Oliver Stone’s ‘Nixon’ is still a masterclass in political drama

Every two years or so I watch Oliver Stone’s 1995 political masterpiece Nixon. Stone is one of the few directors who’s director’s cuts are arguably better than his theatrical releases — which are also damn good. The DC of Natural Born Killers includes an extended sequence of the prison riot as well as other scenes of impossible violence, and the DC of JFK features about 20 minutes more of the endlessly juicy conspiratorial intrigue. Stone’s unduly neglected Nixon is another fantastic film and also sports a fantastic director’s cut.

To really get an idea of the strength of this movie, I have to turn to the comments of Rodger Ebert:

“Anthony Hopkins is very powerful in the role and he wisely doesn’t try to do a Nixon imitation. He suggests Nixon rather than impersonating him and the result is powerful, almost Shakespearian. A performance of a man who tastes both glory and the ashes of his own self defeat. This is one of the best films of the year.”

Hopkins in the role and Stone’s direction do together alchemize a kind of modern Shakespeare for me. It is tragic, the characters are larger than life, yet also connect with emotions and thoughts common to all humanity. I can’t help but feel a kinship here with Citizen Kane. Nixon, like Kane, is about as good as a political drama can get.

Stone originally tapped Hopkins for the role, but Hopkins hesitated. He feared that he, a Welshman, would be incapable of portraying the infamous rural California republican. Stone later baited Hopkins, telling him, that he was thinking of offering the role to Gary Oldman, which caused Hopkins to do a 180 turn and snatch up the part. We’re blessed that he did.

Nixon is far more accomplished, far more nuanced, far more human, and far more deep than any political drama that Aaron Sorkin, the popular political dramatist of our time, has ever produced. In fact, Stone’s one film Nixon makes the body of Sorkin’s work (pick any of them; save for maybe The Social Network) look like a collapsable cardboard box in competition against Michelangelo’s Pietà.

The tragedy here is that more people have been exposed to Sorkin’s pedestrian, manichaean, finger-waving, spoon-feeding diatribes onscreen than this single outstanding film.

Hopkins offers probably the best onscreen portrayal of the disgraced 37th president and likely the best that ever will be portrayed. Stone’s Nixon does not offer an evil, venomous man, but instead a complicated, deep, secretive, brooding individual who Hunter S. Thompson eulogized: “He was the real thing — a political monster straight out of Grendel.” Nixon, the man, was so good at politics that it made him at times almost inhuman. But underneath all that strategy, secrecy, and policy was a pained and flawed living human being. Stone and Hopkins capture this exquisitely.

If you haven’t seen Stone’s Nixon, and you’re a fan of political drama, do yourself a favor and watch the masterclass in the genre. If you want to really treat yourself (and it is the season for gorging on treats), watch it alongside the 1992 director’s cut of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X.