2006-02-01 - 3:12 p.m. Tricky Dick Must Die I watched The Assassination of Richard Nixon last night. First of all, it�s not really about President Nixon. It�s mostly about the following ideas. 1) The American Dream Sean Penn turns in a remarkable performance as Samuel J. Bicke. I realized what the problem with Mr. Penn is. He plays roles that no one likes. There is something to be said to that. Take Tom Cruise. He�s only played one role (Magnolia) where he is a character that both the people in the movie and the audience despise. Most of the male lead rolls in movies tend to be written to get the audience to like the main character. Those quirky movies that take a more objective standpoint, the ones that offer an unlikable anti-hero that muddles through life and doesn�t truly inspire�those roles are often turned down by a lot of actors. Sean Penn takes those roles. The audience usually ends up hating him. I�m not talking an evil role like Lex Luthor or a Magneto who are slick and cool villans. It�s not like Malcovitch in �In the Line of Fire� who is one of those over the top fun to watch villains. I�m talking that Sean Penn takes roles where the character makes decisions that not only turn us off, but also scare us into thinking that people make the same bad choices. His character in 21 Grams (incidentally on Gump�s Top 5 Saddest Movies) was train wreck of human mishap. At every turn you just felt insulted and repelled by his decisions. That was the role. A role Johnny Depp couldn�t play because the audience would end up liking him too much. Sean Penn acts and utterly ignores the judgment of the audience on the character. His character in Mystic River. He was just so unlikable�it was a terror to watch. He does such a good job that you can�t deny his talent but he make the character so real that it actually turn the audience off. Couple that with the fact that he displays no hint of humor at all in most his roles, he must be the best actor everyone hates. The same is true, if not more, in ARN. In trying to come up with the best way to define the character my gut said �Mr. Spock meets Raymond Babbit (rainman)� Weird but true. A semi-autistic/semi-crazy man is trying to make something of his life after some sorta disaster. The disaster is never explained but it involves a falling out with both his friend, wife, and brother. He now seeks new employment in a low grade furniture store that is grooming him to become a salesman. Sam believes in the American Dream. He believes that he can achieve through hard work, truth, honesty, and good intentions. The 70�s were not a good time in America. With stagnate employment, a costly war, high oil prices, losing faith in our leaders (despite re-election of Tricky Dick), and the abolishment of the 60�s movements�this movie isn�t just about the destruction of Sam�s life, but also about the disillusionment with the American Dream. If only Sam stuck around for the 80�s I�m certain Ah-Ha would have cooled his Jets. Sam learns that to be a salesman, you have to lie to sell. But his autism�or perhaps his personality quirk is to reject dishonestly and lying. He feels that he can accomplish the same feat by being honest. The things that symbolize America continue to haunt him throughout the movie, short of an American Pie giving him food poisoning. All the while Penn turns in an stunningly detailed performance as a man muddling through life. He tries desperately to believe in something. He tries to join groups for change. He attempts to make things better his way. America turns its back on Sam, and Sam turns to rage. The final scene is one of the best in the movie, capturing the panic and insanity of the character as he tries to turn his back on America. One of the best uses of out of focus filming occurs as a very real, violent end awaits the character who we can feel only pity for. The pity not because of his fate, but because his life would have been better were he to give up his ideals. But in the end is your life better when you give up your ideals? I gave this movie 3 stars out of Five. Its well done, well acted, and well written. However, it will turn you off. The main character is insane, make no doubt about it, and you cannot forgive what he did. The supporting cast was amazing between Don Cheadle, Jack Thompson, and Naomi Watts. The problem lies in the movie desire to vilify America. We are looking at a profile of a would-be-assassin whose motive to kill was the death of his ideals. Ideals that are not something a person who lives in reality possesses. Cheadle, sadly, was the greatest voice of reason in the movie playing a man who accepted racism to live his life. In the end it was hard to determine whether the author wanted us to see this man as a crazy man in sane world, or a sane man in a crazy world. It came off as neither, leaving both the world and the man equally insane. A bleak message at best. On a lighter note � Villains Is there a better comicbook villain on the big screen than Ian McKellen�s Magneto? The only possible rival was Gene Hackman�s Lex Luthor. While I appreciated Jack�s Joker, the Joker is still an insane villain I have to suspend my disbelief for. Meanwhile Luthor, while real, it�s Superman not taking him out that I have to accept. Magneto is perfect in my opinion. He was created as a very sane man that mirrors another sane man in Xavier. The X-Men cooked this rivalry up after the two civil rights leaders of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Ironically, Professor X is King. Magneto is NOT insane. That is the key to a proper villain. They might not be as much fun as �the Green Goblin� or �Hannibal Lector,� but they are much more believable. Magneto isn�t a Bond Villain looking to take over the world� he�s looking for rights for �his� people. Mutants. Professor X is also looking for the same rights. But instead of the Black Panthers, Xavier wants the Million Man March. Peace before violence. I liked that Magneto�s aim in the first film was to turn the world leaders into mutants. Imagine if the President and Congress woke up tomorrow Black? Lets just say life for the African American might get a lot easier. Meanwhile, in the second film, he responds to an attempt to commit genocide with the opposite response. To be truthful, the humans shot first. What would you have done if someone tried to kill your family and now you the gun? Would you let them go free and melt the gun or would you use it on them? I�m excited for the third movie, which appears to be an escalation of the war started in the second movie. Despite some character losses and the director change, I still think the movie will be good and I hope that the spirit of the franchise stays true through this next film. | |||||||||||
