Nixon [DVD] [1996]

This is potentially Oliver Stone's best film, and a tragic shame that it has been so overlooked, especially in the U.S. (Stone says as much on a commentary track). Performances all round are fantastic, especially the exceptional Anthony Hopkins. The film is at times difficult, but giving it patience, thought and attention will hopefully yield very worthwhile benefits.

The film receives some worthy extras. On the film disc, Stone features on TWO solo commentary tracks for this film - so much does he have to say and discuss about the film, its background and many related issues. Fascinating listening and worth returning to again. On the extras disc there is an hours worth of deleted/extended scenes, again with optional commentary by Stone, and an hour long interview with Stone by Charlie Rose.

All of this should automatically garner a 5 star rating, but it is the presentation of the film itself which loses a star, probably two if I was feeling more critical. The film is presented in its original ratio of 2.35:1, but is presented non-anamorphically. This in itself isn't a disaster as the main print is very good, but the extra footage is of significantly lower quality (some of it looks like it comes from a video source!) and hence when it is zoomed the picture looks, at times, awful. Nixon has some great photography, especially some of the wonderfully low lit scenes in the Whitehouse, but the presentation of the picture doesn't do it justice by half. I feel that for a film of this quality proper restoration and integration of the extra footage should have been undertaken. Sadly that isn't the case. Secondly, the film disc comes with both Dolby 5.1 and DTS 5.1 tracks. 'Great', I thought, as a big fan of DTS. However, during playback of the DTS track there is VERY audible distortion during at least two scenes that I can clearly remember, when Nixon is shouting - this is incredibly amateurish on the part of those mastering the disc, and both the picture and sound problems are a serious let down to the efforts of the filmmakers, and a serious disappointment to a lover of the film.

However, I would still suggest that this 2-disc set is well worth purchasing. It's the only available director's cut, the extras are very good indeed, and you can get it very cheaply through z-shops. Remedying the problems would probably mean splitting the film onto two discs to allow encoding space for an anamorphic picture, a proper remastering of the sound and restoration of the 'new' footage, but I'm not holding my breath for that particular 3-disc set! Ultimately though, unless you are fanatical about picture and sound quality, this is a superb piece of cinema which deserves to be seen, even more so in this cut, and I heartily recommend this set.

Unlike Stone's 'JFK' information and detail are not as important as mood and nuance. Shooting from the bottom up, Stone tries to artifically create the ambience of power but instead the low-lighting, sinister looks and b&w flashbacks creates a pseudo-narcotic atmosphere. An obvious allusion to Nixon's alleged pill-popping.

Time and time again Stone has been attacked for the historical inaccuracies of his movies. However most American historians contemptuous of the purported 'scientific' basis of history espoused by Marxist historians, would be the first to confirm that history isn't a minor fact obsessed 'science'.