Tuesday, December 3, 2013

How Accurate Is Oliver Stone's Nixon Film: History and Cultural Commentary - George McGovern (1997)

Nixon is a 1995 American biographical film directed by Oliver Stone for Cinergi Pictures that tells the story of the political and personal life of former US President Richard Nixon, played by Anthony Hopkins.
The film portrays Nixon as a complex and, in many respects, admirable, though deeply flawed, person. Nixon begins with a disclaimer that the film is "an attempt to understand the truth [...] based on numerous public sources and on an incomplete historical record."
The cast includes Joan Allen, Annabeth Gish, Powers Boothe, J. T. Walsh, E. G. Marshall, James Woods, Paul Sorvino, Larry Hagman, and David Hyde Pierce, plus cameos by Ed Harris, Joanna Going, and political figures such as former President Bill Clinton in TV footage from the Nixon funeral service.
This was Stone's second of three films about the American presidency, made four years after JFK about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and followed thirteen years later by W., the story of George W. Bush.




The film is non-linear, framed by scenes of Nixon listening to his secret recordings towards the end of his presidency as the Watergate crisis intensifies. As such, it covers all aspects of Nixon's life as a composite of actual events, usually in the form of memories triggered by the recordings or newsreel-style summaries. It depicts his childhood in Whittier, California, as well as his growth as a young man, football fan and player, and suitor to his eventual wife, Pat Ryan. It explores most of the important events of his presidency, including his downfall due to abuse of executive power in the White House.
The film implies that Nixon and his wife abused alcohol and prescription medication. Nixon's health problems, including his bout of phlebitis and pneumonia during the Watergate crisis, are also shown in the film, and his various medicants are sometimes attributed to these health issues. The movie also hints at some kind of responsibility, real or imagined, that Nixon felt towards the John F. Kennedy assassination through references to "the Bay of Pigs", the implication being that the mechanisms set into place for the invasion by Nixon during his term as Dwight D. Eisenhower's vice-president spiraled out of control to culminate in the assassination and, eventually, Watergate.
The film ends with Nixon's resignation and famous departure from the lawn of the White House on the helicopter, Army One. Real life footage of Nixon's state funeral in Yorba Linda, California, plays out over the extended end credits, and all living ex-presidents at the time, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and then-president Bill Clinton, are shown in attendance.

Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon.
The studio did not like Stone's choice to play Nixon. They wanted Tom Hanks or Jack Nicholson — two of Stone's original choices. The director briefly considered Gene Hackman, Robin Williams, Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones. Stone met with Warren Beatty but the actor wanted to make too many changes to the script.[1] Stone cast Hopkins based on his performances in The Remains of the Day and Shadowlands. Of Hopkins, Stone said, "The isolation of Tony is what struck me. The loneliness. I felt that was the quality that always marked Nixon."[2] When the actor met the director he got the impression that Stone was "one of the great bad boys of American pop culture, and I might be a fool to walk away." What convinced Hopkins to ultimately take on the role and "impersonate the soul of Nixon were the scenes in the film when he talks about his mother and father. That affected me."
Joan Allen as Pat Nixon
When Beatty was thinking about doing the film, he insisted on doing a reading of the script with an actress and Allen was flown in from New York City. Afterwards, Beatty told Stone that he had found his Pat Nixon.
Annabeth Gish as Julie Nixon Eisenhower
Marley Shelton as Tricia Nixon Cox

White House Staff and Cabinet
James Woods as H. R. Haldeman
Woods talked Stone into giving him the part, a role that the director had planned to offer Ed Harris.
J. T. Walsh as John Ehrlichman
Paul Sorvino as Henry Kissinger
Powers Boothe as Alexander Haig
E. G. Marshall as John N. Mitchell
David Paymer as Ron Ziegler
David Hyde Pierce as John Dean
Kevin Dunn as Charles Colson
Saul Rubinek as Herbert G. Klein
Fyvush Finkel as Murray Chotiner
Tony Plana as Manolo Sanchez (Nixon's Valet)

The Nixon Family
Mary Steenburgen as Hannah Milhous Nixon
Tony Goldwyn as Harold Nixon
Tom Bower as Francis Nixon
Sean Stone as Donald Nixon
Corey Carrier as adolescent Richard Nixon
David Barry Gray as young adult Richard Nixon
White House Plumbers[edit]
Ed Harris as E. Howard Hunt
John Diehl as G. Gordon Liddy
Robert Beltran as Frank Sturgishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_(film)

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“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.” Henry Kissinger


once a standing army is established, in any country, the people lose their liberty.”
George Mason

“Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.”
Henry Kissinger

“If you are an ordinary person, then you can prepare yourself for war by moving to the countryside and building a farm, but you must take guns with you, as the hordes of starving will be roaming. Also, even though the elite will have their safe havens and specialist shelters, they must be just as careful during the war as the ordinary civilians, because their shelters can still be compromised.”
Henry Kissinger

"We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?" Joseph Stalin

The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.
Joseph Stalin

Governments keep a lot of secrets from their people . . .
Why aren't the people in return allowed to keep secrets
from the government?

PHILIP ZIMMERMAN, DER SPIEGEL

“Some call it Communism, I call it Judaism.”

Rabbi Stephen Weiss

“Anti-Communism is Anti-Semitism.”
Jewish Voice, July - August 1941

Taxing People is Punishing Success
UNKNOWN

There's the rich, the poor, and the tax payers...also known as the middle class. Robert Kiyosaki

The Tax you pay is The Bill for Staying Stupid

Stefan Molyneux


“The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is, perhaps, the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banks can in fact inflate, mint and un-mint the modern ledger-entry currency.” Major L L B Angus

The few who understand the system will either be so interested in its profits or so dependent on its favours that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of the people mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system will bear its burdens without complaint and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests.
The Rothschild Bros

"Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers.

This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world.

By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished."

USA Banker's Magazine, August 25 1924


Cutting Tax Rates stimulates Economic Growth creates more Profit , more Jobs and therefore The Treasury ends up with more Tax Money
UNKNOWN

Taxation is legalized Theft
UNKNOWN

"The Objective of the Bank is not the control of a conflict , it's the control of the debt that a conflict produces . The real value of a conflict , the true value is in the debt that it creates . You control the debt , you control everything . this is THE VERY ESSENCE OF THE BANKING INDUSTRY , to make us all , whether we be nations or individuals , SLAVES TO DEBT " An UNKNOWN Banker

Patriotism is the last refuge... to which the scoundrel clings .... Steal a little and they throw you in jail ..steal a lot and they make you king ....

Bob Dylan


"Corporations are stealing billions in tax breaks, while the confused, screwed citizenry turn on each other. International corporations have no national allegiance, they care only for profit." Robert Reich


There is NO political answer to a spiritual problem!
Steve Quayle


Po
litical Correctness is a Political Stand Point that does not allow Political Opposition , This is actually The Definition of Dictatorship
Gilad Atzmon

The modern definition of racist is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal
Peter Brimelow


When People lose everything and have nothing left to lose , They Lose It !

GERALD CELENTE

Your Greatest Teacher is Your Last Mistake
DAVID ICKE

The one who Controls the Education System , Controls Perception
UNKNOWN

"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything."

Albert Einstein

In The Left Nothing is Right & in The Right nothing is Left
UNKNOWN


No man escapes when freedom fails; The best men rot in filthy jails. And those that cried 'Appease! Appease!' Are hanged by those they tried to please
UNKNOWN

Freedom is not Free
UNKNOWN

Don't Steal The Government Hates The Competition

Ron Paul

"Buy The Rumor , Sell The Fact " Peter Schiff


You can love your Country and not your Government

Jesse Ventura


" The Government Works for ME , I do not answer to them They Answer to ME "
Glenn Beck

"Tyranny will Come to Your Door in a Uniform "
Alex Jones

"The Government is not The Solution to our Problems , The Government is The Problem "

Ronald Reagan


"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato


The world is a tragedy to those that feel, and a comedy to those that think...Beppe Grillo

"The people should not fear the government for it is the government who should fear the people" UNKNOWN

"If You are looking for solutions to the world's problems , look in the Mirror , You Are The Solution , You have the power as a human being on this planet " UNKNOWN

"They don't control us , We empower them " UNKNOWN

"Serial Killers do on a Small Scale What Governments do on a large one..."

Serial Killer Richard Ramirez

There is a Class War going on in America, & unfortunately, my class is winning." Warren Buffet

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

Thomas Jefferson

"College is a waste of Money"
Albert Einstein

Schools manufacture people who think that they're smart but they're not.
Robert Kiyosaki

Education is what you learn after you leave School
Robert Kiyosaki

" ‏Schools were designed to create employees for the big corporations."
Robert Kiyosaki


"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey, he is obligated to do so" Thomas Jefferson

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism
Thomas Jefferson

“True education makes you feel stupid. It makes you realize you have so much more to learn.” Robert Kiyosaki


"One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching." - Gerard Way

"Aspire not to have More but to be More "
UNKNOWN

The losers in life think they have all the answers. They can’t learn because they’re too busy telling everyone what they know.
Robert T. Kiyosaki ‏

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again. -This time more intelligently." Henry Ford

What You Own Owns You
UNKNOWN

If you expect the government to solve your problems, you have a problem. Robert Kiyosaki

"Those who give up their liberty for more security neither deserve liberty nor security." Benjamin Franklin

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” -
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Always trust someone who is seeking the truth , never trust someone who found it" Jordan Maxwell

Be The Change you want to see in The World
UNKNOWN

Failure inspires winners but defeats losers
Robert Kiyosaki ‏

“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people” A Chinese Proverb

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me." UNKNOWN