“The Assassination of Richard Nixon”
Directed by Niels Mueller ThinkFilm
Everyone wants a piece of the American dream. In 1974, perhaps
that dream involved a loving family and a Cadillac El Dorado.
“The Assassination of Richard Nixon” centers on one
man’s disillusionment with the promise of the American dream
and his anti-quixotic quest to make his mark on the world. The
film’s title is quite literal. In one of the lesser-known
presidential assassination stories in American history, divorced
salesman Samuel Bicke (Sean Penn) once tried to kill President
Nixon by hijacking a plane and flying it into the White House.
Bicke’s story is one of both frustration and mental
difficulties, and Penn’s performance single-handedly makes
the film what it is. Penn’s phenomenal acting is truly worthy
of its Oscar buzz. He is in every scene and nearly every shot of
the film, yet it is impossible to tire of his hauntingly powerful
portrayal. Sequences of the film show Bicke plotting alone for
days, with no one else on screen or anywhere near, but the film
seems surprisingly fast-paced, a clear testament to Penn’s
Bicke. Because the film is so entirely focused on one man, Penn
grabs the opportunity to engulf the entire screen and to deliver
one of his strongest performances. And although the rest of the
cast, which includes Naomi Watts, Don Cheadle and Jack Thompson,
gets considerably less time on screen, they play well off
Penn’s brooding. Beyond fine acting, the film’s
excellence lies in its political commentary and the relevance of
the story from the 1970s to today’s world. While most
Hollywood films shy away from such themes, “The Assassination
of Richard Nixon” brings to mind the awareness of living in a
post-Sept. 11 America. Although the script was completed in 1999,
the urgency of the film’s main character reflects a greater
relevance today. Director and UCLA alumnus Niels Mueller makes a
startling debut with this film, which he cowrote with another
former Bruin, Kevin Kennedy. Inspired by a true story of an
assassination attempt, the film uses real news clips featuring
Walter Cronkite and even Bicke’s real name. The film uses
fictionalized circumstances, however, to delve into the psychology
of violence. While meticulously crafted, what lingers most about
the film is a sense of ambiguity. The protagonist is neither hero
nor villain, and pinpointing just how to feel about him proves a
formidable task. Although disturbing, this ambiguity is also
refreshing because, as Bicke himself points out, “certainty
is the disease of kings.” -Emily Camastra