Saw the trailer on tv this evening and was surprised to see it’s R-rated. why? no one got killed in the Watergate matter, so no violence; sex was never an issue; is it just the language?
Most likely language. Nixon was not known to use the most polished language when cameras were not on him.
According to the MPAA’s own site, it’s “Rated R for some language”.
Never heard the phrase “expletive deleted”? Nixon was not exactly a couth person.
Leaving off the implied “and so that people will identify it as a serious film.”
I’d bet on it being a situation where they threw in one gratuitous “fuck” to insure the R rating. It’s relatively common with dramas.
Gawd… just imagining Nixon having sex… there is not enouth mind bleach in the world to scrub that from my brain. [insert]puking smilie[/insert]
interesting - didn’t know a film could be R just for its language.
Someone who can possibly be this young as to not remember Nixon and his language makes me feel even older and creakier than usual. :smack:
You’d lose that bet. I can smell the gravitas from here, and if it hadn’t snowed last night, I would have seen it.
I’ve read some of the Watergate transcripts and heard the tapes. If there was gratuitous swearing, and Lord knows there was, it came right from Richard Nixon’s mouth. He had been a naval officer and confirmed the simile “to swear like a sailor.” If anything, the makers of the film probably toned it down a bit to avoid an NC-17 rating.
Robin
The guys nickname was “tricky dick” and you can’t see that getting an R rating ? 
bow chicka chicka chicka bow bow
Well, you know the Watergate informant’s use of the name Deep Throat was a sardonic reference to Nixon’s fascination with the movie. In fact, the story goes that Nixon had held a private screening of Deep Throat in the White House and wanted to try the technique himself, but he couldn’t get it down Pat.
Kissinger/Nixon shower scene.
IIRC as far back as The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (1974) was rated R for the language.
Because, even if you hated Nixon’s guts big time, and can make even the most amazing stretches in suspending disbelief, the concept that the actor in the movie even looks like Nixon is obscene.
Okay that was so fucking wrong…
Or should I say :o ?
Of course he doesn’t- so what? It’s about an actor finding the essence of a man, not building a muppet head and making it talk.
Frank Langella received rave reviews of his Nixon while doing it on Broadway 8 times a week- he’s probably great in the film too.
The MPAA allows one use of the word “fuck” in a non-sexual context in PG-13 movies, thus enabling Christian Slater to be able to say, “Fuck me! He cleared it!” in the otherwise horrible Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Has a film ever been rated X/NC-17 solely for foul language?
Clerks was originally rated NC-17 for language, but was lowered to NC-17 on appeal. (A rarity that Smith has now done twice! But “Zack and Miri…” has other stuff. Like Jason Mewes raw.)
That’s an impressively successful appeal. Did it go from ‘NC-17 and we’re checking IDs’ to ‘NC-17 and as long as you look like you might maybe be 17 we’re letting you in’ ?
