Secret Honor Page #9

Synopsis: In this speculative one-man drama, we see former President Richard Milhous Nixon alone in his study, dictating his thoughts into a tape recorder. His only company are a four-screen closed-circuit TV setup, the portraits on the walls, a bottle of Chivas Regal - and a loaded pistol. At times addressing an imaginary judge in a court of public opinion, at other times speaking to an aide named Roberto, and sometimes just talking to himself, the former chief executive reflects, in a series of meandering monologues, on his humble Quaker upbringing, his school days, his family and a political career that reached all the way to the White House. Nixon rails at his treatment by the likes of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the "goddam Kennedys," J. Edgar Hoover, Henry Kissinger, Jews, liberals, the media, "East Coast shits," among others, as he leads up to the "true" reasons for the Watergate scandal that resulted in his resignation - an act he regards as one of "secret honor."
Director(s): Robert Altman
Production: Cinecom International Films
  1 win.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Rotten Tomatoes:
77%
NOT RATED
Year:
1984
90 min
1,075 Views


Your Honor...

the prisoner in the dock...

is guilty of one crime only...

and that crime is being...

Richard Milhous Nixon!

I - I just wanted power.

That's all.

I mean, to be president

you have got to have power!

Without power, you can't do -

You can't - Sh*t! I -

See, I know that you understand this...

'cause you had power in World War I -

See, when you've got it, it's nothing.

If you've got it, it's nothing.

They broke your heart too, didn't they?

With the League of Nations.

You know what they wrote about me?

They said at the end...

that I was running around

the White House...

crazy drunk,

talking to the pictures on the walls.

Yes, I was.

I was lonely.

I needed somebody to talk to

besides a machine.

Mother?

Mother?

Mother, l- l- I just-

I just wanted to be a- a man.

Not a nothing, not your dog...

but a real man!

Mother?

Mother!

Yes, Mother, I know what I've done!

[Stammers]

Mother. Mother.

Just...

tell me who I am.

Tell me what to do... Mama.

What? No, Mother!

I did not elect myself.

They elected me! Not once, not twice,

but all my goddamn life!

And they would do it again, too,

if they had the chance.

Oh, sure, they said

they didn't trust me.

They said, "Let Dick Nixon do it,"

and I did it!

They said they wouldn't

buy a used car from me...

but they gave me

the biggest vote in American history.

And then they flushed me

down the toilet.

And they wanted me to stay down.

They wanted me to kill myself.

Well, I won't do it.

If they want me dead...

they'll have to do it.

F*** 'em! F*** 'em!

F*** 'em! F*** 'em!

F*** 'em!

- F*** 'em!

- [Crowd Chanting] Four more years!

F*** 'em!

F*** 'em!

F*** 'em!

F*** 'em! F*** 'em! F*** 'em!

- [Crowd Continues] Four more years!

- F*** 'em!

F*** 'em!

[Crowd Continues Chanting]

Four more years! Four more years!

Four more years! Four more years!

Four more years! Four more years!

Four more years! Four more years!

Four more years! Four more years!

Four more years! Four more years!

[Chanting Fades]

- [Static]

- [Crowd Cheering, Applauding]

[Crowd Resumes Chanting, Indistinct]

[Chanting, Cheering, Applauding Fade]

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Donald Freed

For the Canadian singer, see Don Freed.Donald Freed (born 1932) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and actor. He is associated with writing programs at the University of Southern California, and was Artist in Residence at the Workshop Theatre, University of Leeds, United Kingdom (Fall 2006 – Spring 2008), and Playwright in Residence at York Theatre Royal (Fall 2007 – Spring 2008), participating in a six-week Master Class in York in October and November 2007 ("Freed in Residence in York"). He has also been Playwright in Residence at Denison University, Ohio and taught at Loyola Marymount University. His latest play, Patient #1 (draft posted on Another America), "set in 2009 at an elite psychiatric clinic in South Florida, imagines a heavily sedated President George W. Bush, after he has left the Oval Office" (Johnson). It was published in 2007 and is being staged at York Theatre Royal in early 2008 ("Donald Freed", Another America). more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Secret Honor" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Jul 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/secret_honor_17698>.

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