Sightlines · reception
How Nixon was received
1995 · Oliver Stone · Nixon on Sightlines
The arc
A $44M biopic that bombed at Christmas 1995 amid cries of character assassination, it's since climbed steadily into 'actually one of Stone's best' territory — reappraised as a strange, compassionate Shakespearean tragedy rather than the hit-job everyone expected. Four Oscar nominations at the time hinted the critics saw more in it than audiences did.
What’s debated
The forever-debate: Anthony Hopkins looks and sounds nothing like Nixon — so is the performance a miscast impression or a great actor capturing the man's soul precisely by not impersonating him?
Its footprint
The scene of Nixon talking to JFK's White House portrait — 'when they look at you, they see what they want to be; when they look at me, they see what they are' — is the film's endlessly quoted, screenshotted moment, a shorthand for political self-loathing.
Where it stands
A canon climber and a favorite 'underrated Stone' pick — the film cinephiles bring up to argue Stone's real masterpiece isn't JFK.
Did you know? Two days before release, Nixon's daughters issued a furious public statement through the Nixon Library calling the film 'character assassination' — while the studio had pushed Stone toward Tom Hanks or Jack Nicholson for the lead, and Warren Beatty held talks before passing.
Named by the director
- Citizen Kane (1941) — Stone openly modeled the film on Kane — the newsreel, the Xanadu-style establishing shots, and the 'Rosebud' structure of searching for the missing key to a great man's ruin (here, the erased 18½ minutes of tape).