Nixon (1995)
80%RT Audience Score: 74%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 4 Oscars
11 wins & 18 nominations total
Much like its subject’s time in office, Nixon might have ended sooner — but what remains is an engrossing, well-acted look at the rise and fall of a fascinating political figure
Nixon is like a mixed bag of candy – some pieces are sweet and satisfying, while others are just plain weird and leave a bad taste in your mouth. But hey, at least Anthony Hopkins gives a killer performance as the infamous president. Stone’s direction may not be as wild as his previous works, but it still packs a punch. Overall, it’s worth a watch if you’re into dense psychodramas and political history. Just don’t expect to come out of it feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
Production Company(ies)
Warner Bros., Heyday Films, 1492 Pictures,
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Santa Anita Park & Racetrack – 285 West Huntington Drive, Arcadia, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for language
Year of Release
1996
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Color:Color
Black and White -
Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):English, Mandarin, Russian
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): Aug 19, 2008
Genre(s)
Biography
Keyword(s)
Nixon, Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Powers Boothe, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, E.G Marshall, Oliver Stone, Clayton Townsend, Andrew G Vajna, biography, Watergate scandal, political figure, non-chronological narrative, Quaker parents, attorney, president, director, producer, writer, MPAA rating, R, box office, gross USA, $13.7M, runtime, 3h 10m, sound mix, surround, stereo, reviewed by Owen Gleiberman, Nick Schager, Matt Noller, Janet Maslin, Sheila Reid, Quentin Crisp, Josh Larsen, Jeffrey M Anderson, Matt Brunson, Charles Cassady, directed by Oliver Stone, written by Oliver Stone, released in 1995
Worldwide gross: $13,681,765
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $26,115,007
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,606
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 2,847,874
US/Canada gross: $13,681,765
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $26,115,007
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,322
US/Canada opening weekend: $2,206,506
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $4,211,658
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,122
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $44,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $83,984,802
Production budget ranking: 498
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $45,225,816
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$103,095,611
ROI to date (est.): -80%
ROI ranking: 1,876
Joan Allen – Pat Nixon
Powers Boothe – Alexander Haig
Ed Harris – E. Howard Hunt
Bob Hoskins – J. Edgar Hoover
E.G. Marshall – John Mitchell
Director(s)
Oliver Stone
Writer(s)
NA
Producer(s)
Clayton Townsend, Oliver Stone, Andrew G. Vajna
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 4 Oscars
11 wins & 18 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (64) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (16)
September 7, 2011 | Rating: A
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
TOP CRITIC
The filmmaker’s deftness at evoking theme and sentiment through editorial montages within individual dramatic scenes reaches an apotheosis here.
October 27, 2008 | Rating: A-
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness
TOP CRITIC
A staggering work of empathy for Stone.
August 19, 2008 | Rating: 3.5/4
Matt Noller
Slant Magazine
TOP CRITIC
As wayward and self-regarding as its subject, the film long overstays its welcome.
January 26, 2006
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
For all its unwieldy temporal scope and narrowness of perspective, Nixon is an amazingly graceful beast, flawed yet invigorating, packed with enough material that will fascinate and irk moviegoers of all stripes for quite a time to come.
January 8, 2006 | Rating: 2.5/5
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
What it finally adds up to is a huge mixed bag of waxworks and daring, a film that is furiously ambitious even when it goes flat, and startling even when it settles for eerie, movie-of-the-week mimicry.
May 20, 2003 | Rating: 3.5/5
Janet Maslin
New York Times
TOP CRITIC
Nixon was not a very likable man and this re-enactment of his life is consistent with that. However, the film does provide insight as to how the late, former president attained his stature as well as how he lost it.
May 13, 2022
Sheila Reid
Women in the Life
It is a triumph for Mr. Hopkins as he schemes, curses, weeps, and prays.
April 25, 2022
Quentin Crisp
Christopher Street
…a pop-psychology portrait of a man who never felt loved, even by those who voted for him.
February 19, 2021 | Rating: 2.5/4
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm
Stone had just come off of his blast of overcooked insanity Natural Born Killers, and he applies some of that rebellious invention to this otherwise sober undertaking.
August 7, 2019 | Rating: 4/4
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Stone’s newfound timidity in both style and content — this appeared after a 10-year stretch that included the high-powered likes of Platoon, JFK and Natural Born Killers — marked it as the beginning of the end of a remarkable run.
June 8, 2019 | Rating: 2.5/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
Dense psychodrama of much-disliked U.S. president.
December 15, 2010 | Rating: 3/5
Charles Cassady
Common Sense Media…
Plot
Writer, Producer, and Director Oliver Stone’s exploration of former President Richard Nixon’s strict Quaker upbringing, his nascent political strivings in law school, and his strangely self-effacing courtship of his wife, Pat (Joan Allen). The contradictions in his character are revealed early, in the vicious campaign against Helen Gahagan Douglas and the oddly masochistic Checkers speech. His defeat at the hands of the hated and envied John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election, followed by the loss of the 1962 California gubernatorial race, seem to signal the end of his career. Yet, although wholly lacking in charisma, Nixon remains a brilliant political operator, seizing the opportunity provided by the backlash against the antiwar movement to take the Presidency in 1968. It is only when safely in office, running far ahead in the polls for the 1972 Presidential election, that his growing paranoia comes to full flower, triggering the Watergate scandal.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The film stars Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon and Joan Allen as his wife, Pat.
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