#257: ALTMAN, Robert: Secret Honor (1984)

ALTMAN, Robert (United States)
Secret Honor [1984]
Spine #257
DVD

Sequestered in his home, a disgraced President Richard Milhous Nixon arms himself with a bottle of scotch and a gun to record memoirs that no one will hear. He is surrounded by the silent portraits of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Kissinger, and his mother, as he resurrects his past in a passionate attempt to defend himself and his political legacy. Based on the original play by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone, and starring Philip Baker Hall in a tour de force solo performance, Robert Altman's Secret Honor is a searing interrogation of the Nixon mystique and an audacious depiction of unchecked paranoia.

90 minutes
Color

Monaural

1:33:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2004

Director/Writer

Written by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone.

Robert Altman was 59 when he directed Secret Honor.

Other Altman films in the Collection:

#827: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

#683: Nashville (1975)

#230: 3 Women (1977)

#258: Tanner ‘88 (1988)

#812: The Player (1992)

#265: Short Cuts (1993)

The Film

Altman had a long and storied career. After scoring big with MASH (1970), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) {Spine #827}, and of course Nashville (1975) {Spine #683}, he got himself into the kind of trouble which seems unique to Hollywood filmmaking — he directed a flop: Popeye (1980), Robin Williams’s first film.

Secret Honor helped revive his career, showing what he could do even with a threadbare budget like this one. The Player (1992) and Gosford Park (2001) were late successes.

Freed and Stone wrote the one-man show (Phillip Baker Hall, as Richard Nixon), which Altman saw at the Los Angeles Actors’ Theatre in 1983. After taking the on a brief road tour, he took his actor and crew to The University of Michigan, and filmed the play pretty much as written.

Hall is stunning, of course, in the role which brought him to the attention of directors like Paul Thomas Anderson. But it is definitely an Altman film. For 90 minutes, on a single set (Nixon’s private study), he holds our attention with a fluid camera and the clever use of video monitors.

Film Rating (0-60):

54

The Extras

The Booklet

Essay by film critic Michael Wilmington.

Commentary

1. Altman is forthcoming and informative. Excellent lessons in filmmaking.
2. Freed discusses the film from the writer’s point of view.

Video interview

with Hall. The viewpoint of a great actor.

Archival film

Eighty-one minutes of archival film from the political career of Richard Nixon.

Extras Rating (0-40):

33

54 + 33 =

87

By Director

By Spine #