Nixon
He changed the world, but lost a nation.
CAST
Richard Nixon: Anthony Hopkins
Pat Nixon: Joan Allen
H. R. Haldeman: James Woods
John Ehrlichman: J. T. Walsh
Henry Kissinger: Paul Sorvino
Supporting Roles: Powers Boothe and Ed Harris
When
people hear the name Richard Nixon, they want to get sick. No one knows why Nixon did all the things he
did, and, unfortunately, he died carrying his secrets to the grave. Oliver Stone’s Nixon analyzes this “evil”
man and presents the side of him rarely seen by the public as a man who just
wanted to be loved.
The
first time we see Nixon (Anthony Hopkins), he is under heavy stress, due to the
subpoena of his personal tapes, and has an odd look on
his face, which we sense covers his dark personal secrets. From there, Stone takes us on a journey
ranging through Nixon’s childhood to his debates with John Kennedy. The handsome, intelligent Kennedy was a
visionary and a man Americans loved and believed could make America great
again. Nixon, on the other hand, was
like any other guy and they did not want this foul-mouthed, “ordinary Joe” to
hold the most prestigious position in the world. Nixon and Kennedy ran against each other in the 1960 Presidential
election, and Kennedy won by fewer than 200,000 votes, which kicked off the
Kennedy-Nixon rivalry.
Two
years later, Nixon ran for governor of California. It was assumed that a man who almost became President could
easily win a governor position.
Unfortunately for Nixon, Kennedy speared Nixon’s attempts when he
supported Nixon’s Democrat opponent.
The California governor election was Part II: Nixon vs. Kennedy, and
again, Nixon lost. However, after this
loss, he promised his wife (Joan Allen) that he would quit politics.
One year later, Kennedy, the only person who kept
Nixon from the White House, was assassinated.
A few years later, with the 1968 election approaching, Nixon’s name was
quickly added among the top Republican nominees for President. It was then announced that Kennedy’s brother
Bobby was the probable Democratic nominee for President. Luckily for Nixon, he too was assassinated,
which basically guaranteed a smooth path for Nixon into the White House.
Once
elected, the Vietnam War plagued Nixon, like every politician in the ‘60s. He wanted to end the war and the people
wanted to end the war, so why didn’t Nixon just end the war? He believed the war could and should end
with honor, and decided to bomb Cambodia, Laos, and Hanoi to force the North
Vietnamese into discussions regarding peace.
The bombings were successful, and, after a “cease-fire” went into
effect, he finally brought the troops home.
Soon
after, Nixon discovered that people paid by the White House had committed
crimes. A few years earlier, several
workers of the White House broke into Democratic Headquarters at the Watergate
Hotel, supposedly without Nixon’s knowledge or permission. Believing these people may hurt him in the
long run, Nixon tried to cover the crime up, which 
ultimately made all the dominos fall, along with his
presidency.
Two
of the greatest things of Nixon are the leading two performances:
Anthony Hopkins as Nixon and Joan Allen as his wife. Hopkins’s performance was one of the greatest performances in
film history (along with Ralph Fiennes in Schindlar’s List, Robert De
Niro in The Godfather II, and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man). Hopkins’ facial expressions were well timed
and ugly, his smiles were so fake and unordinary, and he was always so jumpy
that for two and a half hours, Nixon was brought back from the dead. Joan Allen is also great as Pat Nixon, who
in public simply smiled for the camera and behaved the way every wife is
supposed to: supportive and loving of her husband. But, when her and Nixon are alone, she voices her opinions to him
in a way similar to the demonstrators.
She had no idea what Nixon was thinking, and neither did anyone else.
This movie, contrary to many beliefs, does not legitimize Nixon or his actions. Stone believes Nixon was responsible for what he did, and he paid the price. What is special about Nixon is that it showed no matter what Nixon did, whether it was end the Vietnam War or extend relations with Russia and China, the people still hated him, which killed him inside.
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