Nixon: Collector's Edition

Writing in VL-7/96, I said: "In this somewhat ludicrous 1994 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 director Oliver Stone, who takes the garbage can approach to filmmaking here, continually flipping from color to b&w (for no apparent reason), superimposing unrelated footage onto a contemporary scene (again, for no apparent reason), and even tossing 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, but even these cocktail conversation-worthy tidbits can't compensate for a bloated three-hour exercise in cinematic overindulgence that raked in a paltry $14 million at the box office." Disappointingly presented in non-anamorphic widescreen, this reasonably sharp-looking, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound enhanced two-disc "collector's edition" includes 28 extra minutes (only someone as humorless as Stone would pass up the chance to add 18 minutes to a Nixon bio), two screen-specific audio commentaries by Stone (with plenty of dead space on both; one suspects they could and should have been combined), 11 deleted scenes, a forgettable "making of" featurette, and an intriguing one-hour interview with Charlie Rose, in which Stone talks about the similarities between Nixon and the director's father. Optional. (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.]