Here's a monologue film based on a play written by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone about the reasons behind President Richard Nixon's departure from the Office, the motives behind Watergate and lots of other random thoughts by one of the most notorious politics of America. "Secret Honor" is a great opportunity to watch Philip Baker Hall carrying a film on its entirely, directed by one of the greatest directors of all time, Robert Altman.
In this fictional account, Hall plays a drunken/angry/mad/paranoid Nixon in all his forms, the man, the president and all, most of the time hiding his mistakes, blaming other people for them. All the distorted president's stream-of-consciousness is thrown on a recorder in which he keeps urging his aide Roberto to erase the most embarrassing and nastiest parts. The man rants about John Dean, Rockefeller, Kissinger, Eisenhower, his mom, the political networks called "The Bohemian Grove" and "The committee of 100" and their involvement with Vietnam War and Watergate. The trajectory of a simple man who became the most powerful, the man who lost his soul to gain the world to at the end lose it all is well evidenced when Dick tells in his tapes how he was a winner in life quoting something like this "I dream of failure that's why I succeed it." It's difficult to select his best moments on the film, there's so many.
The film is extremely difficult to follow as stream-of-consciousness usually are, it's complicated to see someone else's mind and the way they think, specially a person like Nixon, haunted by his demons while in many moments of his life. The reason of why "Secret Honors" works is purely because of the character the writers decided to follow in his darkest and bittersweet memories. To me, Nixon resulted in one of the worst nation leaders to ever walk on Earth but on film he's a terrific film character in the countless portrayals ever filmed. Hall joins a gallery of great Nixon performers like Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" and Anthony Hopkins in "Nixon", two heavyweight dramas with solid acting from actors who played Nixon like a Shakespearian tragedy. And he is like those tragedies!
In this one, Philip Baker Hall follows the same path James Whitmore walked in his Oscar nominated performance in "Give'em Hell, Harry", where he's the only actor on scene playing Harry Truman. Being the only and main force on a picture is extremely tough but Hall succeeds it, capturing all possible emotions inside of one persona, laughing, crying, shouting, babbling incoherent thoughts and words, cursing everybody and everyone. The play works because of him, way more than the drowsy text itself that among other things theorized about Nixon's escape from the Presidency in order to avoid more years of war to help his rich supporters getting drugs from Asia, and more years in the Office. His rant in the film's grand finale is amazing!
Since the screenplay is often sliced in too many rants, not respecting a certain order for at least fifteen minutes presenting political figures and events all the time, this must be watched only by viewers who know Nixon's background, otherwise you'll be utterly lost. This screenplay issue bothered me in terms of tracking down Nixon's way of thinking, to put my own reflections on what he was trying to mean with what he was saying. Order and organization is my motto in visualizing an idea or a film and that's why it gets a quite low rating in my evaluation, it might change some day, on a new view. 6/10
In this fictional account, Hall plays a drunken/angry/mad/paranoid Nixon in all his forms, the man, the president and all, most of the time hiding his mistakes, blaming other people for them. All the distorted president's stream-of-consciousness is thrown on a recorder in which he keeps urging his aide Roberto to erase the most embarrassing and nastiest parts. The man rants about John Dean, Rockefeller, Kissinger, Eisenhower, his mom, the political networks called "The Bohemian Grove" and "The committee of 100" and their involvement with Vietnam War and Watergate. The trajectory of a simple man who became the most powerful, the man who lost his soul to gain the world to at the end lose it all is well evidenced when Dick tells in his tapes how he was a winner in life quoting something like this "I dream of failure that's why I succeed it." It's difficult to select his best moments on the film, there's so many.
The film is extremely difficult to follow as stream-of-consciousness usually are, it's complicated to see someone else's mind and the way they think, specially a person like Nixon, haunted by his demons while in many moments of his life. The reason of why "Secret Honors" works is purely because of the character the writers decided to follow in his darkest and bittersweet memories. To me, Nixon resulted in one of the worst nation leaders to ever walk on Earth but on film he's a terrific film character in the countless portrayals ever filmed. Hall joins a gallery of great Nixon performers like Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" and Anthony Hopkins in "Nixon", two heavyweight dramas with solid acting from actors who played Nixon like a Shakespearian tragedy. And he is like those tragedies!
In this one, Philip Baker Hall follows the same path James Whitmore walked in his Oscar nominated performance in "Give'em Hell, Harry", where he's the only actor on scene playing Harry Truman. Being the only and main force on a picture is extremely tough but Hall succeeds it, capturing all possible emotions inside of one persona, laughing, crying, shouting, babbling incoherent thoughts and words, cursing everybody and everyone. The play works because of him, way more than the drowsy text itself that among other things theorized about Nixon's escape from the Presidency in order to avoid more years of war to help his rich supporters getting drugs from Asia, and more years in the Office. His rant in the film's grand finale is amazing!
Since the screenplay is often sliced in too many rants, not respecting a certain order for at least fifteen minutes presenting political figures and events all the time, this must be watched only by viewers who know Nixon's background, otherwise you'll be utterly lost. This screenplay issue bothered me in terms of tracking down Nixon's way of thinking, to put my own reflections on what he was trying to mean with what he was saying. Order and organization is my motto in visualizing an idea or a film and that's why it gets a quite low rating in my evaluation, it might change some day, on a new view. 6/10