Oliver Stone's Nixon

I watched Nixon again last night for the 6th or 7th time (the first time for H), and with each viewing I admire this film more. H also was blown away by it. This works so well, I think, because Nixon's character is so complex -- this is far from the hatchet job Republican critics call it -- H, in fact, was amazed that she found herself with sympathy for him. It's a grand tale of greatness lost, Nixon his own worst enemy, the paranoia and lack of self-esteem that took root in his childhood blossoming in character flaws that did him in. As I've said here before, I think a decade or two down the road, a talented writer will turn to HC's character and, in the context of the recent primary (depending on what else happens in the future, of course), find similar complexity from which to build great drama. Nixon is three and a half hours long but, like the recent longer opera Tristan and Isolde (recently on public TV here so I could tape it for viewing again), I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I often walk away from some TV show H has on in about five or ten minutes. You couldn't have dragged me away here.