The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Encyclopedia
The Assassination of Richard Nixon is a 2004 American film, directed
by Niels Mueller
. It stars Sean Penn
, Don Cheadle
and Naomi Watts
, and is based on the story of would-be assassin
Samuel Byck
, who plotted to kill Richard Nixon
in 1974. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard
section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival
.
.
While out drinking with his new employer at an office furniture sales office, the employer describes Richard Nixon as the greatest salesman in history, because his election promise in 1968 was to exit the Vietnam War
, yet he massively increased troop numbers and won an easy re-election in 1972 on a promise of ending the same war. His employer is condescending towards him and gives him patronizing advice, while his lack of social skills and scattershot morality make him an abysmal salesman.
Throughout the film he becomes increasingly disillusioned with friends, family, his status in society, the lot of the those who are employed and his job in particular. He decides to set up a mobile tire sales business so that he will no longer be employed by others, and applies for a government loan to set up the business.
Bicke then suffers several setbacks in short succession: During a clumsy attempt to hit on a customer he reveals that, despite what he has told his employer he is in fact separated, which his colleague hears and passes on to the boss. He then desperately tries to get Marie to join him for a company event, but she refuses to keep up a "charade" and asks him why he needs her there if his sales are as good as he has (lied to her) told her about. He then gets a letter from Marie saying she has filed for divorce, and when he reaches her by telephone she makes it clear they're through and hangs up on him, leaving him to weep in despair. Shortly afterwards, he deliberately tanks a sale and quits, with his boss seeming relieved that he'll be gone, and begins ranting when he sees President Nixon giving a speech on TV, repeatedly screaming "It's about MONEY, DICK!!!". He decides that as he is certain to receive his loan he can order his tires now and start the business, and breaks into his brother's tire sales business to make a large order, to be delivered to his best friend and prospective business partner, Bonny.
However, the loan is rejected and Bicke comes home one night to find a notice on his door that his rent is past due, and his brother, Julius in his flat. Julius reveals that the vendor became suspicious and contacted police, and Bonny was arrested for receiving stolen goods, which Bicke pathetically tries to say is due to racism against the African-American Bonny. Julius has bailed Bonny out and smoothed things over with the police, but says that he wants nothing more to do with Bicke, and will have him arrested if he ever does anything similar. With nothing and no one left in his life that he cares about, Bicke begins obsessing about Nixon. One night, he watches a news story about a helicopter pilot who did a fly-by around the White House and got arrested, and begins putting together a plan to hijack a passenger airliner himself and crash it into the White House.
Bicke closes his bank account, steals a gun from Bonny which he conceals on his leg, heads to a restaurant where his old boss and colleague are dining (he sarcastically thanks the boss for showing him that being a good man and a good salesperson aren't the same thing, and aims the gun at him under the table, but can't bring himself to pull the trigger and flees) and goes to his and Marie's old house; he sleeps in the deserted, mostly barren home before he shoots and kills the family dog. The next morning, he goes to the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. He buys a ticket and waits in line to board his flight. Seeing the security procedures, he has a last minute change of plan and rushes on board the airplane, shooting indiscriminately as he goes.
Once on board he seems to have little idea of what he is doing. He shoots one pilot in the head and the other in the shoulder, and finds a passenger to act as co-pilot. However, he is shot through the window in the plane's door. While the authorities close in on the plane, he commits suicide. The day's events are shown on TV, but as the film ends, his ex-wife and former best friend ignore the story and the mention of Bicke's name. Bicke then runs around his apartment with a toy plane and heads straight into the camera as the screen cuts to black. The film ends with a title card that says even if Bicke had succeeded at hijacking the plane, his plan would have failed because Nixon wasn't in the White House that day.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Niels Mueller
Niels Mueller
Niels Mueller is a filmmaker currently resident in Los Angeles. He was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and attended Tufts University where he earned a BA. While an undergraduate, he collaborated with fellow-student Gary Winick on a number of independent film projects. Mueller subsequently...
. It stars Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
, Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle
Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
and Naomi Watts
Naomi Watts
Naomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. Watts began her career in Australian television, where she appeared in series such as Hey Dad..! , Brides of Christ , and Home and Away . Her film debut was the 1986 drama For Love Alone...
, and is based on the story of would-be assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
Samuel Byck
Samuel Byck
Samuel Joseph Byck was an unemployed former tire salesman who attempted to hijack a plane flying out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport on February 22, 1974. He intended to crash into the White House in the hope of killing U.S...
, who plotted to kill Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in 1974. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival
2004 Cannes Film Festival
The 2004 Cannes Film Festival started on May 12 and ran until May 23. The Palme d'Or went to the American film Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore.-Jury:* Quentin Tarantino, President * Emmanuelle Béart * Edwidge Danticat * Tilda Swinton...
.
Characters
The main characters are:- Samuel J. Bicke - (Penn) a salesman with a history of short-lived jobs. His name was changed in the film to avoid offending living relatives.
- Marie Andersen Bicke - (Watts) Bicke's ex-wife.
- Bonny Simmons - (Cheadle) Bicke's best friend and potential business partner.
Plot
Bicke is portrayed as an individual who wants the world to function according to honesty, honor and ideas, yet he's often paranoid and dishonest, and he gets flustered and angry when things don't go according to his plans. He clearly wants to reconcile with his ex-wife Marie but doesn't notice that she's done with him and has moved on with her life. He states that he stopped working for his brother because he perceives that his brother forced him to lie in his job, yet he lies about his marital status to get employment. He attempts to join the Black Panthers, as he believes that discrimination affects poor white people just as much as it does blacksAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
.
While out drinking with his new employer at an office furniture sales office, the employer describes Richard Nixon as the greatest salesman in history, because his election promise in 1968 was to exit the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, yet he massively increased troop numbers and won an easy re-election in 1972 on a promise of ending the same war. His employer is condescending towards him and gives him patronizing advice, while his lack of social skills and scattershot morality make him an abysmal salesman.
Throughout the film he becomes increasingly disillusioned with friends, family, his status in society, the lot of the those who are employed and his job in particular. He decides to set up a mobile tire sales business so that he will no longer be employed by others, and applies for a government loan to set up the business.
Bicke then suffers several setbacks in short succession: During a clumsy attempt to hit on a customer he reveals that, despite what he has told his employer he is in fact separated, which his colleague hears and passes on to the boss. He then desperately tries to get Marie to join him for a company event, but she refuses to keep up a "charade" and asks him why he needs her there if his sales are as good as he has (lied to her) told her about. He then gets a letter from Marie saying she has filed for divorce, and when he reaches her by telephone she makes it clear they're through and hangs up on him, leaving him to weep in despair. Shortly afterwards, he deliberately tanks a sale and quits, with his boss seeming relieved that he'll be gone, and begins ranting when he sees President Nixon giving a speech on TV, repeatedly screaming "It's about MONEY, DICK!!!". He decides that as he is certain to receive his loan he can order his tires now and start the business, and breaks into his brother's tire sales business to make a large order, to be delivered to his best friend and prospective business partner, Bonny.
However, the loan is rejected and Bicke comes home one night to find a notice on his door that his rent is past due, and his brother, Julius in his flat. Julius reveals that the vendor became suspicious and contacted police, and Bonny was arrested for receiving stolen goods, which Bicke pathetically tries to say is due to racism against the African-American Bonny. Julius has bailed Bonny out and smoothed things over with the police, but says that he wants nothing more to do with Bicke, and will have him arrested if he ever does anything similar. With nothing and no one left in his life that he cares about, Bicke begins obsessing about Nixon. One night, he watches a news story about a helicopter pilot who did a fly-by around the White House and got arrested, and begins putting together a plan to hijack a passenger airliner himself and crash it into the White House.
Bicke closes his bank account, steals a gun from Bonny which he conceals on his leg, heads to a restaurant where his old boss and colleague are dining (he sarcastically thanks the boss for showing him that being a good man and a good salesperson aren't the same thing, and aims the gun at him under the table, but can't bring himself to pull the trigger and flees) and goes to his and Marie's old house; he sleeps in the deserted, mostly barren home before he shoots and kills the family dog. The next morning, he goes to the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. He buys a ticket and waits in line to board his flight. Seeing the security procedures, he has a last minute change of plan and rushes on board the airplane, shooting indiscriminately as he goes.
Once on board he seems to have little idea of what he is doing. He shoots one pilot in the head and the other in the shoulder, and finds a passenger to act as co-pilot. However, he is shot through the window in the plane's door. While the authorities close in on the plane, he commits suicide. The day's events are shown on TV, but as the film ends, his ex-wife and former best friend ignore the story and the mention of Bicke's name. Bicke then runs around his apartment with a toy plane and heads straight into the camera as the screen cuts to black. The film ends with a title card that says even if Bicke had succeeded at hijacking the plane, his plan would have failed because Nixon wasn't in the White House that day.