BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

snorlax3111984 1. I've longed hated Nixon but this movie definitely raises sympathy for him: he was a lifetime loser who got one lucky break when a committee decided to make him Senator. That one lucky break turned out to be a nightmare as he ended up a puppet in an evil plan. Some people just can't win. It's nice to see at the end when Nikon refuses to bring himself down and basically tells his enemies to go F themselves.2. Nixon's devotion to his mother is very heartwarming.3. Nixon's fumbling manner can be very funny, whether he's struggling to properly use the recording machine or telling Roberto to delete a section of his speech.4. Philip Baker Hall hardly looks like Nixon but that kind of fits with the movie to show this is just a parody and not the true story of Nixon's life.5. It's amusing to see Nixon supposedly reveal huge secrets like the Shah Of Iran being supplied with boys to please him or JFK winning the 1960 Election due to intrigue in Chile.6. Best LineNixon repeatedly saying "F--- Em" to his enemiesCons 1. I didn't care for Nixon saying various ethnic slurs. Granted he is drunk.

tieman64 "You, ladies and gentlemen of the American jury, shall look at the face that is under the mask!" - Philip Baker Hall (Richard Nixon) It takes 12 minutes for Robert Altman's "Secret Honor" to really get going, the audience having to endure some terribly dated TV music and lots of theatrical posturing by Philip Baker Hall, but once the actor begins his meaty monologue, it's hard not to be transfixed.Hall, of course, plays former president Richard Nixon. Recently disgraced by the Watergate fiasco, he prances about his private office with a loaded gun and a glass of whisky, spewing scorn at the Kennedy's, Helen Douglas, Henry Kissinger and a mysterious group called both "The Committee of 100" and "The Bohemian Grove".Employing students from the University of Michigan, and a script that sticks religiously to a stage play by Donald Freed and Arnold Stone, "Secret Honor" is a fairly small scale project for Altman. Still, there are at least four interesting things being done.The first is the film's location. Altman doesn't use his small set with the same gusto that Stone does in "Talk Radio", Hitchcock does in "Rear Window" or Lumet does in "12 Angry Men", but he does add his own little flourishes here and there. For example, Altman surrounds Nixon's room with wall-mounted pictures of past presidents and places a huge bank of security monitors to one side. The effect is such that Nixon, whose monologue takes the form of a courtroom plea of defence, is addressing a jury that is at once himself, we the audience and those political figures he both admirers and detests. There's therefore a sense of profound scrutiny, Nixon waging a war for his own innocence, politicians over his shoulders, a security camera in his face, a national audience behind his back and a bank of monitors recording his every move.The second interesting thing is Hall's performance itself. Unlike Stone's "Nixon" or Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon", "Secret Honour" is categorically not an attempt to portray some "ultimate truth" of Nixon. Instead, Altman creates something more fragmented; a creature with different faces, facets and feelings. Altman demonizes as he humanises, deconstructs as he constructs, each of Hall's anecdotes serving only to further muddy the water. Altman's Nixon is both raging bull and wounded child, Altman content to create a portrait that is as baffling as it is complex.The third interesting thing is Nixon's insistence that it was a mysterious group of powerful figures who orchestrated and mismanaged his career. He calls them "The Bohemian Grove", a cadre of economic power brokers to whom Nixon is nothing more than a paid lackey and perpetual outsider. Even as he damns them, Nixon mourns that he was never fully accepted by this group. The fourth interesting thing is Nixon's insistence that he staged Watergate deliberately in an attempt to get himself out of office. This claim is filled with ridiculous reversals. The honourable president made himself guilty, he says, committed a deliberately obvious crime, not because he was a paranoid, power hungry mad man, but because he was too noble, too just and great, to associate further with the cartels, criminals and deplorable politicians who were pulling his strings.Watergate thus shifts from becoming a criminal act, to an act of nobility. Nixon, the man so used and abused that he had to sacrifice his own career for the greater good. Poor boy.7.9/10 – This is essentially filmed theatre. Still, Hall delivers a fascinating monologue that is both riveting and demented. Incidentally, Altman pretender Paul Thomas Anderson would use actor Philip Baker Hall extensively throughout his filmography, casting him in "Sydney", "Magnolia" and "Boogie Nights". Worth one viewing.

kjaworski I recently 'took a flier' on this movie when I saw the new Criterion DVD on the store shelf. I remembered really wanting to see it, as I am a big Paul Thomas Anderson fan (this film is where he saw Philip Baker Hall and decided he was the best actor in America), as well as a fan of Hall's performance in "Hard Eight", PTA's debut."Secret Honor", a film adaptation of the play, which also starred Hall, is certainly a worthwhile viewing, though I'm not exactly carried away with praises as some critics seem to be.Hall certainly has more than a few exciting and inspired moments as former President Richard M. Nixon in this fictitious work that places him in his study for 90 minutes one night with alcohol, TV monitors, his mother's old piano, and various other elements that come into play.But, for me, the piece just doesn't have much realism for a play/film that has a premise which is certainly plausible. Hall sputters and rages his way through what is clearly a very difficult role (Hall says in an engrossing interview on the disc that when he was originally offered the role, he turned it down, as he didn't think the role was possible for any human actor, let alone desirable), but the specter of Nixon does not seem to be evoked in much of an authentic way here for me. In this sense, I prefer Anthony Hopkins' Nixon (which ALSO has a whopper of an ending), because I feel the former President's dark, brooding core is masterfully portrayed by the Welsh actor.Hall's bravado cannot be dismissed, however. I believe any real weakness from the piece comes from the original script itself, which places Nixon in a context I just don't feel he belongs. Why would Nixon take one night, years after the fact, to race through all of his misgivings about his fate, career, and life, in a rather traditionally theatrical way? That's just something that doesn't ring true for me, though some obviously disagree. I can't see Nixon doing many of the things that the script calls for. Truly taking on the awkward tag of "Political Myth" that it has may be of some benefit to viewers, though it's unclear what the term really means.Altman has some very nice moves here, topped off with a stunning conclusion, which makes certainly makes this picture worth a look. At the end of the day, I'm happy to have it in my collection.

dvanhouwelingen SECRET HONOR should be seen by everybody with an interest in Richard Nixon. It may not be what he was really like, but it is a weird and unforgettable portrait of this man. Philip Baker Hall delivers one of the best screen performances I can ever remember in this one man movie. The movie takes place on the day before Richard Nixon is going to resign, and sits around drinking scotch and yelling into a tape recorder about everything in his political life. He blames Castro, Kissinger and anyone named Kennedy for all the problems in his life- while never accepting resposibilty for any of it himself. He's a man entrenched in denial. The movie utlimately makes Nixon look like an idiot- a man who has no idea what he was doing. This is one of Robert Altman's best films- an utterly amazing film.