Nixon" (15) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
Prefaced by a quotation from Matthew 16:26 - "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" - Oliver Stone's new film explores the mind of the man who gained the whole world when he was elected the 37th president of the United States of America and then lost his soul and was driven out of the Oval Office when his knowledge of the Watergate burglary was exposed. Stone's film takes the form of a sprawling epic - it runs for three hours and 12 minutes - to tell the story of Richard Milhous Nixon in what Stone describes as "a dramatic interpretation" of the man's life and times.
The film opens in 1972 within the Watergate hotel and then cuts forward a year to a conversation about the controversial tapes be tween Nixon and Al Haig. We first see the president slumped over, a pained expression on his face, foul language streaming from his lips and a glass of Scotch clutched in his hand.
This image is one that will recur throughout the marathon movie as Stone cuts back and forward through Nixon's life, rewinding all the way back to childhood and culminating in his funeral - when the current Republican front-runner for the presidency, Bob Dole, declares him "a great American" - and repeatedly returning to the incident that became Nixon's downfall: Watergate.
Stone employs the same multimedia technique he used in JFK, cutting between colour, black and white and sepia footage, and between authentic and faked news reels and photographs, and incorporating slow motion and speeded up footage to assemble his picture of a tortured, morose, cold, bitter, self pitying and often pathetic man.
To seek out the roots of the man's personality, Stone takes us back in time to 1925 when Nixon was a boy. one of four raised by strict Quaker parents, and he was caught out in a lie for the first time. Abruptly, we're moved forward again to 1962 when, having lost the presidency to JFK, Nixon is running for governor of California, losing again and telling the press. "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more".
Then we're back in the Fifties for Nixon's involvement in the HUAC hearings, the Alger Hiss case and the slush fund allegations when he is running as Eisenhower's vice presidential candidate. We move to the fatal date of November 22nd, 1963, when Nixon is leaving Love Field airport in Dallas just before JFK flies in, and on to the 1968 Republican convention in Miami, the Vietnam war, Nixon's election as US president, the bombing of Cambodia, Nixon's historic trip to China and all the while Stone rewinds back to Watergate.
The film contains recurring and laboured speculation regarding Nixon's involvement in an alleged plot by the White House and the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro, but beyond that and some inevitable putting of words into Nixon's mouth, Stone's film sticks surprisingly close to the known facts - perhaps as a reaction to the flak Stone took for his elaborate speculations and theorising in JFK.
For all its length. meticulous research, extensive captioning and unrelenting bombast, Nixon is hardly illuminating to anyone familiar with the man's life and American politics before and after Watergate. What separates Nixon from the portrayals in Robert Altman's Secret Honor and the outstanding TV mini series.
Washington: Behind Closed Doors, and what is most surprising about Stone's dramatic interpretation, is not its waits and all portrayal of the man, but its fundamentally sympathetic treatment of Nixon as a tormented soul obsessed with conspiracies, enemies and the military industrial complex: in other words, a kindred spirit to Oliver Stone himself.
Taking on the daunting central role after Tom Hanks and Jack Nicholson turned it down, Anthony Hopkins only begins to resemble Nixon physically in the later years and his Welsh accent slips through from time to time. But the looks and gestures are unerringly right the phoney smile, the pursed lips, the flailing arms - and Stone's characteristic intensity is matched by Hopkins's performance.
Stone has gathered together a huge cast of well known actors to play well known real life characters, and while most of them are there as ciphers filtered through the real life drama and Bob Hoskins's performance as J. Edgar Hoover is unwisely high camp a few are notably effective: Mary Steenburgen as Nixon's mother, Paul Sorvino as Henry Kissinger, James Woods at his most reptilian as H.R. Haldeman, and especially Joan Allen in a subtle, telling portrayal of the president's long suffering wife, Pat. Technically, the film is as accomplished in every respect as we have come to expect from Oliver Stone, and even if he ultimately has nothing much new to say by the end of it all, his Nixon nevertheless exerts a certain fascination all the way to that end.
"Underground" (15) Screen at D'Olier Street, Dublin Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year, Emir Kusturica's Underground is a dynamic, allegorical anti war epic made with virtuoso skill by its Sarajevo born director.
A tremendous production originally titled Once There Was A Country, this highly ambitious project spans more than 50 years in the recent history of the former Yugoslavia, from the first German bombing raid over Belgrade in April 1941, to the turbulent recent past. To emphasise the absurdity of war. Kusturica shapes Underground as a wild, in tense tragic comedy that is as black humoured as it is up setting.
Linking the story from start to finish are a pair of crooks - the calculating Marko (Miki Maojlovic) and the naive Blacky (Lazar Ristovski). They cunningly mix arms dealing and gold trafficking with guerilla raids on Nazi convoys; as a result, they make a fortune and gain a reputation as heroes. In 1943 Blacky stages a spectacular stunt when he raids a theatre to kidnap the actress (Mirjana Jokovic) he adores; captured and tortured by her Nazi guard, Blacky is saved by Marko who hides him in his grandfather's cellar with the partisan families who have taken refuge there.
At the end of the war Marko persuades these refugees that the Nazi occupation is ongoing and it is 15 years later when they learn the extent of his treachery. In 1991 another war is raging. Marko, having established himself as a pillar of Tito's regime, is dealing and drugs and arms, and Blacky is leading a commando outfit, and their fates are about to be sealed.
Underground is a complex and immensely assured production which layers its hellish vision of never ending war with dark, humour and drives it along with a pounding score of brass band and gypsy music, punctuated with relentless artillery fire, and it is fuelled by a tangible passion and burning energy.
Since it was launched at Cannes last year, Underground has been shorn of 25 minutes and now runs for 167 minutes, and it has been subjected to a torrent of criticism in Paris, where Kusturica now lives - prompting him to declare his retirement from film making at the age of 41. When the film opened in London last weekend, several critics who admired it at Cannes revised their views with one saying that he now finds it "highly questionable" and another stating that it is "an extraordinary film"; although he is not sure if it is extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad.
There is a perception that Kusturica is showing a pro Serbian bias in the film's later stages, because he does not denounce the Serbian war crimes. This is a similar argument to the one used against Trainspotting to, question its treatment of drug taking. However, while it leaves some unanswered questions in its final stages, and its misogyny is certainly questionable, Underground relentlessly drives home its principal point, which is not about taking sides but very clearly is about dramatising and emphasising the sheer madness, horror and futility of war.
"Get Shorty" (15) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
The resurrection and rehabilitation of John Travolta's career continues with his most droll, deadpan and charming performance to date in Barry Sonnenfeld's very entertaining movie of Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty. Travolta plays Chili Palmer, a small time Miami loan shark sent to Los Angeles to collect a debt from a Z movie producer (Gene Hackman). A movie buff himself, Chili seizes upon the opportunities posed by being in Hollywood to pitch his own idea for a movie - one involving a dry cleaner who pulls off a life insurance scam by faking his own death in an air crash and absconding, with Mafia money.
The plotline for that movie proposal also happens to be part of the narrative of Get Shorty itself, and eventually art and life are merged within the film. Adapted for the screen by Scott Frank, who astutely retains much of Leonard's sharp, punchy dialogue from the novel, this smart and witty comedy proceeds at a spirited pace, and the strong cast also features Danny DeVito, Rene Russo, Dennis Farina, Delroy Lindo and in uncredited appearances, Bette Midler, Penny Marshall and Harvey Keitel.
"The Big Green" (General) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
Despite its title and its release this weekend, this trite and inane yarn has nothing to do with St Patrick's Day. The title refers to the sportsfield in a small Texan town and Olivia d'Abo plays an English schoolteacher who grooms the bored local youngsters for a soccer tournament. "Don't waste your time with us, we're losers,"
they chorus, but anyone who has seen Rocky does not need clairvoyant powers to predict the eventual outcome. A paunchy, stubbly Steve Guttenberg co stars as a hick sheriff in this tacky picture which might appeal to undemanding children.
Hugh Linehan adds:
"Restoration" (15) Ambassador, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
Robert Downey Jr plays Robert Merivel, a talented young physician who becomes a favourite at the court of King Charles II (Sam Neill) in Michael Hoffman's version of Rose Tremain's Booker nominated novel. Despite the disapproval of his Puritan friend Pearce (David Thewlis), Downey ignores his medical vocation in favour of the earthly delights of court life. But when the King's mistress (Polly Walker) needs to be married off for appearances, Downey's luck takes a turn for the worse.
Studded with appearances by well known faces, including Ian McKellen as Downey's trusty manservant and Hugh Grant as a conniving portrait artist, Restoration delivers adequate performances from most of its cast. It's a shock to the system, though, when Meg Ryan of all people - crops up three quarters of the way through the film in the guise of a deranged Irish peasant girl. Ryan ends up bearing Downey's child before dramatically expiring, but she looks as if the whole experience is just a slightly bad hair day. In fact, once Ryan appears, the story soon loses any credibility it might have had, culminating in a ridiculously inane happy ending.
It's a pity about Restoration - there are some interesting ideas about fate, science and morality lurking beneath the film's surface, but they're ruthlessly subjugated to the requirements of a big budget American production. Hoffman, whose previous efforts include the gentle satire Soapdish, never quite convinces in his portrayal of 17th century London.
The luxurious design and costumes (both of which have received Oscar nominations) are pleasant on the eye, but cinematographer Oliver Stapleton's compositions are too pedestrian to make the film visually interesting. The most noteworthy thing is the performance of Thewlis, who seemed to have gone into hibernation after his stunning performance in Mike Leigh's Naked. Here, in a relatively minor, restrained role, he completely outshines the rest of the cast.
