| Nixon | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Oliver Stone |
| Written by | Stephen J. Rivele Christopher Wilkinson Oliver Stone |
| Produced by | Clayton Townsend Oliver Stone Andrew G. Vajna |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert Richardson |
| Edited by | Hank Corwin Brian Berdan |
| Music by | John Williams |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (North America/South America/Germany/Japan) Cinergi Productions (International) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 192 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English Chinese Russian |
| Budget | $44 million[2] |
| Box office | $13.7 million (US/Canada)[2] |
Nixon is a 1995 Americanepichistoricaldrama film directed byOliver Stone, produced by Stone, Clayton Townsend, andAndrew G. Vajna, and written by Stone,Christopher Wilkinson, andStephen J. Rivele, with significant contributions from "project consultants" Christopher Scheer and Robert Scheer. The film tells the story of the political and personal life of former U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon, played byAnthony Hopkins.
The film portrays Nixon as a complex and in many respects admirable, albeit deeply flawed, person.Nixon begins with a disclaimer that the film is "an attempt to understand the truth ... based on numerous public sources and on an incomplete historical record". The cast also includesJoan Allen,Annabeth Gish,Marley Shelton,Bai Ling,Powers Boothe,J. T. Walsh,E. G. Marshall,Sam Waterston,James Woods,Paul Sorvino,Bob Hoskins,Larry Hagman,Ed Harris andDavid Hyde Pierce, plus archival appearances from political figures such as PresidentBill Clinton in television footage from the Nixon funeral service.
The film received generally favorable reviews from critics, with Hopkins' performance receiving particular praise. Despite this, the film grossed only $13.6 million domestically against a $44 million budget, making it one of the biggestbox-office bombs of 1995. The film was nominated for fourAcademy Awards:Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins),Best Supporting Actress (Joan Allen),Best Original Score (John Williams) andBest Original Screenplay. This was Stone's second of three films about the presidents of the United States, afterJFK, which was about theassassination of John F. Kennedy, andW., which was aboutGeorge W. Bush.
In 1972, theWhite House Plumbers break intoThe Watergate and are subsequently arrested. Eighteen months later in December 1973,Richard Nixon's Chief of Staff,Alexander Haig, brings Nixon audio tapes for Nixon to listen to. The two men discuss theWatergate scandal and the resulting chaos. After discussing the death ofJ. Edgar Hoover, Nixon uses profanity when discussingJohn Dean,James McCord, and others involved in Watergate. As Haig turns to leave, Nixon asks Haig why he has not been given a pistol to commit suicide like an honorable soldier.
A majority of the movie is told through flashbacks of Nixon's tapes. Nixon starts the taping system, which triggers memories that begin a series of flashbacks within the film. The first begins on June 23, 1972, about one week after the break-in, during a meeting withH. R. Haldeman,John Ehrlichman and Dean. Ehrlichman and Dean leave, and Nixon speaks the "smoking gun" tape to Haldeman.
Henry Kissinger figures prominently in the film, beginning as a respected professor and later asNational Security Adviser andSecretary of State. Throughout the film, there is a battle with Nixon and his staff over who Kissinger actually is—is he a leaker who only cares about his reputation in the press, or is he a loyal subject who follows the president's orders? Although many cabinet members blame Kissinger for the leaks, Nixon cannot turn his back on him.
While at the height of his political career, Nixon thinks back to childhood and how his parents raised him and his brothers. Two of his brothers died of tuberculosis at a young age and this deeply impacted the president. The film covers most aspects of Nixon's life and political career and implies that he and hiswife abusedalcohol andprescription medications. Nixon's health problems, including his bout ofphlebitis andpneumonia during the Watergate crisis, are also shown; his heavy use of medications is sometimes attributed to these.
The film hints at some kind of responsibility, real or imagined, that Nixon felt towards theJohn F. Kennedyassassination through references to theBay of Pigs Invasion, the implication being that the mechanisms set into place for the invasion by Nixon during his 8-year term asDwight D. Eisenhower's vice president spiraled out of control to culminate in Kennedy's assassination and eventually Watergate.
The film ends withNixon's resignation and departure from the lawn of the White House on the helicopter,Army One. Real-life footage ofNixon's state funeral inYorba Linda, California plays out over the extended end credits, and all living ex-presidents at the time—Gerald Ford,Jimmy Carter,Ronald Reagan, andGeorge H. W. Bush—as well as then-presidentBill Clinton, are shown in attendance.
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Eric Hamburg, former speechwriter and staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, got the idea of a film aboutRichard Nixon after having dinner withOliver Stone.[3] Originally, Stone had been developing two projects – the musicalEvita and a movie aboutPanamanian dictatorManuel Noriega. When neither was made, Stone turned his attention to a biopic about Nixon.[6] The former President's death on April 22, 1994, was also a key factor in Stone's decision to make a Nixon film. Hepitched the film toWarner Bros., but, according to Stone, they saw it, "as a bunch of unattractive older white men sitting around in suits, with a lot of dialogue and not enough action".[6]
In 1993, Hamburg mentioned the idea of a Nixon film to writer Stephen J. Rivele with the concept being that they would incorporate all of the politician's misdeeds, both known and speculative.[3] Rivele liked the idea and had previously thought about writing a play exploring the same themes. Hamburg encouraged Rivele to write a film instead and with his screenwriting partner, Christopher Wilkinson, they wrote a treatment in November 1993.[3] 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 ofJohn F. Kennedy,Robert F. Kennedy, andMartin Luther King Jr., theVietnam War, and helped Nixon's rise to power and his fall from it as well.[7] 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".[8] 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.[9]
It was this concept that convinced Stone to makeNixon and he told Hamburg to hire Rivele and Wilkinson. Stone commissioned the first draft of the film's screenplay in the fall of 1993.[3] Rivele and Wilkinson delivered the first draft of their script on June 17, 1994, the anniversary of theWatergate scandal.[3] Stone loved the script but felt that the third act and the ending needed more work.[3] They wrote another draft and delivered it on August 9, the 20th anniversary ofNixon's resignation.[3]
Stone immersed himself in research with the help of Hamburg.[6] With Hamburg and actors Anthony Hopkins and James Woods, Stone flew toWashington, D.C., and interviewed the surviving members of Nixon's inner circle: lawyerLeonard Garment and Attorney GeneralElliot Richardson. He also interviewedRobert McNamara, a former Secretary of Defense under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. The director also hiredAlexander Butterfield, a key figure in the Watergate scandal who handled the flow of paper to the President, as a consultant to make sure that the Oval Office was realistically depicted,[3] former deputy White House counselJohn Sears, andJohn Dean, who made sure that every aspect of the script was accurate and wrote a few uncredited scenes for the film.[3] Butterfield also appears in a few scenes as a White House staffer. 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 contactJohn Ehrlichman because he had threatened to sue after reading an early version of the script and was not happy with how he was portrayed.[6] 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.[10] Hopkins said, "It's taking in all this information and if you're relaxed enough, it begins to take you over."[10]
Stone originally had a three-picture deal withRegency Enterprises which includedJFK,Heaven and Earth, andNatural Born Killers. After the success ofKillers, Arnon Milchan, head of Regency, signed Stone for three more motion pictures.[11] Stone could make any film up to a budget of $42.5 million.[3] When Stone told Milchan that he wanted to makeNixon, Milchan, who was not keen on the idea, told the director that he would only give him $35 million, thinking that this would cause Stone to abandon the project.[3][11] Stone took the project to Hungarian financierAndrew G. Vajna who had a co-financing deal withDisney.[3] Vajna's company,Cinergi Pictures, were willing to finance the $38 million film. This angered Milchan who claimed thatNixon was his film because of his three-picture deal with Stone and he threatened to sue. He withdrew after Stone paid him an undisclosed amount.[11] Stone was finalizing the film's budget a week before shooting was to begin.[6] He made a deal with Cinergi andDisney'sHollywood Pictures in order to supply the $43 million budget.[6] To cut costs, Stone leased the White House sets fromRob Reiner's filmThe American President.[6]
Hopkins was not considered a natural choice for the role, with British film criticBarry Norman telling Hopkins it was like "castingPaul Newman asHarold Macmillan". While Stone had wanted to cast Hopkins based on his recent performances inThe Remains of the Day andShadowlands, Hopkins took some time before accepting the role, noting the difficulties in a British actor replicating American speech patterns. Stone reassured Hopkins, telling him that he wanted him for the role and that being a formeralcoholic and beingWelsh meant there was "something dark" about him, that he was an "outsider".[12] In a later interview Stone said, "The isolation of Tony is what struck me. The loneliness. I felt that was the quality that always marked Nixon."[6] 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."[13] Ultimately, Hopkins was convinced to 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."[14] Hopkins wore a hair piece and false teeth "to hint at a physical resemblance to Nixon".[15]
The studio did not like Stone's choice to play Nixon and wantedTom Hanks orJack Nicholson – two of Stone's original choices. The director also consideredGene Hackman,Robin Williams,Gary Oldman andTommy Lee Jones. Stone met withWarren Beatty but Beatty declined as he felt that "Nixon was not treated compassionately".[3][16] When Beatty was thinking about doing the film, he insisted on doing a reading of the script with an actress andJoan Allen was flown in fromNew York City. Afterwards, Beatty told Stone that he had found his Pat Nixon.[3]
The film began shooting on May 1, 1995, but there was a week of pre-shooting at the end of April to film scenes that would be used as part of a mock documentary about Nixon's career.[3] 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[7] as he recalled, "There were moments when I wanted to get out, when I wanted to just do a niceKnots Landing or something."[13] Sorvino told him that his accent was all wrong.[6] Sorvino claims he told Hopkins that he thought "there was room for improvement" and that he would be willing to help him.[10] Woods says that Sorvino told Hopkins that he was "doing the whole thing wrong" and that he was an "expert" who could help him.[10] Woods recalls that Sorvino took Hopkins to lunch and then he quit that afternoon.[10] Hopkins told Stone that he wanted to quit the production but the director managed to convince him to stay.[6][10] According to the actors, this was all good-natured joking. Woods said, "I'd always tell him how great he was inPsycho. I'd call him Lady Perkins all the time instead of Sir Anthony Hopkins."[10]
In Spring of 1994,Time magazine reported that an early draft of the screenplay linked Nixon to the assassination of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy.[13] 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."[7] 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."[9]John Taylor, head of the Nixon Presidential Library, leaked a copy of the script toRichard Helms, former Director of theCIA, who threatened to sue the production.[3] In response, Stone cut out all scenes with Helms from the theatrical print and claimed that he did for "artistic reasons" only to reinstate this footage on the home video release.[3]
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".[8] 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 thanJFK" 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.[8]
| Nixon: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
|---|---|
| Film score by | |
| Released | 1995 |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Length | 47:23[17] |
| Producer | John Williams |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic[18] |    |
| Filmtracks[17] | |
| Movie Wave[19] | |
The score was composed byJohn Williams, who previously worked with Stone onBorn on the Fourth of July andJFK.
All music is composed byJohn Williams, except where indicated.
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The 1960s: The Turbulent Years" | 5:01 | ||
| 2. | "Main Title... The White House Gate" | 4:15 | ||
| 3. | "Growing Up in Whittier" | 2:40 | ||
| 4. | "The Ellsburg Break-in and Watergate" | 2:40 | ||
| 5. | "Love Field: Dallas, November 1963" | 4:51 | ||
| 6. | "Losing a Brother" | 3:17 | ||
| 7. | "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" | Julia Ward Howe | William Steffe | 1:03 |
| 8. | "Making a Comeback" | 2:20 | ||
| 9. | "Track 2 and the Bay of Pigs" | 4:46 | ||
| 10. | "The Miami Convention, 1968" | 3:18 | ||
| 11. | "The Meeting with Mao" | 3:09 | ||
| 12. | ""I Am That Sacrifice"" | 4:49 | ||
| 13. | "The Farewell Scene" | 5:00 |
In its opening weekend,Nixon grossed a total of $2.2 million in 514 theaters in the United States and Canada. The film grossed a total of $13.6 million in the United States and Canada, less than its $44 million budget.[2]
OnRotten TomatoesNixon has a 76% approval rating, based reviews from 63 critics, with an average score of 6.8/10. The site's consensus states: "Much like its subject's time in office,Nixon might have ended sooner—but what remains is an engrossing, well-acted look at the rise and fall of a fascinating political figure."[20]Metacritic gave the film a score of 66 based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[21] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on scale of A+ to F.[22]
Two days before the film was released in theaters, theRichard Nixon Library and birthplace inYorba Linda, California issued a statement on behalf of the Nixon family, calling parts of the film "reprehensible" and that it was designed to "defame and degrade President and Mrs. Nixon's memories in the mind of the American public."[23] This statement was based on a published copy of the script.[23] The statement also criticized Stone's depiction of Nixon's private life, that of his childhood, and his part in planning the assassination ofFidel Castro. Stone responded that his "purpose in making the film,Nixon was neither malicious nor defamatory", and was an attempt to gain "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."[23]
Some critics took Stone to task for portraying Nixon as analcoholic, though Stone says that was based on information from books byStephen Ambrose,Fawn Brodie, andTom Wicker.[7] Film criticRoger Ebert 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 ofNixon is to show that greatness was within his reach."[24] Ebert also placed the film on his list of the top ten films of the year.Janet Maslin fromThe New York Times praised Anthony Hopkins' performance and "his character's embattled outlook and stiff, hunched body language with amazing skill."[25]
Mick LaSalle in theSan 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".[26] Richard Corliss, in his review forTime, also had a problem with Hopkins' portrayal: "Hopkins, though, is a failure. He finds neither the timbre of Nixon's plummy baritone, with its wonderfully false attempts at intimacy, nor the stature of a career climber who, with raw hands, scaled the mountain and was still not high or big enough."[27]Peter Travers ofRolling Stone wrote: "It's grippingpsychodrama — just don't confuseNixon with history."[28]
| Award | Category | Recipients | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Actor | Anthony Hopkins | Nominated | [29] |
| Best Supporting Actress | Joan Allen | Nominated | ||
| Best Original Screenplay | Stephen J. Rivele,Oliver Stone &Christopher Wilkinson | Nominated | ||
| Best Original Score | John Williams | Nominated | ||
| BAFTA Award | Best Actress in a Supporting Role | Joan Allen | Nominated | [30] |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama | Anthony Hopkins | Nominated | [31] |
| Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture | Joan Allen,Brian Bedford,Powers Boothe,Kevin Dunn, Fyvush Finkel,Annabeth Gish,Tony Goldwyn,Larry Hagman, Ed Harris,Edward Herrmann,Anthony Hopkins,Bob Hoskins, Madeline Kahn,E. G. Marshall,David Paymer,Paul Sorvino, David Hyde Pierce,Mary Steenburgen,J. T. Walsh,James Woods | Nominated | [32] |
| Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role | Anthony Hopkins | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role | Joan Allen | Nominated |
Entertainment Weekly rankedNixon No. 40 on their "50 Best Biopics Ever" list[33] and one of the 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers".[34]
The theatrical cut of the film was released on DVD on June 15, 1999.[35] Adirector's cut was released onDVD as part of an Oliver Stone boxset in 2001, running 212 mins and including 28 minutes of previously deleted scenes. Much of the added time consists of two scenes: one in which Nixon meets withCentral Intelligence Agency directorRichard Helms (played bySam Waterston) and another onTricia Nixon's wedding day, where J. Edgar Hoover persuades Nixon to install the taping system in theOval Office. The Director's Cut was released individually on DVD in 2002.[36] The Director's Cut was re-released byWalt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (branded as Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment) on DVD andBlu-ray Disc on August 19, 2008, with the firstanamorphic widescreen version of the film in North America.
