NIXON (FILM)

'''Nixon''' is a 1995 film directed by Oliver Stone for Cinergi Pictures that tells the story of the political and personal life of former President Richard Nixon. It stars Anthony Hopkins as Nixon. The film portrays Nixon as a complex and (in many respects) an admirable person, though deeply flawed.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production

Origins

Casting

Pre-production

Principal photography

Reaction

Awards

Quotes

DVD

References

See also

External links

Plot

The film covers all aspects of Nixon's life as a pastiche and composite of actual events. It depicts his childhood in Whittier, California, as well as his growth as a young man, football fan and player, and suitor to his eventual wife, Pat Ryan. It fully explores most of the important events of his presidency, including his downfall due to abuse of executive power in the White House.
Nixon's alcohol dependence, as well as that of his wife, is fully implied in the film, as is the medication addiction he faced during his remaining years in office (Nixon's health problems, including his bout of phlebitis and pneumonia during the Watergate crisis, are also shown in the film, and his various medicaments are sometimes attributed to these health issues).
The film ends with Nixon's resignation and famous departure from the lawn of the White House on the helicopter, Marine One. Real life footage of Nixon's state funeral in Yorba Linda, California, plays out over the extended end credits, and all living presidents at the time, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, are shown in attendance [1].

Cast

★ Anthony Hopkins - Richard Nixon

★ Joan Allen - Pat Nixon

★ James Woods - H. R. Haldeman

★ J.T. Walsh - John Ehrlichman

★ Paul Sorvino - Henry Kissinger

★ Powers Boothe - Alexander Haig

★ Ed Harris - E. Howard Hunt

★ Bob Hoskins - J. Edgar Hoover

★ E.G. Marshall - John N. Mitchell

★ David Paymer - Ron Ziegler

★ David Hyde Pierce - John Dean

★ Kevin Dunn - Charles Colson

Production

Origins

Originally, Oliver Stone had been developing two projects - the musical ''Evita'' and a movie about Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. When they both failed to get made, Stone turned his attention to a biopic about Richard Nixon. Hollywood's Most Controversial Director Oliver Stone Takes on Our Most Controversial President Richard Nixon Stryker McGuire The former President's death in April 1994 was also a key factor in Stone's decision to make a Nixon film. He pitched the film to Warner Brothers, but, according to the director, they saw it, "as a bunch of unattractive older white men sitting around in suits, with a lot of dialogue and not enough action."
Stone commissioned the first draft of the film's screenplay from screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson in the fall of 1993. The Dark Side Gavin Smith They conceived of a concept referred to as "the Beast," which Wilkinson describes as "a headless monster that lurches through postwar history," a metaphor for a system of dark forces that resulted in the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War, and helped Nixon's rise to power and his fall from it as well. Professor Stone Resumes His Presidential Research Bernard Weinraub Stone said in an interview that Nixon realizes that "the Beast" "is more powerful than he is. We can't get into it that much, but we hint at it so many times - the military-industrial complex, the forces of money." In another interview, the director elaborates, "I see the Beast in its essence as a System...which grinds the individual down...it's a System of checks and balances that drives itself off: 1) the power of money and markets; 2) State power, Government power; 3) corporate power, which is probably greater than state power; 4) the political process, or election through money, which is therefore in tow to the System; and 5) the media, which mostly protects the status quo and their ownership's interests." Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies Mark C Carnes
Wilkinson and Rivele started off hating Nixon but the longer they worked on the film, and "the more we knew about him, our contempt was slowly eroded to the point where we more than pitied him, we empathized with him."

Casting

The studio did not like Stone's choice to play Nixon - Anthony Hopkins. They wanted Tom Hanks or Jack Nicholson - two of Stone's original choices. The director cast Hopkins based on his performances in ''The Remains of the Day'' and ''Shadowlands''. Stone remembers, "the isolation of Tony is what struck me. The loneliness. I felt that was the quality that always marked Nixon." When the actor met the director he got the impression that Stone was "one of the great bad boys of American pop culture, and I might be a fool to walk away." Richard Nixon Gets Stoned Norman Wilner What convinced Hopkins to ultimately take on the role and "impersonate the soul of Nixon were the scenes in the film when he talks about his mother and father. That affected me." Perfectly Clear Jay Carr

Pre-production

He immersed himself in research with the help of former Washington congressional aide Eric Hamburg. With Hamburg and actors Hopkins and James Woods, Stone flew to Washington D.C. and interviewed the surviving members of Nixon's inner circle: lawyer Leonard Garment, Attorney General Elliot Richardson, and Robert McNamara. The director also hired Alexander Butterfield, a special assistant to Nixon, former deputy White House counsel John Sears, and John Dean as consultants on the film. To research their roles, Powers Boothe, David Hyde Pierce and Paul Sorvino talked to their real-life counterparts, but J.T. Walsh decided not to contact John Ehrlichman because he had threatened to sue after reading an early version of the script and was not happy with how he was portrayed. Hopkins watched a lot of documentary footage on Nixon. At night, he would go to sleep with the Nixon footage playing, letting it seep into his subconscious. Hopkins Takes Presidential Duties Seriously Ron Weiskind Hopkins said, "It's taking in all this information and if you're relaxed enough, it begins to take you over."
Stone was finalizing the film's budget a week before shooting was to begin. He made a deal with Andrew Vajna's Cinergi and Disney's Hollywood Pictures in order to supply the $43 million budget. To cut costs, Stone leased the White House sets from Rob Reiner's film, ''The American President''.

Principal photography

Early on during principal photography, Hopkins was intimidated by the amount of dialogue he had to learn, that was being added and changed all the time as he recalled, "There were moments when I wanted to get out, when I wanted to just do a nice ''Knots Landing'' or something." Sorvino told him that his accent was all wrong. Sorvino claims that he told Hopkins that he thought "there was room for improvement" and that he would be willing to help him. Woods says that Sorvino told Hopkins that he was "doing the whole thing wrong" and that he was an "expert" who could help him. Woods recalls that Sorvino took Hopkins to lunch and then he quit that afternoon. Hopkins told Stone that he wanted to quit the production but the director managed to convince him to stay. According the actors, this was all good-natured joking. Woods said, "I'd always tell him how great he was in ''Psycho''. I'd call him Lady Perkins all the time instead of Sir Anthony Perkins."
In Spring of 1994, ''Time'' magazine reported that an early draft of the screenplay linked Nixon to the assassination of JFK. The facts contained in the script were based on research from various sources, including documents, transcripts and hours of footage from the Nixon White House. Dean said about the film's accuracy: "In the larger picture, it reflected accurately what happened." Stone addressed the criticism of fictional material in the film, saying, "The material we invented was not done haphazardly or whimsically, it was based on research and interpretation."
During the post-production phase, Stone had his editors in three different rooms with the scenes from the film revolving from one room to another, "depending on how successful they were." If one editor wasn't successful with a scene then it went to another. Stone said that it was "the most intense post- I've ever done, even more intense than ''JFK''" because they were screening the film three times a week, making changes in 48-72 hours, rescreening the film and then making another 48 hours of changes.

Reaction

In its opening weekend, ''Nixon'' grossed a total of $2,206,506 in 514 theaters. As of December 19, 2006, the film has grossed a total of $13,681,765 domestically. The film holds a 74 percent "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Two days before the film was released in theaters, the Nixon family issued a statement calling parts of it "reprehensible" and that it was designed to "defame and degrade President and Mrs. Nixon's memories in the mind of the American public." Nixon Family Assails Stone Film as Distortion Bernard Weinraub This statement was actually issued by the Richard Nixon Library and birthplace in Yorba Linda, California on behalf of the Nixon family based on a published copy of the script. The statement also criticized Stone's depiction of Nixon's private life, that of his childhood, and his part in planning the assassination of Fidel Castro. Stone responded that his "purpose in making the film ''Nixon'', was neither malicious nor defamatory," and was an to attempt "a fuller understanding of the life and career of Richard Nixon - the good and the bad, the triumphs and the tragedies, and the legacy he left his nation and the world." Walt Disney's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, wrote a letter to Nixon's daughters saying that Stone had "committed a grave disservice to your family, to the Presidency, and to American history." Nixon's Family, Disney's Daughter Attack Stone's Film Stone does not see his film as the definitive statement on Nixon but as "a basis to start reading, to start investigating on your own." Casting Stone at Nixon Ron Weiskind
Some critics took Stone to task for portraying Nixon as an alcoholic but this information came from books by Stephen Ambrose, Fawn Brodie and Tom Wicker. Roger Ebert, a film critic of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' praised the film for how it took "on the resonance of classic tragedy. Tragedy requires the fall of a hero, and one of the achievements of ''Nixon'' is to show that greatness was within his reach."^[1] Ebert also placed the film on his list of the top ten films of the year. Janet Maslin from ''The New York Times'' praised Anthony Hopkins' performance and "his character's embattled outlook and stiff, hunched body language with amazing skill."^[2] However, Mick LaSalle in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', felt that "the problem here isn't accuracy. It's absurdity. Hopkins' exaggerated portrayal of Nixon is the linchpin of a film that in its conception and presentation consistently veers into camp."^[3]

Awards

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Anthony Hopkins), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Joan Allen), Best Music, Original Dramatic Score and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

Quotes

'Henry Kissinger:' "To be undone by a third-rate burglary is a fate of biblical proportions."

DVD

A director's cut was released on DVD with 28 minutes of previously deleted scenes restored. Much of the added time consists of two scenes: one in which Nixon meets with CIA director Richard Helms (played by Sam Waterston) and another on Tricia Nixon's wedding day, where J. Edgar Hoover persuades Nixon to install the taping system in the Oval Office.

References

1. ''Nixon'' Roger Ebert
2. Stone's Embrace of a Despised President Janet Maslin
3. Oliver Stone's Absurd Take on ''Nixon'' Mick LaSalle

See also

★ Dick (film)

★ JFK (film)

External links

★

★ ''White House Museum'' - How accurately did the movie recreate the architecture and floor plan of the actual White House? (Review)