Film

Our Nixon

Name: Our Nixon
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2013
Cast: Richard Nixon, John Ehrlichman, Dwight L. Chapin, Lawrence Higby, John Denver

White-collar crime

Our Nixon pieces together Super 8 home movies shot by Nixon's inner circle to create an oddly intimate portrait of power and paranoia. It's a formal experiment that treats personal footage as historical evidence, yielding moments of unexpected humanity alongside the weight of imminent catastrophe. For anyone curious about how the powerful saw themselves.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to history seen sideways, through amateur images and the offhand moments that official records tend to skip, and you don't mind making your own sense of them.

Skip it if you want a sharp argument or a tight historical arc, since its loose, slow stretches can feel thin and unfocused.

What it asks of you: Eighty-odd minutes of unpolished footage, patient and sometimes meandering, drifting between ordinary domestic moments and rare glimpses of the man at the center.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Fog of War2003

Errol Morris's portrait of McNamara uses archival material and interviews to examine how intelligent men rationalize terrible decisions. A direct ancestor to this film's technique of letting subjects speak their own complicity.

But It's methodical and sometimes austere. If you want a conventional narrative or clear villainy, you'll find neither.

All the President's Men1976

The urgency and clarity of journalism as it breaks Watergate open, with superb craft and genuine suspense. Shows the forces arrayed against Nixon's actual crimes, making Our Nixon's intimate access even more disorienting.

But It's of its moment in style. The pacing feels deliberate rather than propulsive by modern standards.

Frost/Nixon2008

A sharp, intelligent drama about Nixon trying to rehabilitate his image after resignation. Gives you the historical context and emotional stakes that Our Nixon assumes you already carry.

But It's a play adapted to screen, so it can feel theatrical. The rhythm won't suit everyone.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Our Nixon

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Grey Gardens1976

Both are documentaries that use close, intimate footage—Super 8 here, cinema verité there—to show how people construct false worlds they believe in absolutely.

The Maysles brothers' documentary of two reclusive women in a decaying mansion. Like Our Nixon, it uses intimate footage to reveal psychology and delusion, but here the subjects are powerless and tragic instead. Same formal empathy, inverted stakes.

But It's slow, claustrophobic, and deeply sad. The intimacy can feel like intrusion.

Assassination of a High School President2008

A clever, paranoid conspiracy thriller about power, loyalty and self-deception among people who believe their own mythology. Channels Watergate's moral chaos in miniature.

But It's a high school noir comedy. The tonal shift from Our Nixon's seriousness might feel jarring.

Assassination of a High School President poster

The Unknown Known2013

Morris again, this time with Donald Rumsfeld and his memos. Same era of power, similar formal strategy, confronting how language obscures intent. Released the same year as Our Nixon.

But Even more austere than Fog of War. Rumsfeld's opacity can make for difficult viewing.

Thirteen Days2000

The Cuban Missile Crisis from inside the Kennedy bunker. Shows how proximity to power during crisis warps perspective—what felt like survival looked like brinkmanship from outside.

But It leans on performance and drama over documentary fidelity. The crafted feel might undercut its relevance.

The Right Stuff1983

Philip Kaufman's epic of early space exploration captures the mythology presidents and military men built around themselves. Same era, same delusion of infallibility, wildly entertaining.

But It's long and digressive. Some will find it more interested in myth-making than interrogating it.

Advise & Consent1962

Otto Preminger's Washington procedural about confirmation and blackmail. An earlier, slightly cleaner look at how power actually moves and gets hidden in plain sight.

But It's measured and slow. If you want narrative momentum, you won't find it.

The Post2017

Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in a dramatization of the Pentagon Papers decision. Sets the stakes for what Our Nixon's intimate footage is really showing you.

But It's earnest and obvious. The moral certainty might feel patronizing after Our Nixon's ambiguity.

The Act of Killing2012

Both films let architects of atrocity reveal themselves through media they control, creating a kind of confessional space where rationalization becomes visible.

Joshua Oppenheimer asks Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their murders on film. It's the inverse of Our Nixon: here the perpetrators understand their crimes and rationalize them anyway. Both films find humanity in the unforgivable.

But It's graphic, disturbing, and deliberately provocative. The ethical questions it raises are not comfortable.