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Two anti-capitalists 'terrorise' wealthy people by re-arraning their furniture and leving notes of guidance. | score A |
moviereview rates films from A (unmissable) to E (unwatchable) |
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| Cast Sean Penn, Naomi Watt, Jack Thompson Director Niels Mueller Screenwriter Kevin Kennedy Country USA Rating / Running Time MA / 95 minutes Australian Release June 2005 Official Site (c) moviereview
2005
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
You
didn’t know that Nixon was assassinated? Well he wasn’t no
thanks to the bad management of his would-be assassin, Sam Bicke (Sean
Penn). A troubled salesman, Sam is in danger of loosing the lot. His
wife (Naomi Watts) and kids have left him, his brother has disowned
him, the bank won’t come through on a business loan and his boss
(Jack Thompson) is coming down hard. It’s 1974 and his American
Dream is turning into a nightmare. Inspired by the self-help teachings
of Dale Carnegie, Bicke decides to let the big man know how the little
man feels by hijacking a plane and flying it into the White House. This
‘mad story of a true man’ is inspired by actuality and is a
disturbingly prescient fable that illustrates the concerns of our time
as much as it does those of cold-war years. Bicke narrates the story
through an open letter to Leonard Bernstein – he wanted someone
whose work was “true and honest” to explain his actions.
It’s a disarming device that opens up a broad canvas on which to
ponder Bicke’s alienation and encroaching madness. There is more
than an echo of Taxi Driver as
he rallies against the machine – Penn sweats and whines like the
utterly convincing method-man he is. Assassination explores a theme
rarely articulated in the Bush/Howard years; the victim of corporate
injustice. Just a little respect is all this man wants and no amount of
spittle will get it back. Like Bicke’s final act of
self-destruction, The Assassination of Richard Nixon is the stuff of great, if soul-wrenching, drama.
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