The Assassination of Richard Nixon

I saw this film at Cannes and thought it was fantastic. There is not a flawed moment in the entire film. The performances are amazing and any intelligent film fan will see Sean Penn's performance as one of his best if not his very best ever.

Additionally, Naomi Watts is outstanding. She disappears entirely in her role as Marie and is almost unrecognizable from anything she's ever done in the past. Jack Thompson, the great Australian actor of Breaker Morant and Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith fame is stunning. I can't believe he hasn't been used more in the United States. Not to mention the always great Don Cheadle and others...

The story itself is chilling. This is one relevant film that everyone should see. I don't want to give anything away but suffice it to say that this film discusses with great depth and insight issues that are burning in everyone's minds these days -- terrorism, 9-11, powerlessness as a voting public, etc., etc.

This film is gripping from start to finish. It is a carefully crafted character dissection that takes you inside the mind and heart of Penn's character. The film couldn't have succeeded without Penn's brilliance. The art direction and cinematography are stand out as well as the editing which keeps the film moving at a very assured pace.

This film is as good as they come. It's the kind of film they used to make and I was thrilled to see that some filmmakers and actors had the courage to tackle such complexities as are tackled here.

Roger Ebert calls "Nixon" one of the best films at this year's Cannes film festival...Le Monde in France called it a near masterpiece and in Rome's largest paper they wondered why this film instead of Fahrenheit 911 wasn;'t garnering all the attention. I agree with all of them. Amazing what the director and cast were able to pull off, simply amazing.

This film is an absolute gem and a must see for any intelligent film-goer....It will become a classic...guaranteed.

Just saw THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON last night at an AFI screening. The film is absolutely stunning.

Niels Mueller has such a sure and masterful hand in directing that belies the fact that this is his theatrical directorial debut. He directs with a flair that is never gimmicky and the film is pitch perfect without a single false note (helped in part by the tight script by Mueller and Kevin Kennedy and the elegant editing). The scenes hum with a slowburn intensity and gradually build up a momentum that lunges to the film's explosive final act.

This young director is one to watch.

Sean Penn gave a powerful and nuanced performance that explores the whole range of his acting personas. This IS the towering performance of his career. Excellent supporting work from Naomi Watts, Don Cheadle, Jack Thompson and a scene-stealing Michael Wincott.

THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON (2004) *** Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Jack Thompson, Don Cheadle, Michael Wincott. Penn continues to be our greatest living American actor in this volatile, highly implosive achievement as a frustrated businessman circa 1974 who vents all his shortcomings into a half-baked attempt to kill President Nixon in the hope his actions actually add some color to his miserable life and impose him as a significant human being. Novice filmmaker Niels Mueller (who collaborated on the screenplay with Kevin Kennedy) constructs a significant portrait of angst, anomie and alienation yet the outcome proves to be a touch anti-climactic spoiling the rage that has been festering throughout like an undercurrent of dread. Never-the-less Penn is ably supported particularly veteran character actor Thompson as his passive/aggressive prick boss.

Richard Nixon (or as I like to call him, President Pinocchio) brought American politics to an unprecedented low (unfortunately, Tricky Dick was not the last one to do that). His escalation of the Vietnam War, his "dirty tricks" campaign to spy on protesters, his assassinations of Black Panthers and American Indian Movement activists, his overthrow of Chile's government, and Watergate, pretty much destroyed the idealistic view of "good government".

So, it's not surprising that someone would want to assassinate him. In "The Assassination of Richard Nixon", Sean Penn plays Sam Bicke, a disgruntled salesman who is going through a divorce and losing his job. After seeing Nixon's policies play out, Sam takes it upon himself to assassinate the president by crashing a plane into the White House. Maybe that conjures up memories of September 11, 2001, but Penn gives a gritty performance to the point where you can't help but completely agree with Sam's actions.

Much like the Joel Schumacher film of 1993 starring Michael Douglas, this film is about an ordinary man with an ordinary job who is driven to insanity by the injustice and unfairness of his world. While both films teach us that no matter how solid it seems, everything will crumble under enough pressure there is no humor to TAORN. In fact it's the most depressing film like...ever.

I don't know what made me go see TAORN. I'd heard nothing of it but I like Sean Penn and Naomi Watts (they were in the brilliant 21 Grams together) and everything else at the cinema I had either seen or looked crap (Man of the House, Miss Congenatailiality 2) so I chose this, hoping it to be a dark horse. It was well made and acted but it's really, really heavy and I would not recommend it to anyone bored with their jobs or lives in general.

Sean Penn plays the true story of Sam Bicke, a furniture salesman who is estranged from his family, his wife, his children, his colleagues...basically everything. He sees the fatcats around him growing richer and richer while he rots away in his inescapable reality of nothingness. He blames Dick Nixon for his woes, the fattest of all fatcats, the man at the top of the food chain. He believes that if he kills Nixon he might be able to make the slightest of changes to the racist, lying world.

Of course he failed, but watching Sam Bicke crash and burn is a very painful thing to do. What makes it more distressing is that there is never a reason given as to why everyone deserted him. It gave the impression that anyone can be so callous and uncaring and that anyone can be driven to such insanity and desperate measures.

Not a film to see with your girlfriend that's for damn sure but certainly an impressive, if tough to watch, piece of work.