Nixon at the Movies : A Book about Belief

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Summary: Siskel, Ebert, and Nixon?
Review: Did Nixon miss his calling? Should he have been a Hollywood film reviewer? Nixon was born near Hollywood, where characters were reshaped and manufactured, in 1913, the same year that Hollywood produced its first film, Cecil B. DeMille's "The Squaw Man." In a time before DVD's and VHS/Betamax (when "R" rating meant Regular, not Restricted (hehe)), he watched 538 films during his 67 months in the Presidency (not counting his Vice Presidency under Eisenhower); he was screening about two 35mm films per week, sitting in a darkened room. But aside telling us that Nixon viewed PATTON three times during the VietNam War and Cambodian incursion (both Patton and Nixon suffered the indignities of serving under Eisenhower), or that he loved the works of John FOrd, and in his last White House years, more classic films were selected for him, the author creates a fascinating portrayal of Nixon and a cultural history of America's hopes and dreams and myths and realities, specifically through the metaphors of some of the following films: THE CONVERSATION (1974, Gene Hackman is filled with guilt and secrets, hidden away); PATTON (1970, war, leadership, and Eisenhower); MISTER ROBERTS (1955, the banality of being an administrator); DARK VICTORY (1939, Reagan plays a playboy as Bette David is dying and George Brent is trying to sure her, contrasting Nixon's ambitions to those of a playboy); and DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944, growing up in Southern California)

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Summary: NIXON, YOU OLE DOG!
Review: I absolutely love NIXON and everything having to do with him. It amazes me that after so many years people are still able to surprise me with information I did not know about the man. Fascinating look at Nixon and the way he was he was shaped by the films he watched, and the psychological implications of those films. What a read !

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Summary: Nixon and Hollywood -- a love affair
Review: This is a wonderfully written book by Boston Globe journalist Mark Feeney, who clearly is passionate about his subjects: Nixon + movies. Feeney offers a beautifully nuanced portrait of our most complicated president, a devotee of movies, and his time. Feeney explores Nixon's life, personality, and political career through the lens of his involvement with the media, in particular his preoccupation with Hollywood movies. The President sought inspiration in them and even found in movie characters role models for himself--he drew inspiration, for example, from George C. Scott's impersonation of General Patton during the darkest days of the Vietnam War. Hollywood, too, was enamoured of Nixon, and Feeney explores how he has been portrayed by a wide range of directors, and how his presence seems to saturate so many films of the 1970s--including "Shampoo" and Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation." Feeney pulls it all off with sparkling wit and a genuine sympathy for his subject. A fascinating book about a fascinating president. Highly recommended.