Barnes & Noble

Depending on how you look at it, this bizarrely compelling story is either “the mad story of a true man” (as the marketing campaign’s tag line reads) or the true story of a madman. Because Assassination is, in fact, based on a true story -- although it’s plainly evident that director/co-writer Niels Mueller has taken liberties with the facts and imbued the narrative with his own mordant sense of humor. The year is 1974. Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) is a beaten man. As an office-supplies salesman he’s a disaster. His hopes of establishing a tire-service center with longtime friend Bonny Simmons (Don Cheadle) are dashed when the Small Business Association bottles up his loan application. Worst of all, his wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), is about to leave and take their two daughters with her. Sam sees nothing but injustice about him, and fixates on then-President Richard M. Nixon as its source. So, wearing a fake mustache and concealing a gun in a leg brace, he heads for the airport to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House. In a post-9/11 world, that doesn’t seem like such an unlikely prospect, and it’s to Muller’s credit that he’s able to wring laughs out of Sam’s obsessive scheme. This movie isn’t making a political statement per se; Nixon just happened to be the guy in the White House when the real-life Bicke went off his rocker. The Assassination of Richard Nixon is about the descent into madness of a man who -- not without reason -- believes himself the ultimate victim of social injustice. Muller even concocts a stupefying subplot in which Sam attempts to join the Black Panthers, believing them to be kindred spirits. Clearly, this is the role Sean Penn was born to play. There isn’t another actor working in American film today capable of suggesting the quiet rage, the irrational hatred that bubbles beneath Sam Bicke’s placid exterior. Penn seems to be a pretty angry guy himself, and his trademark intensity is exactly the right quality this role demands. His is not the only exceptional performance, however. Watts is eminently believable as Sam’s long-suffering wife, and Cheadle makes a perfect foil. But without Penn there would be no movie. Try to imagine the Godfather movies without Al Pacino, and you’ll have an idea of what we mean. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

The true story of a man who, on February 22, 1974, was thwarted from an ambitious plan for political assassination provides the basis for this striking psychological drama. Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) is a salesman for an office-supply company whose life is slowly beginning to unravel. Bicke's job is going nowhere, his wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), has left him, and his boss (Jack Thompson) keeps pushing self-help books on him that make a mockery of his state of mind. One of Bicke's few friends is Bonny Simmons (Don Cheadle), an auto mechanic, and together they come up with an idea for a tire shop on wheels; while neither has the money to finance the project, Bicke has learned of a program for small-business loans instituted by President Richard Nixon, which he's certain will come through for him. But Bicke is denied his loan, which dovetails with his increasing suspicion of the president's Vietnam policies and a sudden interest in the "by any means necessary" political activism of the Black Panther Party. Desperate to seem important in some way, Bicke becomes increasingly obsessed with the duplicity of Richard Nixon, until he chooses to take it upon himself to stop the president once and for all. The Assassination of Richard Nixon was the first feature film from director Niels Mueller. Mark Deming

Chicago Sun-Times

Does the film have a message? I don't think it wants one. It is about the journey of a man going mad. A film can simply be a character study, as this one is. That is sufficient. A message might seem trundled in and gratuitous. Roger Ebert

Product Details

• UPC: 794043785023
• Source: NEW LINE HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Subtitled
• Time: 1:35:00
• Sales Rank: 30,663

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