Secret Honor

1984

1 hr. 30 min.

History

Drama

Biography

List

77%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

78%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In his New Jersey study, Richard Nixon (Philip Baker Hall) retraces the missteps of his political career, attempting to absolve himself of responsibility for Watergate and lambasting President Gerald Ford's decision to pardon him. His monologue explores his personal life and describes his upbringing and his mother. A tape recorder, a gun and whiskey are his only companions during his entire monologue, which is tinged with the vitriol and paranoia that puzzled the public during his presidency.

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Alec B

The screenplay is undeniably compelling and Philip Baker Hall's performance is wonderfully manic.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

10/13/23

Full Review

Shioka O

This is miserable, funny and imaginative work. The performance is compelling throughout. True one-man show.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/07/22

Full Review

William L

It's deeply disturbing that the world has lost beloved character actor Philip Baker Hall, who played a collapsing Nixon in this one-man tirade and lived another 38 years beyond it, while Henry Kissinger still continues to dole out his geopolitical expertise like a poisonous sludge dumped as runoff from a factory into a dead marsh. Secret Honor is a historical fantasy intended to explore the bizarre personality traits that peeked out from behind Nixon's deceptively wholesome and traditional forward-facing image, which became increasingly prominent with time (rather than to serve as a retrospective of the literal happenings of his political career). From that perspective, Hall gives some fantastic mood swings and idiosyncracies, he feels like an individual with a temper, an inferiority complex, and a series of issues. However, the material just doesn't seem to work that well for me, it's mostly a series of tirades against political opponents interlaced with a few childhood memories and a surprising number of Oedipus-esque episodes of Nixon longing for his mother. The film can never shake the stylings of its one-man play origins, and while Hall's enthusiasm and well-timed energy go a long way to elevating the final product (along with a heaping helping of expletives and quotable lines), ultimately the lack of variety is noticeable. I wanted to like it more than I ultimately did. But seriously, the best part of Secret Honor is hearing Hall go off against a portrait of Kissinger. It's comprehensive and vulgar enough that it couldn't be typed out here, but it's a tonic for the soul. (2.5/5)

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

06/18/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Robert Altman's vitriolic account of one of the US's most underestimated Presidents isn't the most visually compelling I've seen, but if you're sucked in you'll realize that the film's worth is found in its powerful screenplay.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A movie about a guy, who just happened to be president, whose nickname was dick. After the events in this movie, it took on a more pejorative meaning, not just tricky dick, too. I don't know about the script but Philip Baker Hall does the best nixon I have seen. And that's all there is: nixon, nothing but nixon. About the script: I haven't heard the watergate tapes in their entirety, and I wasn't aware nixon used so many f-bombs. So be warned, because nixon drops more f-bombs than bombs he dropped on vietnam; it's a virtual reality of a rolling thunder of f-bombs, that's what you'll get here. The thing that strikes me as funny about the events of watergate now, is that while nixon and friends were persecuted for breaking into the watergate, and very rightly so, their use of wiretaps and recording everything and the way congress embraced it, paved the way for today's 1984ish society. The movie might seem like a very one sided and maybe even inaccurate depiction of a US president, but hey, that guy didn't earn the moniker tricky dick for nothing.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

http://filmreviewsnsuch.blogspot.com/2015/06/secret-honor.html

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

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Robert Altman

Director

Philip Baker Hall

Actor

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Rarely have I seen ninety more compelling minutes on the screen.

Rated: 4/4

Oct 23, 2004

Full Review

Vincent Canby

New York Times

One of the funniest, most unsettling, most imaginative and most surprisingly affecting movies of its very odd kind I've ever seen.

Rated: 5/5

May 20, 2003

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

The dramatic material, overheated to begin with, is hyped up by hysterical acting and further exaggerated by a busy mise-en-scene based on meaningless camera movements and space-destroying zooms.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

David N. Butterworth

rec.arts.movies.reviews

Altman's take on a fascinating one-man show, with Philip Baker Hall staggeringly good as the disgraced Richard Milhous Nixon.

Rated: 3/4

Jan 17, 2016

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

The pic delivers a fascinating story in a fascinating way.

Rated: A-

Apr 18, 2011

Full Review

Martin Scribbs

Low IQ Canadian

Does anyone have a clue what Altman was driving at with this intense glob of lunacy?

Nov 19, 2005

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Synopsis

In his New Jersey study, Richard Nixon (Philip Baker Hall) retraces the missteps of his political career, attempting to absolve himself of responsibility for Watergate and lambasting President Gerald Ford's decision to pardon him. His monologue explores his personal life and describes his upbringing and his mother. A tape recorder, a gun and whiskey are his only companions during his entire monologue, which is tinged with the vitriol and paranoia that puzzled the public during his presidency.

Director: Robert Altman
Production Co: Sandcastle 5 Productions
Genre: History, Drama, Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 11, 2017

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