Secret Honor (1984)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Donald Freed (play) &
Arnold M. Stone (play) ...
(more)

Release Date:

29 January 1986 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Anyone can BE the President.

Plot:

A fictionalized former President Richard M. Nixon offers a solitary, stream-of-consciousness reflection on his life and political career - and the "true" reasons for the Watergate scandal and his resignation.

Plot Keywords:

President | Watergate Scandal | Watergate | Defiance | Politician

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Philip Baker Hall

...

Richard Nixon

Directed by
Robert Altman

Writing credits
Donald Freed		(play) &
Arnold M. Stone		(play)
Donald Freed		(screenplay) &
Arnold M. Stone		(screenplay)

Produced by
Robert Altman	....	producer
Scott Bushnell	....	executive producer

Original Music by
George Burt

Cinematography by
Pierre Mignot

Film Editing by
Juliet Weber

Production Design by
Stephen Altman

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Allan F. Nicholls	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Dan Gleich	....	boom operator

Camera and Electrical Department
Jean Lépine	....	camera operator

Production Companies

• Sandcastle 5 Productions

Distributors

• American Home Video (video) (as Lords of Treason)
• Blue Dolphin Film Distribution (UK)
• Cinecom Pictures
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (laserdisc)
• Vestron Video (video)

Also Known As:

Lords of Treason
Secret Honor: A Political Myth
Secret Honor: The Last Testament of Richard M. Nixon

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | UK:15

Filming Locations:

University of Michigan central campus, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Company:

Sandcastle 5 Productions

Trivia:

Filmed while 'Robert Altman' was a professor at the University of Michigan. The crew consisted of mostly students of the University who were studying film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: President Nixon presses the record button on his cassette tape recorder and begins recording, but a few moments later realizes that there is no cassette tape in the recorder. Cassette tape recorders have a trip bar inside the cassette compartment that make it impossible for the user to press the record button if no cassette is in the recorder. So President Nixon should not have been able to press the record button.

Quotes:

Richard Nixon: I am America. I'm a winner who lost every battle, up to and including the war. I am *not* the American nightmare. I am the American Dream. Period. That's why the system works. Because I am the system. *Period.*

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Directors: The Films of Robert Altman (#2.9)" (2001)

A Must See

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.