User Reviews

This 81-minute compilation of archive footage offers an interesting and illuminating chronicle of Richard Nixon's life and career in politics from the 1950's to the 1970's. Said footage includes his 1952 Checkers speech (Nixon was one of the first presidents to cleverly use television as a means for furthering his political career), excerpts from a 1968 propaganda film (he talks about losing two brothers to tuberculosis as well as how he learned to hate the concept of losing from his tough college football coach; it's a touching and invaluable glimpse into the more human side of Nixon), a Q&A session at a 1973 Editors Convention in Orlando, Florida; his resignation speech to the nation in the wake of the Watergate scandal (he claims he's stepping down for the greater good of the country!), and, most poignantly, his farewell speech to his White House staff right before he left office in which Nixon sweats profusely and clearly looks dejected and defeated. Of course, hearing Nixon proclaim "I'm not a crook" to the world might make a lot of people laugh, but the overall feeling one gets from this compilation is that Nixon was a deeply flawed and troubled man who was fatally led astray by his own ruthless blind ambition and fierce self-denial about the darker side of his nature. Intriguing stuff.