Woodyanders A bitter and disgraced Richard Nixon (superbly played with alarming intensity and ferocity by Philip Baker Hall) decides one night while pacing around his private study to open up and reflect on his troubled life and thwarted political career before eventually revealing the reasons behind the reasons for the infamous Watergate scandal.Director Robert Altman makes ingenious use of a bank of television monitors and cinematographer Pierre Mignot's restless prowling camera in order to inject plenty of thrilling cinematic panache into the stage play-based material. The bold and incisive script by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone not only astutely captures the tortured soul and heavy heart of Richard Nixon, but also thoroughly covers both Nixon's rough impoverished background and rocky times in office as well as postulates several radical conspiracy theories that are downright startling in their audacious implications. However, it's veteran character actor Hall's bracing and bravura portrayal of Nixon which encompasses a broad array of emotions ranging from anger to pride to regret to ultimately fierce defiance concerning his miserable place in American history that in turn makes this film so resonant and provocative: Alternately profane and pitiable, paranoid and reflective, ashamed and remorseless, Hall's characterization of Nixon as a complex bundle of contradictions accomplishes the astounding feat of making the viewer in the long run feel more than a little sorry for Nixon and his wretched plight. An absolute powerhouse.

Jason Forestein During the late 1970s, Robert Altman started to get weird. 3 Women was wonderfully strange, and certainly more enigmatic than many of the films this maverick had released before, but nothing prepared me for the unhinged brilliance of Secret Honor when, thanks to Criterion, I was finally able to see it. I had become aware of the film sometime during high school, when I became obsessed, more or less simultaneously, with Richard Nixon, Philip Baker Hall, and Robert Altman. Obviously, then, Secret Honor would have to be some sort of Holy Grail for me. When I finally saw it, my obsessions with Nixon and Hall had waned, but my Altman fixation had only grown. How did I find this film? I found it miraculous. I simply cannot believe how awesome a filmmaker Altman truly is. He's masterful with ensembles (see Gosford Park, Nashville, and Short Cuts), but here he shows himself king of the one- man show. Philip Baker Hall is magnetic as a fictionalized Richard Nixon and puts Anthony Hopkins's swell performance to shame. Hopkins may have gotten the syntax and speech patterns down, but Hall, and his thoroughly beaten physical demeanor, seems to embody Nixon more fully. Hall is a fantastic actor, but Altman must have been doing something right to pull this performance--which is tragic and absurd in equal measures--from anyone, no matter how talented. It's the perfect pitch to play the film, as playing Nixon with too much or too little pathos would have killed the movie. The staging of Secret Honor is also a marvel. It takes place in one room, which instills a wonderful sense of claustrophobia, and this room is absolutely cluttered, it seems, by objects that haunt Nixon. It's an amazing design and fits the story perfectly. Secret Honor rests among the greatest Altman films--McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville, the Long Goodbye, 3 Women, and Short Cuts--because it's not only a terrific film but also because it shows how masterful Altman is with a range of styles. It's simply brilliant.

user-38 If you ever get a chance to see this film, grab it! Phillip Baker Hall doesn't simply portray Nixon, he inhabits him. The familiar hunched shoulders and odd poses employed by every Nixon impersonator, in Hall's hands seem less like imitation than brilliant artistic choices, revealing the inner struggles of a remarkable, tormented man. No disrespect to Anthony Hopkins, unquestionably a very talented actor, but his Nixon doesn't hold a candle to Hall's. This is of course a work of fiction, but like the best fiction it lies in order to reveal a deeper truth. Nixon never made the tape we see him creating through the course of this film, but what is revealed through it is both psychologically and historically honest. The portrait that emerges is unsparing and sympathetic. Nixon emerges as a hero in a Greek tragedy with the same grandeur and the same tragic flaw. Fans and critics both of Richard Nixon will find their judgements challenged by this complex, revealing portrait. Even someone who has never heard of Nixon couldn't help but be fascinated by this powerful, complex man.Note to PT Anderson fans: According to Anderson, this was the performance that convinced him he had to work with Hall. It's no accident that Anderson's first full-length film, Sidney (or Hard Eight), was a showpiece for Hall's amazing talent.

zetes Not to say too much about Secret Honor: just know that it is an amazingly written monologue with amazing acting by Philip Baker Hall and amazing direction by Robert Altman. One might accuse Hall of overacting, but you should remember that this is stage acting. It's exaggerated, but that's the way stage acting works. Of course, Richard Nixon was pretty damn insane, so maybe this isn't overacting at all! The writing builds a lot of pathos for Nixon, which you wouldn't expect, while not letting him off any hook. And the ending kicks a lot of ass. F*ck 'em!!! The third best Altman film I've seen, after Nashville and 3 Women. 10/10.P.S. - It was a bit difficult to understand, since I am not 100% familiar with Nixon and the era. If you don't know anything about this stuff, just avoid it.