YMMV / Nixon

• Aluminium Christmas Trees: Some of the movie's weirdest, least plausible moments actually happened in Real Life.
  • While it might seem too incredible to be true, Richard Nixon genuinely did happen to be in Dallas, Texas the day before President Kennedy arrived, and left the city mere hours before Kennedy arrived and was assassinated. While he probably didn't meet with a cabal of wealthy oilmen and Cuban exiles who were involved with the assassination, this little fact has nevertheless grabbed the attention of numerous conspiracy theorists.
  • Nixon's nighttime visit to the Lincoln Memorial, where he chats awkwardly with a group of unimpressed antiwar protesters, really did happen in May 1970, soon after the Kent State shootings. If anything the real event was even stranger; Nixon went afterwards to the Capitol Building where he gave Manolo an impromptu tour, and then to a Washington restaurant for breakfast, where he was finally corralled by his staff and convinced to return to the White House.
  • According to Woodward and Bernstein's The Final Days, the climactic scenes of Nixon talking to portraits of past presidents and asking Henry Kissinger to pray with him in the Oval Office occurred during his last few days in office.
• Awesome Music: Not surprising for a John Williams score. The wonderfully ominous, yet stirring tune playing during Nixon's acceptance speech in particular.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The infamous scene in the Director's Cut where Richard Helms's eyes turn completely black (which, coupled with the dialogue, seemingly hints that he is some kind of demon in human form) during a meeting with Nixon. There's a similar blink-and-you'll-miss-it image during the Time-Passes Montage halfway through the film with one of the Texas powerbrokers, suggesting Stone intended this to represent "The Beast."
• Diagnosed by the Audience: This portrayal of Nixon is a virtual catalogue of neuroses. He's paranoid and unwilling to take blame, constantly tries to boost his own scarce self-esteem, holds grudges towards almost everyone, has worrying mood swings and no matter how much power he gains, it's never enough. In Real Life Nixon is known to have suffered from depression and occasionally saw a psychiatrist, Arnold Hutschnecker, before becoming president.
• Funny Moments: Leonid Brezhnev and Mao Zedong speculating about the Watergate Scandal with associates when Nixon isn't in earshot is amusing.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Four years after playing Martha Mitchell in this film, Madeline Kahn shared her fate of dying from cancer at age 57.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Dan Hedaya and Saul Rubinek show up throughout the film in various minor roles (as Trini Cardoza, a fictionalized stand-in for Nixon's friend Bebe Rebozo, and Nixon's communications director Herb Klein respectively). In 1998, they'd be cast in the Watergate parody Dick as Nixon and Henry Kissinger.
  • The name of Nixon's valet is Manolo Sanchez.
• Jerkass Woobie: Let's be real here. Although Nixon's hardscrabble background and positive traits inspire sympathy (or at least pity), the movie never lets you forget that his downfall was ultimately of his own making.
• Questionable Casting: Some critics had this reaction to Anthony Hopkins playing Nixon, since even with heavy make-up he bears zero resemblance to the real thing (not that Nixon lookalikes are particularly common in Hollywood to begin with). That said, few criticized his actual performance.
• Rooting for the Empire: Nixon may be a Villain Protagonist but everyone was rooting for him when he told the wannabe power-brokers to stuff it.
• Tear Jerker: Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the President's younger daughter, trying to assure her father that the nation will absolve him. His wounded expression just screams that he wants to live up to his daughter's words.

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