FILM REVIEW - THE
ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON
A good slow burn film based
on fact - Of course, it will be no surprise that Nixon was not assassinated in
1974 so the title alone makes the film intriguing.
Sean Penn stars in a film
about a real life loser who tried and failed to kill Nixon, - it isn't a psycho
movie, more a sad tale of a man driven to breaking point by the dark edges of
the American dream, - Penn avoids eyeball rolling manic derangement throughout,
- his character is a Willie Lomax (Miller's Death Of a Salesman) figure, a
salesman of leather furnishings and later of car tyres, who fails to make as
much money as businessmen round him who sell at inflated mark-up prices, and
through deception, - one even points out Nixon (seen only in news footage from
the 1974 period) as the ideal role model, elected on promises to end the
Vietnam War and then re-elected on the same promise with a commanding majority.
Penn loses deal after deal and walks out of several jobs, destroying his marriage
in the process, - in one scene of some pathos he begs to be allowed to join the
Black Panthers, and even offers them a cash incentive to change their identity
to the Zebras to allow disenchanted white folk to be able to join too, they
keep his money.
Penn plays the role
quietly, and is reminiscent of De Nero in his younger days. When he tries to
set his own business up selling car tyres door to door in a converted school
bus, he is put on a ten-week hold for an essential loan he needs to establish
the business. His partner, who is black, suggests this may be for admitting to
the bank that the partner is black, - after repeatedly doomed efforts to speed
up the transaction process, his own brother, who has such a business and is
doing well with it, hauls in Penn. Penn has been stealing cash and equipment
from the brother to advance the project - his own moral integrity on the brink
of being openly broken, he finally snaps. Seeing a news report of a disgruntled
Vietnam Vet making an unauthorised helicopter flight straight into the grounds
of the Whitehouse, Penn decides to hijack a 747 and crash it into the
Whitehouse. This is not a Hollywood mainstream film or a film drawing 9/11
parallels in any way - where the villain of most such films is seen getting within
a hair-breath of his goal, Penn screws up from the start. Having written his
intentions to composer Elmer Bernstein due to the honesty and integrity of the
man's music, (much of the film is done in flashback as he composes these
documents) Penn rehearses the planned hijacking all night and arrives at the
airport barely able to stay awake - he has a gun and a satchel full of
kerosene, which he almost leaves behind.
Seeing that the customs and security set up involves a metal detector,
he seems to contemplate giving up, but then takes out the gun, fires a few
shots, injuring one official immediately and forces his way through to the
plane where he threatens the passengers and then storms the cabin. As the pilot
tries to explain that they need clearance from the control tower, Penn shoots
and possibly kills (it's never fully confirmed) both pilot and co-pilot and
desperately tries to get a hostess to fly the plane for him when security gun
him down - his efforts as doomed to failure as everything else in his life....
He comes across as terribly sad and frustrated rather than insane, which makes
the film work rather well I thought. Intelligent, but hardly an action flick,
hence its limited status beside so many blockbuster epics with half its
thoughtfulness ...
Arthur Chappell
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