The Assassination of Richard Nixon Poster

The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)

Biography | Drama | Thriller
Rayting:   7.0/10 25.2K votes
Country: USA | Mexico
Language: English
Release date: 12 May 2005

Based on real life events, Assassination is set in 1974 and centers on a businessman who decides to take extreme measures to achieve his American dream.

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brian-724 26 October 2004

I had the chance to see The Assassination of Richard Nixon over at the Loews at the Boston Common today. It was a packed house and Sean Penn, Neil Mueller, and Alfonso Cuaron were there to talk afterwards. But I'm just going to talk about the movie.

Overall, I found the film to be quite intoxicating. Sean Penn becomes Sam Bicke and the character is so interesting that I was left with his thoughts as I walked out of the theater. Especially in today's society, Nixon is an important film. It is about not letting the man get you down and it is about not electing into political positions when they are just going to lie and treat us terribly.

People will compare Nixon to Taxi Driver. And I understand this comparison. However, Taxi had much better pacing and much more violence. The performances here are just as compelling and the 70s look of the film is absolutely perfect.

There could be a few script tweakings, but some people won't be bothered by those little dialogue issues.

3 3/4 out of 5

fenuil2004 29 October 2004

Fmovies: I think this is a remarkable movie. It is great on every level. Sean Penn is better than I have seen him and the guy who plays his boss, Jack Thompson, wow. I am a big fan of Naomi Watts so I am very prejudiced in saying she is phenomenal. And Don Cheadle is one of the best actors around right now so its not a surprise that that is the case here also.

I don't think I've ever seen a film like this. It had me (and most of the audience I saw it with) laughing and getting drawn in by Mr. Penn's character. And then it got very tense and very silent as the film moved toward the end -- which is about the most tense sequence of an intelligent film I have ever seen. I don't want to give anything away but I have to say -- I read the review of someone else on here who called it "taxidriver revisited" and, with all respect, that's about the silliest thing I've read on the IMDb. Anyone who watches this film and starts thinking about and comparing it to another movie instead of 9-11 and the world we are living in right now needs to stop buying DVD's and start watching the news. This movie is so relevant on so many levels. I cannot stop thinking about it. I haven't had that experience for years. I did not think Hollywood was making films like this anymore.

Anyway, I recommend this film big time. I hear it is opening at the end of December. Go see it, that's all I can say -- it is intense and stays with you a long, long time.

BrandtSponseller 19 June 2005

At least before watching Mystic River (2003) for the first time a few months ago, I never really paid much attention to Sean Penn. In fact, I was under the impression that I didn't really care for him. I haven't seen most of his films--I probably remembered him best from Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and as "that guy who was married to Madonna". I can't say exactly why I thought I didn't like him (it was one of those things where you remember the judgment but not why you made it), but that's probably one of the reasons I haven't seen most of his films. Well, that's going to change, because based on the three I've watched in the last few months--Mystic River, I Am Sam (2001) and now this one--Penn is quickly on his way to becoming one of my favorite actors. He's probably already my favorite "versatile actor", because I almost always prefer actors who have strong, unique personalities/dispositions that tend to dominate (some would say "trample") any role they tackle. But Penn is able to meld himself to roles while still bringing something unique to them. The Assassination of Richard Nixon is no exception. His performance here is spot on, perfectly capturing a tragic and ultimately disturbing "everyman".

Comparisons of The Assassination of Richard Nixon to Taxi Driver (1976) are justified and inevitable. Both concern a man who is a bit of an outcast, both with an acute awareness of politics and the persons whom they consider fellow outcasts, both trying to make their place in the world, both continually being knocked down from the attempt, and both eventually cracking and taking similarly drastic measures against an abstraction of those they feel have wronged them. There are also equally fine performances from great actors, there is equally unique artistry in the technical elements, and both successfully stress an atmosphere of "low class grit".

But while Taxi Driver is also a masterpiece and will long be one of the cinematic benchmarks of its era, The Assassination of Richard Nixon has a number of important differences that make it clear that it's not a "rip-off". For one, it is based on a thinly veiled true story, where the major "plot" events are very close to the film (the true story is of Samuel Byck, making this one of the odder examples of fictionalizing a name to distance a film from reality--Penn's character is named Samuel Bicke).

More importantly, Bicke, although he has problems, does not see himself initially as belonging to or being obsessed with a subculture. He's relatively normal, and his desires in the film are all about correcting his "forced" deviations from normality. In a nutshell, Bicke is a guy with low self-esteem/a lack of self-confidence who keeps getting the raw end of the deal (at least in his mind). Complicating things a bit, although Bicke is relatively normal, he sees many normal kinds of social interactions--like workplace relations, politicians to their constituencies, and even romance--as a kind of "game" or charade that's usually played unfairly, with acquiescence to immoral tactics. Bicke wants things to be fair and moral; he wants people to be kind and understanding towards one another--at least per his understandings of these things. Because he doesn't play the game in the normal way, he keeps getting kicked out of it.

Thus, The Assassination of Richard Nixon is primarily a tale of a "loser" trying to put

bart51285 15 December 2004

The Assassination of Richard Nixon fmovies. Thanks to my keen eye, I (one of few, I believe) caught that free tickets to above movie were being given away, and would be followed by a Q & A with the director, producer (the guy behind Y Tu Mama Tambien) and Sean Penn, who is the lead of the movie, and takes a large majority of the screen time. The movie comes to select U.S. theaters on Dec. 29th, and the widens. I'll mention the questions later, but first the review.

A very good, yet flawed film. I use the term film not to be pretentious, but because it is primarily a film, not a movie in the blockbustery sense. It was produced independently, with the documenting the assassin, Sam Byck (Sean Penn.) It focuses on the year before he attempted (true story) to kill President Nixon in February, 1974 by flying a plane into the White House. However, the main thrust of the film was not politics, but character development.

Sean Penn is clearly one of the best actors today, very much in his prime. He once again proves it here. Byck is a man separated from his family, unsuccessful in his careers, and is marginalized from his life. We watch him obtain a sense of hopelessness, as he watches his dreams crumble away, as he blames the American system for his demise. Similar to Taxi Driver, in a lot of ways. Outstanding portrayal.

The only negative was the short span of the movie. It was 95 minutes, and left too little time for back story. There is not nearly enough exploration of how Byck got to the point where he could be pushed to kill. Another half hour of explaining his character would have made for a pantheon-level movie, instead of just a rather good one.

pepsicokedew 20 September 2004

I give The Assassination of Richard Nixon five out of five stars. It was one of the big buzz films in Toronto and I had to work every possible angle to get a ticket to the sold out screening when it made its premiere. The theater in Toronto was over a thousand seats and was packed. The audience was completely into this one -- there was plenty of earned laughter as this film has a great deal of humor before it gives way to relentless, heart-wrenching drama.

It's the story of a man who tried to kill President Nixon in 1974 and is a moving, emotional, entertaining film. Sean Penn is Sean Penn -- just the best that there is and this is as great as anything he has ever done.

I heard while I was in Toronto that the film was still being worked on after it first screened in Cannes so this was the first screening of the finished film (so I be careful when reading reviews that you are reading a review of the finished film). It is amazing, amazing, amazing and I hope it gets out to as big an audience as possible. Thank goodness filmmakers are making films that matter. 5 stars out of 5!!!!

Milrav 12 November 2004

A visceral and elegiac film impressively crafted by first time director Niels Mueller and an equally perspicuous screenplay, a collaborative effort by Neils Mueller and Kevin Kennedy. Another unforgettable performance by Sean Penn, as Samuel Byck, and a flawless performance by Jack Thomson's, as Jack Jones, that is worthy of all movie awards.

Samuel Byck (Sean Penn), an office furniture salesman during the Nixon era, found solace by chronicling his tribulations on tapes and eventually mailing them to Leonard Bernstein for compassion. The film, which was based on these tapes, re-examines the social plagues that forever haunt us - the socioeconomic and political quasi-religious dogmas that are inflicted upon us. At the end we realize that we are Sam Beck's 'Mr. Bernstein' left with the choice to redeem him or not.

This is the best film I've seen so far this year.

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