A bitter and disgraced Richard Nixon (superbly played with alarming intensity and ferocity by Philip Baker Hall) decides one night while pacing around his private study to open up and reflect on his troubled life and thwarted political career before eventually revealing the reasons behind the reasons for the infamous Watergate scandal.
Director Robert Altman makes ingenious use of a bank of television monitors and cinematographer Pierre Mignot's restless prowling camera in order to inject plenty of thrilling cinematic panache into the stage play-based material. The bold and incisive script by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone not only astutely captures the tortured soul and heavy heart of Richard Nixon, but also thoroughly covers both Nixon's rough impoverished background and rocky times in office as well as postulates several radical conspiracy theories that are downright startling in their audacious implications. However, it's veteran character actor Hall's bracing and bravura portrayal of Nixon which encompasses a broad array of emotions ranging from anger to pride to regret to ultimately fierce defiance concerning his miserable place in American history that in turn makes this film so resonant and provocative: Alternately profane and pitiable, paranoid and reflective, ashamed and remorseless, Hall's characterization of Nixon as a complex bundle of contradictions accomplishes the astounding feat of making the viewer in the long run feel more than a little sorry for Nixon and his wretched plight. An absolute powerhouse.
Director Robert Altman makes ingenious use of a bank of television monitors and cinematographer Pierre Mignot's restless prowling camera in order to inject plenty of thrilling cinematic panache into the stage play-based material. The bold and incisive script by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone not only astutely captures the tortured soul and heavy heart of Richard Nixon, but also thoroughly covers both Nixon's rough impoverished background and rocky times in office as well as postulates several radical conspiracy theories that are downright startling in their audacious implications. However, it's veteran character actor Hall's bracing and bravura portrayal of Nixon which encompasses a broad array of emotions ranging from anger to pride to regret to ultimately fierce defiance concerning his miserable place in American history that in turn makes this film so resonant and provocative: Alternately profane and pitiable, paranoid and reflective, ashamed and remorseless, Hall's characterization of Nixon as a complex bundle of contradictions accomplishes the astounding feat of making the viewer in the long run feel more than a little sorry for Nixon and his wretched plight. An absolute powerhouse.