Secret Honor

If you ever get a chance to see this film, grab it! Phillip Baker Hall doesn't simply portray Nixon, he inhabits him. The familiar hunched shoulders and odd poses employed by every Nixon impersonator, in Hall's hands seem less like imitation than brilliant artistic choices, revealing the inner struggles of a remarkable, tormented man. No disrespect to Anthony Hopkins, unquestionably a very talented actor, but his Nixon doesn't hold a candle to Hall's.

This is of course a work of fiction, but like the best fiction it lies in order to reveal a deeper truth. Nixon never made the tape we see him creating through the course of this film, but what is revealed through it is both psychologically and historically honest. The portrait that emerges is unsparing and sympathetic. Nixon emerges as a hero in a Greek tragedy with the same grandeur and the same tragic flaw.

Fans and critics both of Richard Nixon will find their judgements challenged by this complex, revealing portrait. Even someone who has never heard of Nixon couldn't help but be fascinated by this powerful, complex man.

Note to PT Anderson fans: According to Anderson, this was the performance that convinced him he had to work with Hall. It's no accident that Anderson's first full-length film, Sidney (or Hard Eight), was a showpiece for Hall's amazing talent.

Any individual is a puzzle, and Richard M. Nixon was no exception, rather living proof. To those who know him and his story (wether through a variety of books or personal experience or even through Oliver Stone's excellent "Nixon") this is a magnificent epilogue that instead of tying all loose threads together, reopens wounds and reformulates old and tired questions.

The film is a mix of fragments of a complex and important life (one that helped shape the modern world) and an equally complex mind. Since only a very long (and impossible, given the obvious budget) running time could grace this with a tight sense of structure, the performance becomes the binding element, which is the key element of this picture. Whether you are interested in history, Nixon himself, character suffering, paranoia, film or acting, this is a must-see, if only for the brilliant performance by Philip Baker Hall. His portrayal of Nixon blows Anthony Hopkins's away in terms of accuracy and is a mighty challenger in terms of acting alone. He may be less sympathetic than Hopkins, but such was one of the real Nixon's flaws (in interviews the real Hall is quite charming!).

Turning a play - especially a one-man-show - into a film is quite a challenge, but Altman, through simple yet effective means (notably the use of security-camera monitors and portraits), cranks up the intimacy and paranoia, ending the film in an uneasy and dark manner that would never be conceivable on stage.

In fewer words, suffice to say that this unusual little film is in truth a giant in movie-making resourcefulness and talent. Unmissable.

Made 11 years before Oliver Stone's "Nixon", with Anthony Hopkins, Robert Altman's direction of Philip Baker Hall in his gritty portrayal of Richard Millhouse on his last night in the Whitehouse, rehashing out all his problems over a bottle of scotch. Fumbling and bumbling around the office with tape machines and casting vague hints into the real motives and players behind the whole debacle. A very watchable and interesting film for anyone interested in Nixon/Watergate. A better film than Oliver Stone's version in spite of a much smaller budget.

Sometime in the late 70's, the 37th President- Richard Nixon- decided to set the record straight. In his study, alone but for a bottle of Scotch and a loaded revolver, he sets the tape deck to record and starts to tell his tale. So begins a fascinating, illuminating and thoroughly candid monologue that explores what Nixon may have been feeling, what he was thinking; and why his presidency and very name became synonymous with scandal.

Robert Altman's 'Secret Honor'- based on the play 'Secret Honor: The Last Testament of Richard M. Nixon' by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone- seamlessly weaves fact with fiction to create a thoroughly believable and strangely compelling portrait of a man too often in film and television resigned to the realm of caricature and cast in black and white. The real Nixon was a man of immeasurable greys, and Freed and Stone's powerful screenplay lays that fact bare.

It is neither an overly sympathetic work, nor is it a scathing summation of Nixon's legacy. It is balanced, unbiased- in fact, surprisingly so, considering Altman's noted and vocal political leanings. It shows Nixon to be one full of contradictions and divided loyalties, a deeply paranoid man not comfortable with people, but still one who craved attention and demanded respect. He is not the villain most films make him out to be, neither is he a saint. Through their barbed, witty monologues, Freed and Stone show us Nixon's character like few other films have succeeded - or even tried- in doing.

Freed and Stone's writing is remarkable because it is so vitriolic and yet so sympathetic you begin to see Nixon not as some political figurehead or legend, but simply as a man; one of fallibility, doubts and self-interest like us all. Oliver Stone would try to do something similar with his 'Nixon' in 1995, but 'Secret Honor' was much more successful at bringing a complete, well-rounded portrait of the man to life.

Of course, 'Secret Honor' also benefits from having the late, great Philip Baker Hall starring as Nixon, delivering a tour-de-force performance that justifiably jumpstarted his career in film. He showcases the self-pity and ego inherent to Nixon's character in a subtle manner, while also imbuing the man with a sympathetic, humane streak. So perfectly does he capture Nixon's mannerisms, his presence, his vocal eccentricities, that it is as if the real President had possessed Baker Hall for the ninety minutes of the film's runtime.

Ranting and raving into his tape recorder, racing through the study in his red-velvet smoking jacket; at times you feel that you're watching some kind of documentary that the 37th President drunkenly agreed to take part in. Baker Hall's is an intense, incredible piece of acting that is not just the finest Nixon we've ever had on screen, it is one of the greatest performances in any Altman film point blank. That is not even to mention the fact that the film is a one man show, and Baker Hall keeps us glued to the screen the whole time.

Filmed on campus at the University of Michigan, 'Secret Honor' is simply, stylishly shot. Pierre Mignot's cinematography is fluid, unobtrusive work that has room for symbolism and visual metaphor, but is never pretentious. Stephen Altman's production design is texturally rich, though in a minimalist fashion. Nixon's study- the only location in the film- is decorated convincingly, containing the staples one might assume the 37th President would have: a piano, photographs from his career, various CCTV cameras; copious amounts of Chivas Regal. Though adapting plays to film can often be difficult in terms of visuals and staging; Altman's crew on 'Secret Honor' did a masterful job.

'Secret Honor' is a masterpiece of cinema, a sharply written, witty character study of one of the most notorious Presidents in history. It is not a politically biased work, though that doesn't mean it doesn't contain criticism of Nixon's policies and time in office. It is a film that is always believable and never melodramatic- an honest examination of the man's character; and as Nixon himself once said "honesty may not be the best policy, but it is worth trying once in a while." 'Secret Honor' is well worth trying.

A fictionalized former President Richard M. Nixon offers a solitary, stream-of-consciousness reflection on his life and political career - and the "true" reasons for the Watergate scandal and his resignation.

This comes down to one thing: an examination of the acting skills of Philip Baker Hall. Since the direction is so limited, it really cannot say anything good or bad about Robert Altman (who had already made his name by this point).

Hall's Nixon is something of a madman. He fluctuates through every range of emotion within 90 minutes, at times flipping between anger and suicidal tendencies. What a wild ride. Of course, the film is clearly marked as fiction... so we should not assume this person was in any way related to the real Nixon.