THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON by Niels Mueller
by Andre Soares
The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) 
Director: Niels Mueller. Screenplay: Niels Mueller and Kevin Kennedy. Cast: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Don Cheadle, Jack Thompson, Michael Wincott
LIVING THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE
Although technically a psychosocial drama, The Assassination of Richard Nixon actually works as a suspenseful horror movie. From the very start, we know that something dreadful is about to happen. As the story inexorably progresses toward its bloody climax, the action and the dialogue work as leads to the inevitable blow-up. When that moment is finally depicted in brutal detail — the psychotic anti-hero attempts to hijack an airplane in order to crash it into the Richard Nixon White House — I must admit that I recoiled in horror both at what I was witnessing on-screen and at the real-life memories those scenes stirred up.
As the human catalyst to all this mayhem — the unbalanced misfit Samuel Bicke — Sean Penn held me captive with a near-flawless portrayal of a self-described "grain of sand" who believes that only a big — and destructive — deed will help him make his mark in the world.
Even though bits and pieces of another Sam (the nice-as-pie mentally retarded Sam Dawson from I Am Sam) creeps into Penn’s performance every now and then, the actor still manages to create a social outcast that is much more than a mere dimwit or a potential mass murderer. By treating this difficult character with empathy and without condescension, Penn turns Sam Bicke into someone recognizably — and touchingly — human.
Like his star, director Niels Mueller pulls no punches. This thoughtful, well-made (if a tad too deliberately paced) film shows us a country — from the top echelons of government to office-supplies salesmen — fouled by greed and deceit. (See synopsis).
On a personal level, its characters are either unwilling or unable to offer solace and understanding to an emotionally distraught social outcast. No one even bothers to notice that Bicke is a man in dire need of psychiatric help. The consequences of this combination of corruption, apathy, and selfishness, Mueller and co-writer Kevin Kennedy tell us, can be disastrous.
Unlike the laughable spookiness of movies about pseudo-cool vampire killers and deformed Middle-Earth dwellers, the horror in The Assassination of Richard Nixon is truly disturbing. After all, people like Sam Bicke can be found anywhere.
In the winter of 1974, a painfully honest (and dim-witted) office-supply salesman, Sam Bicke (Sean Penn), is witnessing his life fall apart. Despite his extensive use of self-help books, Sam is fully aware that his job is in jeopardy since his greedy and obnoxious boss (Jack Thompson) is constantly berating him for his mediocre sales. Complicating matters, his estranged wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), is trying to fully extricate herself from him. Even Sam’s children don’t seem that interested in spending time with him. In an attempt to get a handle on his life, Sam applies for a government loan so he and a friend, the easygoing mechanic Bonny Simmons (Don Cheadle), can start a tire distribution business.
Things go from bad to worse when Sam discovers that Marie has been seeing another man, and that his business loan may not come through. Unable to adapt himself to a society that seems to be ruled by hypocrisy, deceit, and greed — with disgraced president Richard Nixon as the oft-televised embodiment of all that is wrong with the United States — Sam decides to find his own desperate way to leave a mark in the world.
DVD:
The Assassination of Richard Nixon Region 1 DVD (U.S. / Canada / U.S. territories) release date: April 26, 2005.
- Picture: Anamorphic widescreen - 1.85:1
- Audio: English (Dolby 2.0 Surround Stereo)
- Closed captioning
- Subtitles: English, Spanish
- Commentary by director Niels Mueller
List price: US$27.95.
A New Line Home Entertainment release.
Notes:
Director-writer Niels Mueller began working on a totally fictitious screenplay called "The Assassination of L.B.J." when, during research, he discovered the real story of Samuel Byck, a would-be presidential assassin who wanted to crash a plane into the Richard Nixon White House. Since Byck’s background story also paralleled that of Mueller’s fictional character, Mueller decided to recreate his screenplay using Byck as his inspiration.
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