Nixon

History has not been much kinder to Nixon the picture show than it was to Nixon the man. Grossing under $14 million domestically, the $50 million movie was an enormous box office flop (what 1995-era family wouldn't want to go get Nixon on Christmas Day?), though four Oscar nominations (it won none) must have softened the blow more or less for auteur director Oliver Stone.


With Nixon, Stone struggles to lay out a heedful biography of one of history's most reviled leadership and the only President in modern times to voluntarily entrust office before the end of his term. Richard Nixon of course of necessity no foundation, and Stone takes a much different approach to the material here than he did with JFK, which clay one of my dearie films e'er. Rather than focus on a single incident -- Watergate -- Stone endeavors to embrace Nixon's intact life and career, from his days as a young Quaker (complete with dying brothers) to deuce big failed runs at political authority to the entirety of his troubled political calling. All the highlights are here, at least in part: Kent State, China, Vietnam and Cambodia, and of course the tragical events of Watergate.

Nixon boasts a mega-star cast of so many big name actors that one at long last wishes they were wearing away name tags. Unless you're a huge history buff, you crataegus laevigata have trouble keeping John Dean and John Mitchell straight, or telling the difference between, say, an Ehrlichman and a Haldeman. How a lot does it matter? This is the Anthony Hopkins show, through and through. It was controversial cast to set up the British Hopkins in the proto-American role of Richard M. Nixon, and reviews at the clip were miscellaneous. He pulls it off, but it stands as one of Hopkins' most difficult performances. Part doppelganger, part imitation, he's at once Nixon and some kind of freaky space alien. Whatever it is, watching him is a real regale. His load-bearing cast is universally outstanding (Paul Sorvino's Kissinger is unforgettable), even if you can't always remember who's who.


Structurally, though Nixon is a sundry bag. Stone gleefully -- almost recklessly -- jumps back and forth in time, from Watergate to Nixon's youthfulness in Whittier, California, intercutting with oddly-tinted hallucinations, dreams, and non-sequiturs. This technique got its start in Natural Born Killers and hit its dreadful termination in Alexander. Here it's little more than a distraction from a story that needs little embellishment.


For his "Election Year Edition," Stone has extended Nixon from its exhaustive 3 hours and 10 minutes to over 3 1/2 hours in length, restoring tons of deleted footage to the movie. Few of the additions ar necessary: As much as I like Sam Waterston, I don't need to spend several minutes observance him (as CIA Director Richard Helms) reciting poetry to Nixon in his office in a wholly superfluous scene that adds nothing to the story.


Despite its flaws, Nixon is an informative and entertaining film that sometimes approaches greatness, though (just as with JFK) some of its insinuations are a real stretch and it frequently wanders into irrelevancy. Some of Nixon's scenes -- an impromptu meeting with college kids at the Lincoln Memorial, the re-enactments of some of Nixon's to the highest degree famous speeches -- are standouts, simply it's Hopkins' crazy rants that you won't soon forget.


The DVD also includes about an hour of additional (or different versions of) deleted scenes, each with an introduction from Stone. He also provides two comment tracks, which means you can make over 10 hours of Nixon, if you rattling want it. A documentary about the film, courtesy of Stone's son, is also on tap.