Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 1.33:1, Mono Audio
Sequestered in his home, a disgraced President Richard Millhouse Nixon arms himself with a bottle of scotch and a gun to record memoirs that no one will hear. Surrounded by the silent portraits of past presidents, Nixon resurrects his past in a passionate attempt to reconcile his failed political career. Based on the original play by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone, and starring Philip Baker Hall in a tour de force solo performance, Robert Altman's Secret Honor is a searing interrogation of the Nixon mystique and an audacious depiction of unchecked paranoia. Criterion's special edition also features two audio commentaries by Altman and Freed, a new video interview with Philip Baker Hall, and excerpts from archival films documenting key events in Nixon's political career.
Editor's Note
Set in August 1974; Produced and released in 1985.Robert Altman's adaptation of the one-man stage play about former president Richard M. Nixon features a high-powered performance by Philip Baker Hall (MAGNOLIA) as the unraveling president. The dramatic dialogue takes place in Nixon's personal office shortly after his resignation--brought about by the Watergate scandal--where the fallen leader, in a drunken frenzy of self-justification and resentment, comments acerbically on the various personalities and situations he encountered, and desperately bemoans his fate. His targets include presidents of the distant past, the Kennedy family, and leaders from other countries as well as anyone who ever doubted him in his quest to attain ultimate power. The only one who emerges unscathed is Nixon's mother, whom he continued to worship even after her death. Altman uses his versatility as a director to keep the film's single location from becoming claustrophobic or stagnant. By cutting between Nixon himself and a security monitor that is taping his drunken tirade, Altman blurs the line between reality and fiction even more strikingly, rendering a Nixon with a very human and yet "televised" face. Filmed while the director was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, SECRET HONOR remains an insightful and interpretative glimpse into the mind of one of America's most notorious presidents.
Plot Summary
This funny, offbeat movie is a mythical portrayal of former President Richard Nixon's struggle to cope with the death of his political career after Watergate. The film is directed by visionary filmmaker Robert Altman who brought us MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, NASHVILLE, THE PLAYER, and SHORT CUTS, among others. SECRET HONOR is based on the one-man stage play of the same name.
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