Nixon (1995), directed by Oliver Stone

...or JFK Part II. Like his great film of four years previously, this one presents Oliver Stone's 1960's in his inimitable style: lots and lots of quick cuts. A stream of consciousness film. Unfortunately, the film does not work.

JFK, though a hallucinatory experience of a film, still had some sort of narrative, Jim Garrison's investigation. Nixon, on the other hand, seems to be a 60's potpourri: everything that can go in, does. The title of the film should probably be Nixoniana.

We see all the classic Nixon scenes: the Checkers speech, the 1960 debates, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore", but they seem to be on display rather than part of a coherent film. If someone asked me "What is Nixon about?", I don't know how I would or could answer

One must give credit where credit is due: the acting of this film is uniformly fine. Anthony Hopkins is surprisingly good as Nixon, nearly making him a sympathetic character. His Welsh accent is not a problem. Joan Allen is very good as Pat, and of course, the always good James Woods does his usual slimy job as Haldeman.

Oliver Stone seems to be the leading perpatrator of the "film-as-self-therapy" school of cinema. While it works sometimes, his exorcism of Nixon ultimately fails. A better Nixon portrait is 1976's All The Presiden't Men. Nixon is not a character, but the Nixon administration, with its Byzantine plots, is a reflection of the man, for good or bad.

Copyright 1997 by Dale G. Abersold 1