"Watergate Incident" has its own spotlight both in reality and in the movie. There are many stories in the movie, directly or indirectly, and there are not a few outstanding ones. Films such as "The Great Conspiracy", "Nixon" and "Dick" are all true reflections of this event, and "Conversation with Nixon" is no exception.
The film is based on true events, focusing on the conversation between David and Nixon at that time, in which Nixon admitted his illegal criminal behavior and apologized for the first time, which was a sensation at the time. While the film doesn't talk directly about Watergate, it's clearly still a top priority.
Video recommended! Because we are human, we all make mistakes.
Lang Howard is really a rare and excellent director. The selection of the script, the selection and training of the actors, the mastery of the film's rhythm, the combination of genres, the trend of plot ideas, etc. Perfect!
Too many factors make us linger, and I will give some simple and obvious examples. It's a movie viewing experience.
The first is the choice of the script to catch the audience's psychology and eyeballs. Dialogue means equal and candid communication without hypocrisy. And the object of the conversation? It happened to be the former president again, a politician who played with power. So is it possible to have a smooth and frank dialogue on an equal footing? Just watch the video to know. This is an entry point for this film to understand the Watergate incident and understand Nixon - a dialogue. I have to say that this entry point is quite clever! I won't say more about it later, it involves the content of the film, and the key is for everyone to enjoy it.
The second is the director's control over the rhythm of the film, which I simply summarize as "fast, steady and accurate". Every film has its own rhythm, no matter whether it is a dull literary film or an exciting commercial film, but the rhythm is not really able to form a rhythm. In most cases, it always becomes the "sleeping pill" for the audience. "Conversation with Nixon" begins with a series of reports and character interviews to quickly bring the audience into the unknown events of Nixon and David's dialogue, make the audience curious, and pave the way for character and story development. Here is the fast unknown rhythm. (about ten minutes)
At the beginning of the dialogue between the two (after 30 minutes), the film changes from fast to slow, and the first dialogue begins. Why is the first dialogue so slow? Because it is necessary to create a situation where Nixon is strong and David is weak, and secondly, it is necessary to change the fast-paced visual fatigue of the audience. Next came the fast-paced failure discussions and second and third conversations on David's side. And then there's the big game, almost all in slow-paced -- that late-night phone call and the fourth conversation. Let's go and see the wonderful ones.
Once again, it is a reinterpretation of the character of Nixon. As an incumbent full of negative political achievements and deeply involved in political scandals, he became the first incumbent president to be forced to resign. Nixon was mysterious and odious. However, from the perspective of Nixon, the film interprets his behavior as a bottom-level character struggling for self-esteem and made a mistake, and then extends the film to discuss the emotion and fate of being a human being.
Here I think the director is a little evasive. He did not comment on the harm of Nixon's Watergate incident to the American people, politics and people in the world, but simply stated the facts, and then guided the audience to the reasons for this behavior. Everything comes down to people's fate and life emotions. This practice is really misleading the audience and pleasing the audience emotionally.
However, in view of the director's perfect expression of human destiny and emotion, the audience even deeply understands Nixon's inner helplessness, sorrow, grief, and surrender to fate as a person.
In short, "Conversation with Nixon" gives us a wonderfully different Nixon.
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