Chris Knipp
01-12-2005, 07:28 PM
Niels Mueller: The Assassination of Richard Nixon
by Chris Knipp
Dreary implosion
It's hard to understand the positive critical reaction to this grim little character study of a pathetic loser who turns violent -- and the general approval of Sean Penn's overwrought, solemn performance -- till one remembers that using hijacked planes as weapons to destroy key American symbols is a hot topic, and that Penn's reputation as an actor is at an all-time high following his Oscar win last year.
Every scene telegraphs in huge letters THIS GUY IS A CLUELESS LOSER -- which means he's not going to succeed at the sales job, the wife isn't going to take him back, he isn't going to get the loan for a kooky mobile tire repair service he's dreamed up with his long suffering black pal, Bonny (cheerily played by Don Cheadle), and when he tries to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House, he certainly isn't going to succeed at that.
However interesting this narrative (based on a true news event) is or isn't as a subject -- different treatment certainly might have made it interesting -- Penn's grimacing, drooling, whimpering pathos makes the movie painful and embarrassing to watch.
Bicke is halfway between Travis Bickle and Willy Loman. He's little and flawed and self-deceiving like Loman, while, like Bickle, he blames his dysfunctions on the world and plots a megalomaniac revenge. Almost every other scene has a TV in it with Nixon nattering away. The office equipment store has a whole battery of them. What kind of office equipment is that? This intrusion shows how heavy-handed the movie's efforts to be relevant and political are.Travis Bickle is a powerful character and Willy Loman is a tragic one; we're meant, perhaps, to sympathize with Samuel Bicke. We've all felt like this. There's a time in all our lives when others want us to do things we can't do, when we feel forced to give up what we care for, when we feel like losers. Only the thing is, Bicke really is a loser. He has no visible redeeming quality. His business scheme is so naïve and miscalculated he seems retarded. He needs help. The question is what? Therapy? Institutionalization? Membership in a terrorist organization, maybe? In what some think a funny scene he takes in a contribution to the Black Panthers and says he knows what they're going through and suggests they change their name to the Zebras to include whites....
For the rest of the review go to http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=385
by Chris Knipp
Dreary implosion
It's hard to understand the positive critical reaction to this grim little character study of a pathetic loser who turns violent -- and the general approval of Sean Penn's overwrought, solemn performance -- till one remembers that using hijacked planes as weapons to destroy key American symbols is a hot topic, and that Penn's reputation as an actor is at an all-time high following his Oscar win last year.
Every scene telegraphs in huge letters THIS GUY IS A CLUELESS LOSER -- which means he's not going to succeed at the sales job, the wife isn't going to take him back, he isn't going to get the loan for a kooky mobile tire repair service he's dreamed up with his long suffering black pal, Bonny (cheerily played by Don Cheadle), and when he tries to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House, he certainly isn't going to succeed at that.
However interesting this narrative (based on a true news event) is or isn't as a subject -- different treatment certainly might have made it interesting -- Penn's grimacing, drooling, whimpering pathos makes the movie painful and embarrassing to watch.
Bicke is halfway between Travis Bickle and Willy Loman. He's little and flawed and self-deceiving like Loman, while, like Bickle, he blames his dysfunctions on the world and plots a megalomaniac revenge. Almost every other scene has a TV in it with Nixon nattering away. The office equipment store has a whole battery of them. What kind of office equipment is that? This intrusion shows how heavy-handed the movie's efforts to be relevant and political are.Travis Bickle is a powerful character and Willy Loman is a tragic one; we're meant, perhaps, to sympathize with Samuel Bicke. We've all felt like this. There's a time in all our lives when others want us to do things we can't do, when we feel forced to give up what we care for, when we feel like losers. Only the thing is, Bicke really is a loser. He has no visible redeeming quality. His business scheme is so naïve and miscalculated he seems retarded. He needs help. The question is what? Therapy? Institutionalization? Membership in a terrorist organization, maybe? In what some think a funny scene he takes in a contribution to the Black Panthers and says he knows what they're going through and suggests they change their name to the Zebras to include whites....
For the rest of the review go to http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=385