The speech which Nixon provides to the audience travels a journey that seems to be of a completely diverging nature as Nixon's paranoid nature reveals itself through his monologue into the microphone.  The sentences either begin or end with profanity as Nixon talks to the imaginary judge, which also seems to reveal the amount of stress that he experienced.  Whenever Nixon begins something he ends up changing the topic as frequently as he names someone's name.  This incoherent thought processing might be compared to some schizophrenics that suffers from delusions and severe paranoia, which also brings the notion of fear to have someone like this as president of a country.  Nonetheless, it is with both bewilderment and compassion that the audience will view Nixon who is a beaten man that seems to seek redemption on one late evening.  The monologue exposes secrets including high treason, corruption, conspiracies, sex scandals, murder by governmental agencies, and much more.

Secret Honor was intended for television as it also was a part of a film class that Robert Altman taught at the University of Michigan.  Altman who is known for making films with big casts such as in MASH (1970), Nashville (1975), Short Cuts (1993), and Gosford Park (2001) makes a directorial transformation as he only casts Philip Baker Hall in Secret Honor.  Hall does an extraordinary job in bringing life to Nixon, and he does it with such energy that the audience will believe that the story is real.  The change of having only one actor in the film does not affect the story as Altman's eye for the mise-en-scene helps in providing an authentic feel for what is taking place within the camera's frame.  However, it is Hall that makes the film as he brings the audience a character study that should not be forgotten as the story leaves several notions to ponder.

DIRECTED BY

Robert Altman

COUNTRY

USA

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