The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)
Starring: Sean Penn, Don Cheadle, Naomi Watts, Jack Thompson
Director: Niels Mueller
Screenplay: Niels Mueller, Kevin Kennedy
Running time: 95 minutes
I ACTUALLY watched this one in two sittings. It started off slowly and I abandoned my first attempt, but then a week later decided to give it another go. I’m glad I did. The Assassination of Richard Nixon tells the fact-based story of Samuel Byck (the producers changed the spelling of the surname to Bicke for the movie), who in February 1974 tried to hijack a plane with the intention of crashing it into the White House.
This movie offers up a great case study of how a man’s slow mental disintegration impacts on those around him – both immediate family and total strangers.
Alienated by his estranged wife, sacked by his brother from the family tyre business, and caught up in a job he hates, Bicke’s life is going from crisis to crisis and you genuinely feel for him as he tries to survive day-to-day, week-to-week. There are some cringe-inducing moments when you realise his desperation is falling on deaf ears and the inevitable meltdown begins.
Without doubt what makes this movie rise above mediocrity is its superb cast. Penn, yet again, pulls out all stops as the hapless Bicke. His nuanced facial expressions and subtle delivery belies a weak-minded individual that ends up – for what seems like for the first time in his life – going through with something to the end. Cheadle’s part as Bicke’s buddy could have been developed a little more, but he makes the most of his screen time, while Watts and Thompson, who respectively play his ex-wife and boss, shine.
There are a couple of hiccups along the way such as its slow start, and no mention of the real-life Byck’s bipolar disorder that he had during those years. However, still worth a look.
3.5 stars out of 5
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I was blown away by this film, Penn's performance is one of the best of his career. The comments it makes about alienation and separation from society are important.
I don't think the film ever needed to say the words bi-polar, or have teh token doctors office scene because Penn's performance shows it rather than tells.
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