After sitting through this painfully long and very drawn-out film, I can't help but feel that it is just slightly... redundant. I watched this with my father, who actually followed Nixon's career to some extent, and I can't deny that without his giving me cliff notes to explain actions and motivation of the characters every so often during the film, I wouldn't understand any of what happened. And that's the sad truth... if you don't know almost everything about Nixon, his time, the political situation, what happened during that period of time, etc. you won't understand it. The film hints at so many things, instead of making what happens clear, and presumes you know everything behind every situation, instead of providing any back-story. We get scene after scene, one situation after another with people we're supposed to know beforehand, situations we're expected to know of and understand and if you don't know of these, and you have no way of knowing them, you certainly won't know after watching the film. The film really isn't the story of Richard M. Nixon as much as it's Oliver Stone's objective presentation of him. How are we supposed to judge this man, his staff, or any of their actions when we don't know the situation or the background of it? Then there are of course those who do know these things... but why would they watch it? They already know the things presented in the movie, and probably from a far more reliable source. So, I guess what it comes down to is: who is this film actually aimed at? Who can watch this and really enjoy it? My father suggested that Stone's intention with this film was to tell the story to young Americans, teenagers who weren't even alive when what the film is about happened. A good cause, but again, it requires them to already know of Nixon. And that is ultimately this movies downfall. The plot is very good, and from what I understand, quite accurate. The pacing is... off, I think is the right word. It switches between going insanely fast and painfully slow, making the film a sure-fire head-ache machine. The acting is perfectly flawless, and most, if not all of the characters based on real people are historically accurate in personality and appearance. The time-line is somewhat messed up, but the basic idea is that Nixon is actually sitting and thinking back on all this stuff, so it makes perfect sense and is used nicely(as opposed to as a cheap gimmick). The film is good, definitely, it's just so limited in who it will appeal to, and the pacing is a real killer(and I don't mean that in the good way). I recommend this to anyone who is interested in Nixon and big fans of Oliver Stone. I suppose very big fans of members of the cast might want to give it a chance as well. 7/10