Nixon (1995) HQ "Do you ever think of death, Dick?"

[Douglas Caddy]

Nixon (1995) HQ "Do you ever think of death, Dick?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWRVyaKnGcA

 

[I am posting this deleted scene from Oliver Stone's "Nixon" because of its references to JFK and because forum members are among the few today who have the knowledge and sophistication to appreciate its importance.]

[Paul Jolliffe]

I actually bought the VHS version of this movie many years ago just so I could see this deleted scene. Sam Waterston was spot on as Richard Helms  and Stone's use of the flowers suggested just the right level of creepiness. (Did Helms actually keep flowers in his office? We know that Angleton was an amateur botanist - was Helms as well?)

That movie is filled with scenes that should resonate with this readership - Nixon at the Lincoln Memorial, admitting that he can't fully control the war machine is but one example.

 

 

 

[David Andrews]

I love this film, despite its errors, omissions and excesses.  But the Dick Helms scene could have been handled more accurately to life and still been frightening, like some cold scene from a Sidney Lumet film -- bureaucracy presented in all its squalor.  The conflating of Helms with Angleton and his poetry and orchids is a distraction.

I think Stone rushes to a dramatic judgment too fast, and uses his first conceptions as his best conceptions.  (A hazard of the film industry, in which every second's delay costs thousands of dollars, if not multiples.)  But, when Stone's on the money, the money's there to be picked up.  Which is why I love this film, bookend to the similarly troubled JFK. 

We won't be served such repasts again.  The scene (in the post immediately above) where Nixon must admit that he can't control the beast within the American machine is solid gold on a golden plate and makes up for every misstep in the kitchen..

Edited June 16, 2019 by David Andrews

[Ron Bulman]

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Edited June 16, 2019 by Ron Bulman

[Dawn Meredith]

22 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Nixon (1995) HQ "Do you ever think of death, Dick?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWRVyaKnGcA

 

[I am posting this deleted scene from Oliver Stone's "Nixon" because of its references to JFK and because forum members are among the few today who have the knowledge and sophistication to appreciate its importance.]

Doug: When did you first begin to doubt the official narrative? (For me it was right away, at age fourteen.) Did you discuss your views in your professional life?  What caused your first doubt?

Dawn

[Ron Bulman]

On 6/15/2019 at 3:34 PM, Douglas Caddy said:

Nixon (1995) HQ "Do you ever think of death, Dick?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWRVyaKnGcA

 

[I am posting this deleted scene from Oliver Stone's "Nixon" because of its references to JFK and because forum members are among the few today who have the knowledge and sophistication to appreciate its importance.]

Dick vs Dick.  I guess Helms ultimately won, even though he too lost.  Though the power elite really won in the long run.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+eagles+the+long+run+live&view=detail&mid=E730C01FC35F597CDB69E730C01FC35F597CDB69&FORM=VIRE

Edited June 20, 2019 by Ron Bulman

[Kirk Gallaway]

But this scene is in the original including b&w historical clips, but it's just more greatly elaborated right?

Paul said: (Did Helms actually keep flowers in his office? We know that Angleton was an amateur botanist - was Helms as well?) 

Yeah, That was the confusion to me. I assume he was rolling all the quirky personality traits of the institutional leading figures into one creepy personage?