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by Jordan Hiller

The Assassination of Richard Nixon

Every generation seems to have its “can the white man still believe in America?” picture. The film where a disgruntled white everyman gets the shaft by the machine, is disenfranchised by the system, despite his giving it the good old fashioned American try. Like Taxi Driver and Falling Down, Assassination is a showcase for its star (here, Sean Penn), along with a heavy handed message about America being a land of opportunity for only the few, and, well, not much else.

Penn is angry and hurt. He wants to be supremely honest, forthcoming, and idealistic in a savvy society that views his naive behavior as mildly retarded…and, y’know what?... society might be right. While it is respectable to believe in ideals, there is something contemptible about waging a moral war against sophistication. Meaning we all know it can’t possibly cost six dollars for that hot dog at Shea, but are you going to crucify the retailer and indict him as a crook? Pay the money, go back to your seat, and let the memory of the injustice slip away to some island in the mind. If we all dwelled on such events and treated them like wounds to the spirit, as Penn’s Sam Bicke does, we would be as crazy (or as sane?) as he. After reading my opinion above, the question which resonates is: Wherein does the disease lie, Bicke or the rest of us silent sufferers?

Okay, so The Assassination of Richard Nixon (an ungainly and unnecessary title) is based on true events. A man name Samuel J. Bicke did attempt to hijack an airplane in 1974 for the purpose of crashing into the White House. Apparently he blamed Nixon for the wrongs in the world and in his own morbid life. Don’t get bogged down in that 9/11 sub point of the film – it misses the essence.

I would like to discuss this film in light of our Haggadah and its oft analyzed “four sons” section. Wicked, Wise, Simple, Infantile. Based on the film and one surprising scene in particular where Bicke’s brother comes to visit him, it is clear that Bicke’s family is frum, so we can feel comfortable extracting a lesson in the arba banim.

I have no doubt that Bicke is the “tam” or simple son. He struggles to adjust to the realities of a job and to the realities of family; the type of individual who makes mistake after mistake and would elicit an outsider’s comment, “he just doesn’t know any better.” The tam expects the world to be as simple as they are, but of course the world is not - it is complicated, which, unfortunately is interpreted by the tam as being a bad, cruel, unfeeling world. Not only is the world complicated, but it is complicated in such a way that it naturally takes advantage of the simple and the pure. As expected, this frustrates and shatters the reality of the tam. The result being that the tam, in the real world is more dangerous than the rasha. The rasha, or evil son, is what he is – you see his wickedness coming from a mile a way. The tam can snap at any moment.

The “chacham” or wise son, in the film, is played by Don Cheadle, as Penn’s friend Donny. As the film takes place in the early post civil rights era, his black mechanic is not always dealt with fairly, but he has the wisdom to suck it up for the higher cause, that being living with peace of mind. He knows to compromise – to sometimes ignore a minor injustice for sanity’s sake, to allow the evolution of things. His attitude reminds of the song verse, “it could drive you crazy…if you let it.”

The chacham shares the quality of cynicism with the rasha. They both know the system, but while the rasha uses his knowledge of how things work to take advantage, the chacham (who we usually attribute the quality of good as well) merely deals with it and moves on. After Sam complains about people abusing his “rights”, Donny tells him, “you have rights – the right to be angry.” Donny understands that a job is a means to an end. That an employer’s insults need to role off your back. That America, while not perfect, is a great country, always evolving, always trying to become a more sensitive, more caring, more accepting society. Yes, there are instances of corruption and disappointment, but the chacham knows such is life – such is the way G-d created us, fallible. G-d already has angels – human beings are flawed. The tam, perhaps closer to an angel than a man, cannot bear this truth.