The Assassination of Richard Nixon

The timing of a film -- the when, where, how and why we wind up watching -- can have a tremendous effect on our assessment of it. As previously mentioned, Filmbrain saw Niels Mueller's The Assassination of Richard Nixon on the eve before George W. Bush won a second term as president. Though the film contains many disturbing parallels to America in 2004 (more on that in a bit), Filmbrain watched it in the comfort of knowing that the days of insanity, stupidity, lies, and ignorance were coming to an end. No, Kerry was no savior, nor was he even a great Democratic candidate -- but he wasn't George Bush, and that's really all that mattered. Surely, the American people were not about to re-elect a man that lied to his country in order to......[Filmbrain really doesn't have to go into details, does he?] The shock and dismay that many (49%) of us are feeling is not simply because Bush won, but because we now truly see just how different (and distant) we are from the other 51%. The "red" states voted against their own economic interests in order to realize their idea of a more "moral" America (read: no gay marriage). There's clearly going to be an even greater move to the right in Bush's second term -- and where does that leave the rest of us? Might we feel alienated? Helpless? Will we be able to control our rage? In The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Sean Penn plays Samuel J. Bicke, a man who finds himself at a loss with the world around him. Bicke is a good, honest, caring man in a world full of power, corruption and lies. A weak man, his attempts at finding something to believe in are continually met with failure. His wife has left him (taking their kids with her) and all Sam wants is an opportunity to make something of himself in order to win them back. Though he cannot abide lies, his work as an office furniture salesman forces him to do so on a daily basis. He finds solace in the music of Leonard Bernstein, convinced that a person who can create something so pure, so beautiful, must be a good person. Bernstein becomes his confident of sorts -- Sam sends him audio tapes of his innermost thoughts. As things grow worse for Sam, his grip on reality loosens, resulting in a plan to kill the president of the United States. As he says to Bernstein on a tape, "I will kill the president to show those in power what one grain of sand can do." Sam's plan is to hijack an airplane and fly it into the Whitehouse. The film is based on a true story. Filmbrain can't help but wonder if there are people who, in the next four years, will find they've lost their way in society, much as Sam Bicke did. Look at America in 1974 -- the nation was run by a corrupt Republican administration accused of tampering with a national election, while at the same time an unpopular war was being fought overseas. (Sound familiar?) Nixon, to Sam's boss Jack, is the greatest salesman in history -- he swindled the American people twice about ending the war in Vietnam. Jack spins that into the ultimate manifestation of "believing in yourself". Jack is also a great believer in Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale, and he strongly urges Sam to read, study and master their books, something that alienates Sam even further. The one dream Sam clings to is to be reunited with his ex-wife Marie (Naomi Watts) and their children. To achieve this, he plans to start a mobile tire repair business with his best friend Bonny (Don Cheadle), and he believes this will convince Marie that he is a responsible husband and father. The approval process for the small business loan Sam applies for takes ten weeks, and in that period of time, Sam will grow more and more delusional, convinced that there are evil, racist forces at play that are standing in the way of his happiness. It is during these weeks that Sam will hatch his plan to kill the president. Mueller's decision to have the entire film take place from Sam's point of view (Penn is in nearly every shot) forces us to consider what he thinks and feels. Though there will doubtless be some that write off Sam as a loser and sociopath, Filmbrain found himself being pulled deep into Sam's world, and felt genuinely sorry for him. (Those feelings have become even stronger in the past few days.) Sam wants to do the right thing, even in the face of corruption and the injustices he feels take place on a daily basis. (He is strongly against racism, and donates money to the Black Panthers in order to feel he's done something.) Looking to his leaders for guidance is futile. Nixon, whose face fills every TV screen throughout the film, is shown continually addressing the Watergate scandal. Faced with what he perceives as failure from all directions, Sam chooses to do something that will forever make him famous. Though based on a true story, very few people remember Sam Bicke (his real name was Byck). At the time, it was thought that he was simply hijacking a plane -- his designs on Nixon weren't revealed until a letter of his reached Washington Post reporter Jack Anderson. Even so, the story was overshadowed by the Watergate hearings, thus resulting in Sam's failure to achieve even his final goal -- to be remembered. Penn is phenomenal in the role -- it's rare that he plays such a meek, small character, yet he pulls it off beautifully. Writer/director Mueller has stated that he wants us to identify with Bicke throughout the first two thirds of the film so as to greater enhance the shock of the finale. He feels that it is Penn's performance (and the nearly continual focus on him) that will draw people in. What Mueller may find, in fact, is that more and more people find themselves thinking like Bicke, and our identification with him might owe less to Penn's performance and more to our own sense of feeling disenfranchised. Does this mean somebody will try to kill the president? Doubtful. Yet the film might just have a greater impact today than it would have a few weeks ago. At the moment, Filmbrain has this as one of his favorite films of the year, but he's unable to honestly say if that's a result of the film itself, or from the events of this past week. Regardless, The Assassination of Richard Nixon is an impressive, tense drama that is easily one of the most original American films of 2004, and one that shouldn't be missed.

Comments

[cynthia]

i feel similarly about having just watched fog of war for the first time just after bush was elected. eerie.

[Bill]

Disinfranchised? How? Didn't you vote? Do you really think the voters in the so called red states didn't consider the facts? Are the coastal elites so conceited that they cannot abide by the democratic process?????????\

[Filmbrain]

To be honest -- no, I don't think the people who voted for Bush (in both red and blue states) did consider the facts.

[Marie]

"Do you really think the voters in the so called red states didn't consider the facts?"

What facts? The fact that there is high unemployment? The fact that the standard of US education is the worst for years? The fact that there is a crippling national debt? The fact that the war in Iraq has been proved to be based on lies (ie NO WMDs)? The fact that civil liberties have been eroded? The fact that millions more are living in poverty than when Bush was elected and rates of child poverty have also increased drastically?

Or the fact that voting red means that two men can't now have a civil partnership?

I'm from the UK and watched the election with incredulity. Liberals in the US, you have my sympathy. I'd offer my home to you all as asylum seekers but think that you should stay and fight. Two years till the next congressional elections - you can sink the neocons.

And I can't wait to see this film - sounds great but I'm not sure when it will be released into the UK.

[Mary]

For the first time in many years, we HAVE considered ALL the facts. Liberals hate Bush; conservatives love him. Take a long look at the red/blue map, esp by counties. The people have spoken!

[keith]

By the way, Bush did not win in 2000 nor 2004. Kerry won the electoral vote and he also won the popular vote by about 3%. A study of the exit polls say the odds are 16,400,000 to 1 in Kerry's favor. The reason the voting machines say Bush won is because they were manipulated by the Republican corporations that made them. We are not allowed to see how they work. Paper ballots are fewer and fewer. Gore got 650,000 votes more than Bush and Kerry got over 10% more than Gore.
Max Cleland did not lose to Chambliss. Mondale did not lose to Thume.
The reason Bush is at 43% approval and 49% disapproval now is because he never even won an election.
Many were saying before the invasion that there were no WMD---they just could not get on the mainstream media. Guess what? There were no WMD. Many were saying Bush wanted to invade no matter what the intelligence said---they just could not get in the mainstream media. Now we have the smoking gun Downing Street Memo proving it was true and the media will barely mention it 17 days after it is in the British press. Still think the media has a liberal bias? They won't mention the theft of our democracy by the current administration. By the way, the media is owned by large Republican corporations.

[Peter]

I am a huge admirer of Sean Penn's acting ability and persona. Filmbrain's review of this film is the most unique and perhaps sympathetic that I have read. I suffer from depression (myself). I am actually psychologically afraid of this film, as much as I am still intrigued by it. Perhaps someday I will watch it, I don't know. But I do know that the madness of hurting fellow human beings is never the answer. I personally have experienced instability. I have faced disability and social alienation. These things have been horrible. And my emotional judgement has been impaired and misunderstood at points in my life. I have made mistakes. But to my deepest soul I could never hurt anyone. There is and never could be any justification. Thank you.