Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Mr. Millhouse and Mr. de Antonio
Millhouse: A White Comedy was the last of Emile de Antonios's films I viewed from the Films of the Radical Saint box set. It was made at the peak of Richard Nixon's power towards the end of his first term in 1971.
The film is pretty much the greatest hits (or follies) of pre-Watergate Nixon. It begins with the 1962 press conference where he utters "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" and also features most of the Checkers speech from ten years earlier. With material like this and clips from a preview of a Bob Hope USO show at the White House, de Antonio didn't really have to work too hard here.
In retrospect, Millhouse is a kind of precursor counterpart to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. In a perfect world where film could make a difference, both of these films should have helped turn the tide for a second disastrous term in office. (Cue in Beach Boys' Wouldn't It Be Nice, from Moore's Roger and Me) But, alas, although documentary film can have impact, it doesn't have that kind of power.
Millhouse like de Antonio's other films does not have voice over narration. It lets the clips and the likes of Jules Whitcover, Jack Anderson, and former Congressman Jerry Voorhis, one of the first victims of Tricky Dick style politics, give color commentary to the 20th century phenomenon that was Richard Nixon.
Viewing Millhouse today is an interesting experience. We know how the story ends after this 1971 document concludes, just as we know what happened to Vietnam in the years after 1968 when de Antonio's In the Year of the Pig was made. But in both cases I had the same reactions. First, there seems to be something exceptionally contemporaneous about the tone and experience of these films. And again, I wish these films had been able to find an audience (what degree the smear and shut down by powerful forces were successful in assuring they weren't seen is not really conclusive) back then and, maybe, just maybe, they could have helped a few more folks realize what a damned mess we were in.
posted by well-executed buffet at 9:47 AM
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