List Price: $24.95You Pay Only: $14.99 You Save: $9.96 (40%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: A&E
EAN: 0733961772265
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: A&E Home Video
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: June 26, 2007
Running Time: 94 minutes
Sales Rank: 15490
Studio: A&E Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2007-02
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Imbued with both remarkable triumph and unprecedented scandal, the legacy of Richard Milhous Nixon is one of the most complex and enduring of all former U.S. Presidents. In this feature-length special, THE HISTORY CHANNEL® takes a fresh look at one of America’s most controversial leaders more than thirty years after his infamous resignation. Drawing on previously unseen footage and only recently released audio tapes, NIXON: A PRESIDENCY REVEALED sheds new light on the man who brought both progress and shame to the presidential office. Some of his greatest achievements included ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War; forging historic peacekeeping relations with the Soviet Union, China, and the Middle East; and implementing innovative social and environmental initiatives at home. However, Nixon’s accomplishments were ultimately overshadowed by his secrecy, lies, and gross abuse of power, which undermined America’s faith in the integrity of the presidency.
Amazon.com:
One of America's most tragically flawed statesmen is comprehensively profiled in Nixon: A Presidency Revealed, an excellent History Channel documentary first broadcast in February 2007. The major strength of this 94-minute exposé lies in the number of high-ranking officials who are interviewed on the subject of Richard M. Nixon, his ill-fated presidency (1968-74), and its impact on American politics and society. Peabody Award-winning director David C. Taylor assembled an impressive lineup of participants who had a front-row seat to Nixon's rise and precipitous fall; included are Alexander Haig (Nixon's chief of staff during the Watergate scandal); former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; Nixon's former deputy assistant Alexander Butterfield; former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee; and both John Dean and Charles Colson, whose roles in the Watergate cover-up are starkly contrasted with their own latter-day perspectives on Nixon's darkest hours. The film's other noteworthy asset is its access to previously unavailable film footage, documents, and audio tapes that dig deeper into Nixon's psyche than any previous documentaries were able to.
More than three decades after Nixon resigned in disgrace, A Presidency Revealed lives up to its title by showing Nixon as a deeply insecure and introverted leader whose most revolutionary achievement (his re-opening of diplomatic relations with China) was darkly overshadowed by his penchant for rampant paranoia and deeply held resentments toward those he placed on his notorious list of 'enemies.' And while Nixon can justifiably be remembered as a progressive peacemaker ('too liberal' to be electable today, says former senator Bob Dole), this riveting program doesn't flinch when examining the secrecy, lies, cover-ups, and other abuses of power that led to Nixon's downfall. Better yet, this highly recommendable DVD also includes the 2000 History Channel program Inside the Presidency: Eisenhower vs. Nixon, an equally insightful examination of Nixon's vice presidency under Eisenhower in the 1950s--a turbulent and unflattering relationship (toward Nixon) that fostered Nixon's later, distrusting behavior in the Whit House. Taken together, these must-see programs are outstanding primers on the acquisition and abuse of political power, and both represent History Channel programming at its finest. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - About as comprehensive as any bio of Nixon gets
I only wish the biography was longer, more comprehensive of his entire life's work, rather than going on mostly about the Watergate affair. But overall, a must-see, even if you're not at all a Nixon fan. It's pretty fairly balanced, for those who love him and hate him.
Rating:  - Good DVD, but after about 5 viewings you memorize all of the material.
Good DVD. Material is easily recalled, though, after a few viewings and it is no longer intriguing, nor new. I wouldn't actually recommend it, because it doesn't feature enough detail about Nixon or his life to warrant repeated viewings throughout the course of a 365 day year. A more thorough DVD is necessary to do this. The extras here are the same; awesome to watch a few times, boring and rote thereafter. Works well as a PBS special that airs once a year, where the viewer cannot memorize every single line being uttered by every participant. One thing: no interviews with either the late John Mitchell, the late Pat Nixon, the late Gerald Ford, or even the late Richard Nixon himself. DVD needed that actually encompasses the man's life.
Rating: - Implosion!
This is a first class documentary about someone who could have been a first class President. Richard Nixon was as complex a man as any who ever occupied the Oval Office. His legacy has been tarnished by the bizarre and occasionally sinister deeds he authorized his plumbers and dirty tricks men to commit against his enemies. These enemies were very real but also very much a product of his initial machinations.
Those of us on the right are often confused by how much the left hates Nixon because we see him as the big spending, government bloating neo-leftist he actually was. With conservatives around like Nixon in charge of domestic spending there would not be any private sector remaining after awhile. The fact is that this man really did not have a political ideology outside the realm of foreign policy. In that department, with the aid of Kissinger, he accomplished great things. Yes, great things in both his dealings with China and the Soviet Union.
Was he brilliant? I think he was but no amount of mental wattage can outshine a disturbed psyche. The man hated and was hated in return. The vanity and narcissism of those ridiculous tapes is what destroyed him but destruction is a fitting and just end for someone who is narcissistic and vain. He was an incredibly insecure man who allowed those who served him to go to jail on his behalf. History remembers him now mostly as a disgrace which is how he deserves to be remembered.
Rating:  - Nice account, but Stone's movie is more telling of Nixon's character
While this is a nice account, Nixon was not complicated, and could never be mistaken — EVER — as "brilliant." Thus his "tragic flaw." The essence of this theory is that, by and large, rulers are not brought down only, or even mainly, by external events — rather, they bring ruin upon themselves because of some significant deficiency in their own character, a "tragic flaw" in their psychic and ethical makeup. They are consumed by overweening lust for power, or don't mind using immoral means in the service of good ends, or can't control their obsessions, etc. Think: "Macbeth," and ambition; "Othello," and jealousy; "Hamlet," and indecision.
Nixon's tragic flaw was his paranoia, needing always to know what his political opponents were up to, hence the break-in and wiretapping of the Democratic Party headquarters, the building of his "enemies' list," digging up personal information for his "dirty-trick" operations against political opponents, etc. Besides working with a substandard intellect (as we see in all republican presidents and agonizingly so in Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II), Nixon was typically conservative: the rules apply to others, but never to me. By the time he found out that they did, it was too late, and history has judged him a fool and a criminal ever since.
Rating: - A brilliant President destroyed by paranoia
President Nixon was a brilliant man, however he had difficulty forgiving. He held grudges against people that were critical of him. This led him to live in isolation and secrecy as President. He was right when he said if you hate the people that hate you, then you destroy yourself. He learned the hard way. If it were not for the distrust and paranoia he suffered from, he would have been one of the greatest Presidents.
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