Nixon

Stone's the one. The most overrated director in modern times follows up his laughable supposed satire Natural Born Killers with an equally ludicrous biography of Richard Milhous Nixon. Anthony Hopkins is surprisingly good in the title role, as is Joan Allen as Pat, but they--and the rest of the strong supporting cast, including James Woods, Ed Harris, and Paul Sorvino--are continually undermined by one man: Oliver Stone. Taking the garbage can approach to filmmaking (perfected by Ken Russell, who has equally little to say and less idea of how to say it), Stone continually flips from color to black & white (for no apparent reason), superimposes unrelated footage onto a contemporary scene (again, for no apparent reason), and even tosses in such standards as explosions and mushroom clouds (for no...). The script, which offers some wonderful paranoiac flights of fantasy (hell yes, Dick knew that Texan businessmen were planning to kill JFK), is mildly entertaining in its innumerable inaccuracies (Nixon did not call his wife "Buddy" in real life). But even these cocktail conversation-worthy tidbits can't compensate for a bloated 3-hour exercise in cinematic insecurity and overindulgence. Audiences didn't think it was a blockbuster either, as the film only generated $14 million at the boxoffice. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman) [DVD/Blu-ray Review—Sept. 2, 2008—Hollywood, 2 discs, 213 min., R, DVD: $29.99, Blu-ray: $34.99—Making its third appearance on DVD, and first on Blu-ray, 1995's Nixon (Election Year Edition) features a fine transfer with English 5.1 uncompressed sound on the Blu-ray release. DVD/Blu-ray extras include two audio commentaries by director Oliver Stone, 12 deleted scenes (58 min.), a 55-minute interview of Stone by Charlie Rose, a 'Beyond Nixon' featurette made by the director's son Sean Stone (35 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: running approximately 20 minutes longer than the original (with extended/alternate scenes), this is still not one of Stone's best films, but it is presented here with a fine extras package.] [Blu-ray/DVD Review—June 4, 2019—Kino Lorber, 3 discs, 191 min., R, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and Blu-ray, 1995’s Nixon features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. This edition includes both the theatrical cut and the director’s cut of the film with extras including three audio commentaries (two by Oliver Stone on the director’s cut version of the film, and one with film historian Jim Hemphill on the theatrical cut), deleted scenes with introductions by Stone (59 min.), a Charlie Rose interview with Stone (55 min.), a 'Beyond Nixon' production featurette (35 min.), and a 'making-of' featurette (5 min.). Bottom line: this Kino Lorber edition is the best-looking one of those available on disc, although this remains one of Stone’s lesser films.]