• Nixon

"Nixon," rated "R," with a running time of three hours twenty minutes, and starring Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen, brings back all the memories of the sixties, the Vietnam war, Watergate and the incredible chaos that gripped our country at that time. Hopkins does an excellent job with the role of Richard Nixon and I'd be surprised if he is not nominated for an academy award.

The director, Oliver Stone, instead of just creatively interpreting the facts, chose to fictionalize some parts of the story. I don't understand why he felt the need to do this. Wasn't the reality wild enough? Come on, Ollie...

This movie started out great from the visually impaired point of view, with lots of clear dialogue, but got increasingly harder as the movie went on. There were lots of flashbacks, some only lasting seconds, that were quite difficult to follow. The flashbacks had time and place references that would have been completely missed without the aid of a sighted assistant. Another unique problem; Nixon had three close associates, all with the name of John. I needed some help figuring out if he was talking to Erlichman, Mitchell or Dean.

On the positive side, the sound effects were splendid, using modern technology to create powerful audio statements.

I found this movie very stimulating and uncomfortably revealing about those years of turmoil. "Nixon" is definitely worth going to see, but I only give it a 7 for the visually impaired. Don't miss it, but take a sighted friend.