The Assassination of Richard Nixon
| The Assassination of Richard Nixon | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Niels Mueller |
| Produced by |
Alfonso Cuarón Jorge Vergara |
| Written by | Niels Mueller Kevin Kennedy |
| Starring |
Sean Penn Don Cheadle Jack Thompson Naomi Watts Brad William Henke Michael Wincott Mykelti Williamson |
| Music by | Steven M. Stern |
| Cinematography | Emmanuel Lubezki |
| Edited by | Jay Cassidy |
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Production
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| Distributed by | ThinkFilm |
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Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
| Country | United States Mexico |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $4.4 million |
The Assassination of Richard Nixon is a 2004 American film, directed by Niels Mueller. It stars Sean Penn, Don Cheadle and Naomi Watts, and is based on the story of would-be assassin Samuel Byck, who plotted to kill Richard Nixon in 1974. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
Samuel Bicke (the name was changed in the film to avoid offending living relatives) is portrayed as an individual who wants the world to function according to honor and merit, yet he's often paranoid and dishonest, and he gets flustered and angry when things do not go according to his plans. He clearly wants to reconcile with his estranged wife Marie but cannot accept that she has moved on without him. He states that he stopped working for his brother because he perceives that his brother forced him to lie in his job, yet he lies about his marital status to get employment. He attempts to join the Black Panthers, as he believes that discrimination affects poor white people just as much as it does blacks, but his explanations for that fact do not impress the local Panther leadership.
While out drinking with his new employer at an office furniture sales office, the employer describes Richard Nixon as the greatest salesman in history, because his election promise in 1968 was to exit the Vietnam War, yet he massively increased troop numbers and won an easy re-election in 1972 on a promise of ending the same war. His employer gives him patronizing advice, while his awkwardness makes him an abysmal salesman.
Throughout the film he becomes increasingly disillusioned with friends, family, his status in society, the lot of those who are employed and his job in particular. He decides to set up a mobile tire sales business so that he will no longer be employed by others, and applies for a government loan to set up the business.
Bicke then suffers several setbacks in short succession. His sales figures continue to deteriorate, and a failed flirtation with a female customer reveals his happy marriage claims to be false. He then desperately tries to get Marie to join him for a company event, but she refuses and later sends him a divorce decree in the mail, and when he reaches her by telephone she tells him to get a life and hangs up on him, leaving him to weep in despair. Shortly afterwards, he deliberately tanks a sale and quits, and begins ranting when he sees President Nixon giving a speech on TV, repeatedly screaming "It's about MONEY, DICK!!!". He decides that as he is certain to receive his loan he can order his tires now and start the business, and breaks into his brother's tire sales business to make a large order, to be delivered to his best friend and prospective business partner, Bonny.
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