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The Leonard Lopate Show / September 09, 2008 / Political Projections: Nixon in Hollywood

Political Projections: Nixon in Hollywood

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

On Tues., Sept. 9, tune in for a discussion on how President Richard Nixon has been depicted by Hollywood. Leonard talks with journalist Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland; and Brian Neve, a professor of cultural studies at the University of Bath in England and author of Film and Politics in America.

The films we'll talk about are:
All the President's Men(1976)
Nixon (1995)
Dick (1999)

You can watch the films and join in on the conversation.


Comments

  • [1] James from brooklyn September 09, 2008 - 12:06PM

    The showing of "All the President's Men" was a good attempt, but I left after 30 minutes because I could only hear every 5th word. The sound system needs improvement.
  • [2] Hugh from Brooklyn September 09, 2008 - 12:28PM

    In addition to the movies focusing on Nixon, there are all the little asides in other films, as in Woody Allen's Sleeper (something like "We think he must have done something really bad." "Mmm.... I do know that when he left the White House, they used to count the silver").

    My thinking is that Hollywood just has a liking for generally bad people with off-kilter personalities -- Al Capone, Jack the Ripper, Richard Nixon.
  • [3] eva September 09, 2008 - 01:30PM

    #2, Hugh,

    That's the same scene in which Allen explains that Norman Mailer donated his ego to the Harvard Medical School.

    Thank God for Sleeper. And Bananas. And all his other movies....
  • [4] Michael from Manhattan September 09, 2008 - 01:31PM

    I am thinking , that , after all that has happened during the Bush administration, The war , the lieing , the subversion of constitutional rights, all the dead caused by the Iraq war etc etc, .. was Nixon really that bad? His crimes worse than Bush? We call Nixon evil, but I am only wondering how his evil level compares to the current administration. Are we overdoing the demonization of him?
  • [5] Jacob Jarvela from Oakland, NJ September 09, 2008 - 01:32PM

    Nixon is about to appear onscreen again in the 2009 film adaption of Alan Moore's graphic novel "Watchmen", where he has remained President through 1985.
  • [6] eligit from astoria September 09, 2008 - 01:33PM

    can't believe you guys did not include the altman masterpiece "secret honor".

    by far the most impressive nixon portrayal on film.

    phillip baker hall nails it.
  • [7] eva September 09, 2008 - 01:33PM

    #4:

    Nixon was bad, real bad. No matter how much worse things are now, you can't take that away from Nixon.


  • [8] Jesse from NYC September 09, 2008 - 01:35PM

    One commenter ridiculed notion of Johnson having a hand in Kennedy's assassination. Search for comments from Jack Ruby when asked how far up does the conspiracy go, he responded "All the way to the top".
  • [9] Jack September 09, 2008 - 01:49PM

    All the Presidents Men did not do justice for the book!

This thread is closed.


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