Movie Review: Nixon (1995)

OK so heres how this went down: I saw this movie last weekend, got very busy this week, and now at the end of Friday I am reviewing this movie. This is the second entry in my Oliver Stone review series. This past weekend I reviewed Wall Street (1987) and now I get talking about a movie that not only do I respect more, but has more to it. Nixon is a 1995 movie directed by Oliver Stone (of course) the film stars Anthony Hopkins in the lead as president Richard Nixon as well as a whole other plethora of actors and actresses, such as James Woods, Paul Sorvino, Bob Hoskins, and Joan Allen. The movie chronicles Nixon's life not only as president, but as a person and how his own innermost demons made him a very flawed, if not disturbingly misdirected individual. This movie is over three hours long and I was never bored...once. Nixon is a good movie and that's all I have to say about that. It doesn't amaze me with it's greatness because it doesn't really go above and beyond. It's just a good movie. That to me is a great thing because I don't dislike it, but I don't love it. It's just good. What makes it so good? Well, Anthony Hopkins is literally perfect in this role. The makeup/costume design in this film is so great that if Hopkins turns his face in a certain way, you can see the face of Richard Nixon. This man looks so much like real Richard Nixon in this movie that it's scary. As far as an Oliver Stone movie goes, this one follows all the rules. Anything stored in Richard's past is filmed entirely in black and white. That's really interesting because in many ways there was no colorful things or light in the beginning of Nixon's life. Leading him to become a really scary and downright horrifying man. This portrayal of Nixon is downright unpredictable. He does things all of a sudden that you would expect out of nowhere and he's so intent on getting what he desires that he even verbally harms his wife. This movie is very good at showing how this man became such a predator-like being. He didn't grow up in fame, his father was abusive when he was growing up and after tuberculosis was given to both of his brothers, his mother and him were left alone and without direction. Which explains how he was able to lose direction in his life. James Woods in this movie is downright fascinating as H.R. Haldeman (Richard Nixon's chief of staff member) was unbelievably good as he doesn't even do that much. This movie was very entertaining and suspensful. Overall, the movie Nixon was a good film that constantly thrills and entertains. Three stars.