From Joe Gould

During my morning workout I was watching Joe Gould's Secret, a movie I saw at Sundance 13 years ago (co-written, directed by and starring Stanley Tucci--who did not make it to the premiere due to the birth of one of this children).

The movie was based on a book and articles about an extraordinary New York bohemian in the '50's who claimed to have written an oral history of the world--transcriptions of what everyday people said in conversation.  In talking about his history (which was never discovered, and probably never existed), he reflects on his obsession:

"The Oral History is my roof, my scaffold.  My bed, my board.  My wife, my floozy.  My wound and the salt on it.  My whiskey, my aspirin.  My rock, my salvation.  It's the only thing that matters a damn to me.  All else is dross."

Reality and judgment aside, I thought is was a beautifully written and touching line.  Joe Gould is played in this wonderful and moving film by Ian Holm.

Frost/Nixon

Last night I watched the Ron Howard movie Frost/Nixon, which is recently out on DVD. I was riveted, not only because the movie is extremely well-done, with an extraordinary performance by Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, but also because it brought back memories of Watergate and how it captured my attention when I was a teenager.

I was always interested in politics, so when the Watergate scandal started emerging in the press I followed it carefully. The Senate hearings were aired on TV and I remember watching them at every opportunity. I began to learn the personalities of the inquisitors, including folksy committee chairman Senator Sam Ervin and the politically ambitious Senator Howard Baker. I had an immediate dislike for conspirators Bob Haldeman, Chuck Colson and John Erlichman, but developed deep respect for John Dean, the bookish attorney and Nixon aide who pled guilty early in the process and proved to be a key witness with extremely incriminating testimony.

When the White House transcripts of Nixon's taped meetings were published I read the book with interest and, as I recall, did a report on it as a special project in school.

And, of course, I watched with rapt interest when Nixon resigned in 1974, recognizing that this was an important moment in American history, in my psyche the equivalent of the Kennedy assassination, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969, or the 1968 presidential campaign, with the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the riots around the Democratic Convention in Chicago (and the following trial of the Chicago Seven).

I realize now how all of these events shaped my thoughts about our country, in much the same way that the Great Depression and World War II shaped my father's. I am at once deeply patriotic regarding the sacrifices that have been made to preserve our freedoms, while at the same time irreparably cynical about politics and government and the corruptive influence of power.

Watching Frost/Nixon brought all of this back to me, and I was once again transported to my youth, sitting on the couch, eating dinner on a TV tray while I watched our nation's history unfold.