of Richard Nixon? takes place, we were mired in a quagmire called Vietnam, the nation was divided, and President Nixon was all at once one of the most well-liked and viciously hated men in the world.

The anger and frustration brought on by world events then and now occasionally boiled over to violent action, inspired by a desire to right the assumed wrongs done by those in power. That is the true story of Sam Bicke, whose actions in early 1972 are the basis of this film.

Bicke attempted to hijack an airplane and crash it into the White House, hoping to kill Nixon. That he failed is obvious; Nixon lived long after he resigned from office in 1974. Yet what Bicke did is not what makes this film interesting; it is what drove him to take the actions he took.

Sean Penn plays Bicke, turning in another powerhouse performance. When we meet him, his life is already in disarray. His wife Marie (Naomi Watts) has left him, he is estranged from his family, and his job as an office furniture salesman leaves him feeling like something less than a person.

Penn?s narration of Bicke?s words drive the film as he observes what he feels are social and racial injustices all around him. He feels disgust at what he sees as the abuse of the many by the few, and wishes for some form of resistance as he sees working as a modernized form of slavery. He hates the lying and scheming that he sees in the business world. He donates money to the Black Panthers because he has nothing else to spend it on.

Then he hears of a new program initiated by President Nixon that makes it easier to get a small-business loan. He desires to start a tire delivery business with his friend Bonny (Don Cheadle). Sam, who believes in honesty, marks on his loan application that Bonny is a black man. When the application is rejected, Sam believes it is because of the inherent racism in the system, and sets his plot to kill the president into motion.

The story would be perfectly ridiculous if it weren?t true. What keeps ?The Assassination of Richard Nixon? captivating is the characterization, and Penn?s performance. His character of Sam Bicke is fully human, but not fully sympathetic. Penn portrays Bicke as a character who looks for the easy way out of things, who doesn?t particularly like working, and who is not content to pick himself up by the bootstraps and try again after failing. Instead, he is more content to place the blame on others for his own problems and failures.

Yet the performance remains engrossing because of the depth of Penn?s talent; he?s so good at what he does that he can make us interested in an unsympathetic character, as he did in ?Dead Man Walking.? The other performers primarily sit on the sidelines; Naomi Watts is there just to move the story along, but the always underappreciated Don Cheadle makes an impact in his minor role.

There have been comparisons made between this film and Martin Scorsese?s classic ?Taxi Driver.? I understand the comparisons, and to a certain extent they may be accurate, yet the lead characters in both films were driven by different motives: Bicke by rage against the government, and Robert De Niro?s renegade cabbie by a deep, overwhelming desire to be noticed by anyone.

Yet the comparisons are also unfair because ?The Assassination of Richard Nixon? is not as good as ?Taxi Driver.? Scorsese?s film is far more intense, and never tries to create any sympathy for its lead character, while this film does. Yet the two films do measure up in one way, in that ?The Assassination of Richard Nixon? perfectly recreates the hostile and politically volatile climate that was the early 1970s.

?The Assassination of Richard Nixon? is the first effort for director Niels Mueller, and it?s a rather respectable one. I can easily recommend it; it just depends on how much time you?ll want to spend with a character you may not like.

And that's my two cents.

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