NIXON BY NIXON: IN HIS OWN WORDS: Richard Nixon. photo: courtesy of HBO
Forty years later, Richard M. Nixon still has the power to shock: “Nixon By Nixon: In His Own Words,” a documentary premiering on HBO Monday, Aug. 4, will leave you alternately gasping aloud, chuckling and groaning.
Revealing, even after all the books, films and profiles of the former president, “Nixon By Nixon” is an unfiltered effort, directed by Peter Kunhardt, who previously won an Emmy for “Teddy: In His Own Words.” No parody can come close to relaying the angry, bitter, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic chatter, captured on tape.
Kunhardt puts text of the dialog onscreen, so there’s no mistaking Nixon’s comments about Daniel Ellsberg at the start of the Pentagon Papers affair (“the Jews are born spies,” “most Jews are disloyal”); Nixon’s instructions to underlings (“I don’t give a shit about the law”); Nixon’s talk of “wetbacks,” “”little Negro bastards” and more. Plans to harass media people, notably Daniel Schorr, Dan Rather and others are discussed. “Screw the New York Times, screw the Washington Post,” he rants. Prejudices beam through loud and clear, along with the vile language. “Sure Aristotle was a homo…”
By juxtaposing the scheming on the tapes with the public pronouncements, Kurhardt reveals the lies that were a key part of the Administration’s policy.
You may have read the transcripts over the years, but to hear the dialog, now on the eve of the 40th anniversary of his Aug. 9, 1974 resignation, is newly eye-opening.
