Sam Byck was a man who tried to hijack a plane in 1974 and fly it into the White House, in order to kill Richard Nixon, who he blamed for all his problems. He isn't very widely known because he failed, managing only to shoot both the pilots before he was himself shot down by airport security.
The Assassination of Richard Nixon is a lightly fictionalized version of Byck's story, trying (I guess) to show why he did what he did. And it's very well done, in many ways. Sean Penn plays the leading role well, and the cinematography is good. And that's about it for the positives, unfortunately.
Have you ever been stuck next to the loony on the bus? You know, there's always one, who insists on telling you about how THEY control the world via microchips implanted in people's heads, and how he's invented a perpetual-motion machine that THEY don't want you to know about. Well, imagine being sat next to that guy for an hour and a half. That's this movie in a nutshell - Sam Bicke (no, I don't know why they spelled it differently in the movie) is a full-bore nutjob, right from the start. And you're going to listen to his every word, his every mad rant, and watch while he makes a hopeless mess of his life, terrorizes his ex-wife, humiliates his best friend, and finally kills a man in a wretched, insane act. Does that sound like fun to you? Well, OK, it doesn't have to be fun. We could gain some insight into why Byck is the way he is, what made him go over the edge. But we don't. He is pretty crazy when the movie begins, and very crazy by the time it ends, and we never really find out why. He starts the film with a restraining order having been taken out against him, and with a record of losing job after job. During the following ninety minutes we find out that he doesn't like Nixon very much, and that - and I know you'll be SHOCKED to hear this, so hold onto yourself - people lie. Yep, Sam is an honest guy, and an honest guy can't make it in Nixon's America, and that's why he's crazy. In fact, of course, Sam is no more honest than anyone else - he tells the pilots of the plane he's going to crash that if they don't move, they won't get hurt - and then promptly shoots them both.
The structure of the movie goes like this: Sam tries to make his life better. Sam fails, utterly. Sam rants about how a guy like him never gets an even break in this crummy place we call America. Reasonable, sane person (Sam's brother, the bank manager, his ex-wife, Don Cheadle) shakes head, walks away. Once the cycle has finished, start it all over again and repeat until we get to the airport.
Of course, most of the good reviews of this movie don't care about that. Sam and the scriptwriters are saying what a lot of people want to hear, and they're happy to listen to his ravings. Never mind that he kills an innocent man, and tries to kill many more. No matter that his observations rarely rise beyond simplistic. Sam was a good liberal boy, who got screwed by The Man, and that's what matters. Well, no it isn't. Sam Byck was crazy, and he committed an insane, terrible act. That's all there is to say about him. It's not a story that makes for a good movie, however well-intentioned it might be.
The Assassination of Richard Nixon is a lightly fictionalized version of Byck's story, trying (I guess) to show why he did what he did. And it's very well done, in many ways. Sean Penn plays the leading role well, and the cinematography is good. And that's about it for the positives, unfortunately.
Have you ever been stuck next to the loony on the bus? You know, there's always one, who insists on telling you about how THEY control the world via microchips implanted in people's heads, and how he's invented a perpetual-motion machine that THEY don't want you to know about. Well, imagine being sat next to that guy for an hour and a half. That's this movie in a nutshell - Sam Bicke (no, I don't know why they spelled it differently in the movie) is a full-bore nutjob, right from the start. And you're going to listen to his every word, his every mad rant, and watch while he makes a hopeless mess of his life, terrorizes his ex-wife, humiliates his best friend, and finally kills a man in a wretched, insane act. Does that sound like fun to you? Well, OK, it doesn't have to be fun. We could gain some insight into why Byck is the way he is, what made him go over the edge. But we don't. He is pretty crazy when the movie begins, and very crazy by the time it ends, and we never really find out why. He starts the film with a restraining order having been taken out against him, and with a record of losing job after job. During the following ninety minutes we find out that he doesn't like Nixon very much, and that - and I know you'll be SHOCKED to hear this, so hold onto yourself - people lie. Yep, Sam is an honest guy, and an honest guy can't make it in Nixon's America, and that's why he's crazy. In fact, of course, Sam is no more honest than anyone else - he tells the pilots of the plane he's going to crash that if they don't move, they won't get hurt - and then promptly shoots them both.
The structure of the movie goes like this: Sam tries to make his life better. Sam fails, utterly. Sam rants about how a guy like him never gets an even break in this crummy place we call America. Reasonable, sane person (Sam's brother, the bank manager, his ex-wife, Don Cheadle) shakes head, walks away. Once the cycle has finished, start it all over again and repeat until we get to the airport.
Of course, most of the good reviews of this movie don't care about that. Sam and the scriptwriters are saying what a lot of people want to hear, and they're happy to listen to his ravings. Never mind that he kills an innocent man, and tries to kill many more. No matter that his observations rarely rise beyond simplistic. Sam was a good liberal boy, who got screwed by The Man, and that's what matters. Well, no it isn't. Sam Byck was crazy, and he committed an insane, terrible act. That's all there is to say about him. It's not a story that makes for a good movie, however well-intentioned it might be.