Nixon at the Movies

A Book about Belief

Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction, History
Cover of the book Nixon at the Movies by Mark Feeney, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mark Feeney ISBN: 9780226239705
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: October 22, 2012
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Mark Feeney
ISBN: 9780226239705
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: October 22, 2012
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

Was it an omen? Richard Nixon and the film industry arrived in Southern California in the same year, 1913. As Mark Feeney relates in this unusual and unusually absorbing book, Nixon and the movies have shared a long and complex history. Some of that history—the president's multiple screenings of Patton before and during the invasion of Cambodia, or Oliver Stone's Nixon—is well known. Yet much more is not. How many are aware, for example, that Nixon was an enthusiastic filmgoer who watched more than five hundred movies during his presidency?

Nixon at the Movies takes a new and often revelatory approach to looking at Nixon's career—and Hollywood's. From the obvious (All the President's Men) to the less so (Elvis Presley movies and Nixon's relationship to '60s youth culture) to several onscreen "alternate" Nixons (Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity, Tony Curtis in The Sweet Smell of Success, Gene Hackman in The Conversation), Feeney sees aspects of Nixon's character, and the nation's, refracted and reimagined in film. Conversely, Feeney argues that Nixon can help us see the movies in a new light, making a strong case for Nixon as the movies' tutelary deity during the early '70s, playing a role in Hollywood's Silver Age comparable to FDR's during its Golden Age.

Stylishly written and bracingly eclectic, Nixon at the Movies draws on biography, politics, cultural history, and film criticism to show just how deeply in the twentieth-century American grain lies the pair of seemingly incongruous nouns in its title. As Nixon once remarked to Garry Wills: "Isn't that a hell of a thing, that the fate of a great country can depend on camera angles?"

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Was it an omen? Richard Nixon and the film industry arrived in Southern California in the same year, 1913. As Mark Feeney relates in this unusual and unusually absorbing book, Nixon and the movies have shared a long and complex history. Some of that history—the president's multiple screenings of Patton before and during the invasion of Cambodia, or Oliver Stone's Nixon—is well known. Yet much more is not. How many are aware, for example, that Nixon was an enthusiastic filmgoer who watched more than five hundred movies during his presidency?

Nixon at the Movies takes a new and often revelatory approach to looking at Nixon's career—and Hollywood's. From the obvious (All the President's Men) to the less so (Elvis Presley movies and Nixon's relationship to '60s youth culture) to several onscreen "alternate" Nixons (Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity, Tony Curtis in The Sweet Smell of Success, Gene Hackman in The Conversation), Feeney sees aspects of Nixon's character, and the nation's, refracted and reimagined in film. Conversely, Feeney argues that Nixon can help us see the movies in a new light, making a strong case for Nixon as the movies' tutelary deity during the early '70s, playing a role in Hollywood's Silver Age comparable to FDR's during its Golden Age.

Stylishly written and bracingly eclectic, Nixon at the Movies draws on biography, politics, cultural history, and film criticism to show just how deeply in the twentieth-century American grain lies the pair of seemingly incongruous nouns in its title. As Nixon once remarked to Garry Wills: "Isn't that a hell of a thing, that the fate of a great country can depend on camera angles?"

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Adder's Fork and Lizard's Leg by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book You Feel So Mortal by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Snowbird by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Looking Forward by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Touching Encounters by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book The Positive Case for Negative Campaigning by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Deadly Edge by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book McKay's Bees by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Plant Physics by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Yearnings of the Soul by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Black New Orleans, 1860-1880 by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Second-Best Justice by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Elements of Acoustic Phonetics by Mark Feeney
Cover of the book Get Out of My Room! by Mark Feeney
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy