Aug 28, 2008 - 09:00 AM

By John Foote

Nixon (1995)

Directed by Oliver Stone

on DVD

*****

I believe Richard Milhouse Nixon to be one of the greatest American presidents of the 20th century... period. There it's out, I have said it.

This November, film audiences will get a look at W, Stone's biography of current U.S. President George W. Bush, played in the movie by John Brolin. By all accounts, the film is a vicious attack on a man many (myself included) consider to be among the worst presidents in U.S. history. From his hard drinking growing up in Texas, his use of cocaine and avoidance of the military, and finally getting elected (sort of) to the highest office in the land, the film will track the trajectory of Bush.

A few years ago, Stone explored the life of another controversial president in his film Nixon, which everyone expected to be a scathing study of the disgraced U.S. leader who resigned amidst the Watergate scandal in 1974. Shockingly, when the film was released, Stone had made a fair, sensitive and near Shakespearean study of Nixon, exploring the life of a man wracked by deep feelings of insecurity, never quite believing he was deserving of all that he had accomplished, struggling with his need for the love of the American people and constantly angry at the love he saw for the Kennedy clan. Paranoid to a fault, he would eventually bug the White House and listen to conversations, and was finally caught bugging his opponent in the presidential race.

The film is a tragic study of a man who rose to be the most powerful on the globe and was undone by his own tragic flaws. Nixon is portrayed, quite brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins. Looking and sounding nothing like Nixon, Hopkins stunned viewers by capturing the man's wounded soul, and within 30 seconds on screen, all trace of Hopkins the actor was gone and he was Nixon. He dominated the film, fearless to show Nixon for what he was, which was often drunk, vulgar, and angry, but also the brilliant statesman he was, a keen intellect in matters of foreign affairs. It was a brave performance from Hopkins, the one I consider to be the crowning achievement of his career, Hannibal Lector be damned.

Stone lends credence to my argument that Nixon was among the greatest presidents of the 20th century, however flawed he might have been. He opened both China and Russia, two communist countries, despite the fact he was a known communist hater and had at one time sat at the side of no less than Senator Joe McCarthy during the communist witch hunt of the 1950s. Nixon ended Vietnam, a war he had escalated (and inherited), and, after his resignation, was sought out by every elected president for advice in matters of foreign policy. He became what Henry Kissinger said he would be, forgiven by history and a much revered statesman. It now seems shameful that Nixon was publicly crucified for lying to the American public (show me a leader who has not) and run out of office.

Stone's film contains brilliant performances surrounding Hopkins including Joan Allen as Pat, Nixon's long-suffering wife, Paul Sorvino in a remarkable piece of acting as Kissinger, and Ed Harris as the dangerous Howard Hunt.

The film was not a box office success when it opened in late 1995, but the critics took note and admired the work immensely. I named the film the finest of 1995 and stand by that choice. Like President Nixon, I believe in years to come audiences will find the value of Stone's film, and elevate it to the spot of masterpiece. In making Nixon a tragic Shakespearean character, he creates art and one of the finest films of the decade.

The new DVD release contains 32 minutes of new footage, some previously seen, some not, and an outstanding documentary on Nixon himself. Stone provides an insightful commentary throughout the film, letting audiences know why he made the choices he did, and the manner in which even he, a child of the 1960s, a Vietnam vet, came to admire a man so hated in his time.