Nixon: The Election Year Edition

Director: Oliver Stone

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, James Woods, Paul Sorvino, Powers Boothe and David Hyde Pierce.

DVD Release: August 19, 2008

Runtime: 213 min

Rated: “R”, for persuasive language

Just in time for the upcoming presidential election political film fans can enjoy one the best presidential biopics of all time, NIXON: The Election Year Edition. The film follows the story of former US president Richard Nixon (Anthony Hopkins), who battled his way to the White House, only to be driven out in one of US history’s most famous scandals, Watergate.

Set around the “imperial president” we see Nixon’s ambition turn into a disastrous attempt to cover up his plan of shortning government control away from Congress and the courts by giving power to back to the states ultimately exercising his personal demons to a point that leads to dirty politics and one of the greatest political conspiracies of all time, the Watergate Scandal.

A truly fantastic voyage that shows one the most interesting stories of the last 30 years. I really enjoyed Anthony Hopkins performance in this film and with this year’s primaries complete, conventions on their way and an election creeping up on us this is a great film to find some footing into how you perceive politics, issues and the men/women who are behind the constitution serving our country.

A wonderful DVD item, which is also available on Blu-Ray for the first time. Nixon: The Election Year Edition also gives us other great actors as Joan Allen as Pat Nixon, Ed Harris as E. Howard Hunt and Bob Hoskins as J. Edgar Hoover. the film was directed by Oliver Stone and features his usual spin such as the type of artistic liberties he has taken on other major biopics such as JFK and The Doors. There is always some criticism to how portrays certain things.

Ultimately it is Anthony who makes this movie, especially in the resignation speech to his White House staffers and advisors, which is a very poignant prose and spoken by Hopkins is nothing short of brilliant alliteration from one the world’s most talented thespians.

This Election Year Edition of the film, features a fully re-mastered director’s cut and includes remixed audio and a new pristine high-definition video transfer (Blu-Ray version), which results in one of the most visually compelling version of the film to date.

The bonus features disc includes fantastic special features that really give you an insight into the Watergate scandal and the Nixon era of politics. The features include: “Beyond Nixon” - a new never-before-seen documentary by Sean Stone featuring interviews with Washington Insiders, White House Counsel, Nixon himself, John Dean and Robert Novak. Oliver Stone also provides 2 audio commentaries as well as deleted scenes from the film. Lastly, there is a featurette from the Charlie Rose intuitive interview with Oliver Stone on the Nixon presidency.