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Nixon - Election Year Edition [Blu-ray]
(Oliver Stone, 1995)
Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: Hollywood Pictures & Cinergi
Video: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Discs:
Region FREE
Feature Runtime: 3:32:14
Chapters: 24
Size: 44.8 Gig
One 50 GB, more supplements on a single-layered
second Blu-ray
Case: Locking Blu-ray case
Release date: August 19th, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: AVC
Audio:
English 5.1 Uncompressed PCM (48 kHz/16-bit)
English DD 5.1 Surround
Subtitles:
Feature: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: English SDHe
Extras:
Disc 1
• Two audio commentaries by Oliver Stone
•
Trailers:
Blu-ray advert trailer (1:43) HD,
trailer Blindness (1:33) HD,
trailer Nightmare before Christmas (2:00)
Disc 2
• Documentary: Beyond Nixon (35:18)
• Deleted Scenes with intro by Oliver Stone
•
Charlie Rose interview of Stone (55:09)
• Original Theatrical Trailer
The Film:
Comment
Oliver Stone's JFK wasn't so much about the 35th U.S.
president as it was about his assassination – and, in
particular the investigation of a possible conspiracy by
New Orleans District Attorney, Jim Garrison. Stone's
Nixon, made four years later, is much broader in scope.
Kennedy himself, didn't figure as a character in the
earlier movie, except in documentary and newsreel clips.
Same for the later film, where Nixon sees Kennedy as a
kind of haunting nemesis, and where the 37th president
manifests no less a presence than Anthony Hopkins (who,
coincidentally I am sure, played Hannibal Lecter the
same year as Stone's JFK.) The generally undervalued
Joan Allen is Pat Nixon (undervalued by the public
anyway); Paul Sorvino is Henry Kissinger; Powers Boothe,
Alexander Haig; Ed Harris, E. Howard Hunt; and James
Woods is H.R. Haldeman; plus an exaltation of the usual
suspects. You can see that "Nixon" has the potential of
being both more intimate and more familiar. And it is.
Nixon is also an Oliver Stone take on history that, in
some ways, picks up the American Tragedy after "JFK"
left off. Roger Ebert saw in it a film that would have
been able to stand on its own even if there had been no
actual Nixon:
Oliver Stone's "Nixon" gives us a brooding, brilliant,
tortured man, sinking into the gloom of a White House
under siege, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Thoughts
of Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear come to mind; here,
again, is a ruler destroyed by his fatal flaws.
There's
something almost majestic about the process: As Nixon
goes down in this film, there is no gloating, but a
watery sigh, as of a great ship sinking.
Excerpt from Roger Ebert's review located HERE
The new Blu-ray from Buena Vista, like their SD "Nixon
Collector's Edition," is spread over two discs, with the
feature film taking almost 50 GB. As hoped and expected,
the new release offers, in addition to an uncompressed
audio track, one new extra feature: a new 35-minute
documentary feature directed by Oliver Stone's son,
Sean, (so new, it's not yet listed on the IMDB).
Otherwise, the Blu-ray has the same content: the
Extended Cut of the movie, with about twenty-five
minutes of additional footage over the theatrical
release, the two commentaries mostly by Stone. The full
55-minute Charlie Rose interview, some deleted scenes
and the original theatrical trailer (in 480p).
The Movie : 7
Image : 7/8.5
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were ripped directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
The first number indicates a relative level of
excellence compared to other Blu-ray DVDs on a ten-point
scale. The second number places this image along the
full range of DVDs, including SD 480i.
For better or worse, but certainly making the job of a
video reviewer very difficult, Stone moves from film
stock to film stock, color and black & white, natural
and saturated color, shadowless blacks and open
lighting, and where grain is deliberately chosen for
narrative intent. It all may seem arbitrary to the
uninitiated, but whatever the reason, the question of
fidelity to that intent is the matter at hand. Since I
don't have a copy of the actual film, I could only check
to see if Digital Noise Reduction is used to
"compensate" and thus violate that intention. I thought
not. (Well, that was quick.) There is a considerable
amount of digital enhancement done for the television
footage of Nixon and Kennedy and other like moments in
the movie to make them more visually palatable and less
jarring. I didn't mind, since this is not a documentary,
and fidelity to the source is not required. All in all,
I thought the image to be better than satisfactory in
keeping with constantly changing locations and time
frames. For all its variation, the blu-ray was able to
demonstrate what it's good at to an extent worth the
price: resolution, sharpness, dimensionality.
CLICK EACH
BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio & Music:
7/7
Did you know that the music for this movie was written
by John Williams? An interesting choice, don't you
think. The moment the menu appeared and Williams'
unmistakable signature makes its presence felt, I
realized what I had long forgotten: that the music is,
in its own way, as passionate a commentator as Stone
himself. Still, the movie doesn't demand from Williams
the sort of stage we usually think of him on. That stage
is reserved for the dialogue – and this is where the
Uncompressed PCM track shines. Without exaggerating or
enhancing speeches, whispers, taped and live
conversations, grunts and advice from every character
with an opinion – which is every character, after all -
we hear content and nuance of expression so much more
easily that the film's 3.5 hours becomes no longer a
task to sit through. This is no small accomplishment.
Operations:
8
Walt Disney Studios Blu-ray DVDs continue their chapter-skipable
previews and promos before the loading of the feature
film begins. As in many other recent Blu-ray DVDs, I
found the menu operations to be sensible, listing the
length of the various segments along with a brief
description.
Extras:
7
The one new extra feature is Sean Stone's new
documentary, Beyond Nixon – which, by the way is in
1080i high definition. The title does not so much refer
to American history since 1975 as it does a new look at
Richard Nixon and how his father's movie sees him. The
35-minute documentary features extended comments by a
host of historians of all stripes, among them: Gore
Vidal and Howard Zinn, Robert Novak (syndicated
columnist), Richard Whalen (Nixon's speechwriter) and
Peter Kuznick (Professor of American History), Elizabeth
Holtzman (Congresswoman, House Judiciary Committee for
the Impeachment of Richard Nixon) and two White House
Counsels under Nixon: Leonard Garment and the very
pivotal John Dean. While most of these commentators are
not what we would think of as Nixon apologists, the
documentary did come across to me as reasonably
balanced, especially insofar as it always came back to
the movie and how it did or did not see things the way
they were.
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Bottom line:
8
Oliver Stone is our country's most visible political
director. Coming as it did some twenty years after
Nixon's resignation, the movie permitted a certain
degree of perspective, even given Stone's personal
prejudices. But since the theatrical release of the
movie, we have seen an unsuccessful impeachment of one
president and clamorings of abuse of power regarding
another. Sean Stone's new documentary places all this in
fresh perspective. For these reasons alone, the movie
deserves a fresh look, especially with Sean's
documentary as a preface – and what better way to see
and hear it again than on this new Blu-ray edition.
Leonard Norwitz
August 9th, 2008
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