Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Mar 22, 2022 7:09:49 GMT
by whom I mean Richard Nixon.  |
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Post by pupdurcs on Mar 22, 2022 8:03:02 GMT
Anthony Hopkins easily. Didn't look much like the real Nixon, but his paranoid performance was good enough that it didn't matter.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 22, 2022 10:19:17 GMT
1. Hopkins.........but I want to vote PBH
2. Philip Baker Hall
3. Langella
All 3 of these are great but I could make a very strong argument for Hall - all 3 of these don't have the accent or the look of a very, very famous man - which shows you how little accents (almost always) or looks (also almost always) - matter much at all - and all 3 emphasize a different side of him too.
I really love Altman's movie though - and it's less a slog than Stone's even though Hopkins is virtuoso - Altman's movie really whips and like I always say comedy matters and his is corrosively funny - and Hall really captures Nixon's inward lacertaingly humor (the kind of humor that isn't exactly funny but stinging and aching). I have seen Secret Honor a lot - like I don't even know how many times .......it's brilliant and only Altman could have made that which you can say about a lot of Altman's movies.
Interesting side note: Hopkins who is (very) arguably the best actor in the era of his Oscar wins - 1991-2021 - 30 years and Langella the best US theater actor ever (4 Tony's, a record), dovetail in a funny way - both played Nixon entirely differently and got nods, Langella won his 4th Tony for playing The Father, Hopkins did the film and played it entirely differently again imo - and won his 2nd Oscar. Langella played Dracula, Hopkins played Van Helsing......just little things like that, there's others too.
Anyway what an ending to PBH's film - and like comedy........I always say endings matter a lot too:
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Mar 22, 2022 17:24:54 GMT
Langella sounds like the most interesting actor in the world not lying, and I think he managed to give us one of the most punchable (and real) assholes ever in "Diary of a Mad Housewife"... too bad most of his film career doesn't look very interesting or anywhere close to matching his stage rep...
What do we think of Dan Hedaya's take? I know his is a joke compared to these guys... but it's a mostly good joke...
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Post by wallsofjericho on Mar 22, 2022 18:39:18 GMT
Philip Baker Hall was my favorite.
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Post by countjohn on Mar 30, 2022 4:13:28 GMT
1. Hopkins
2. Langella
3. Hall
I'm not even really a Stone fan but his Nixon (both the film and Hopkins performance) are very underrated. It's Stone's best film and neck and neck with SotL for the best Hopkins performance for me. Really have to give Stone and Hopkins credit for being fair to Nixon despite Stone's obvious emotional bias while also making the movie an indictment of how truly awful he was. Langella is good too although Frost/Nixon is a pretty boilerplate prestige drama.
Hall is fine but Secret Honor always comes off as a New Left fantasy of what they think Nixon was like, I couldn't imagine him saying like 90% of the things in the movie. Hopkins and Stone really "got it" and captured the essence of who he was.
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Nikan
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Posts: 3,198
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Post by Nikan on Mar 28, 2024 18:43:42 GMT
I mean Langella was effortlessly captivating... but yeah, his film doesn't have Nixons' breakdown while praying with Kissinger. Good God that was painful to see.  |
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Post by stephen on Mar 28, 2024 18:45:39 GMT
1. Philip Baker Hall. He didn't look like the man but he inhabited him brilliantly.
2. Dan Hedaya. Comedic performance or no, Hedaya was excellent in the role and would have done well with any of the more serious takes on Nixon.
3. Frank Langella. Really capturing Nixon's floundering desperation to salvage something of his reputation.
4. Anthony Hopkins. Technically proficient but it's hard for me not to see it as a "performance."
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Post by paulgallo on Mar 28, 2024 19:07:49 GMT
No mention of John Cusack? Must be due to the short screen time  |
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Mar 28, 2024 19:08:26 GMT
No mention of John Cusack? Must be due to the short screen time and forgettability! |
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