Film Review: 'The Assassination of Richard Nixon'

I watched 'tAoRN' last night...and I loved it! It was one of the best movies of 2004. Sean Penn was, as usual, brilliant. (He does well playing the mentally ill.)

The first half of the movie was excellent. It focuses on Sam Bicke's failures and frustrations that lead him to criticisms of the system that denies people respect and economic security. The observations the film makes about the failures of American capitalism are well done, and led me to strongly identify with the character. After the first 45 minutes I was thinking this was the best movie I've ever seen. The scene where Bicke walks into the local Black Panther office is enough to make the movie worth seeing.

The second half, however, could not live up to the first. This was not really the fault of the filmmakers, since it was based on a true story, and the film had to follow Bicke's descent into madness in the last 45 minutes. This was another problem of the film...it was too short(only 95 minutes). I felt there was a lot more the film could have done with the backstory and charcter development(which was lacking also).

Overall though, a great movie that I would highly recommend.

MarxistGopher's Rating: ********* (9 of 10 Stars)