Oliver Stone's surprisingly sympathetic film of Richard Nixon debuts on Blu-Ray in a terrific package.  Starring Anthony Hopkins as Nixon, he embraced the role and becomes Nixon.  Any doubters about this man's skill as an actor must see this film.  Joan Allen is equally impressive as Pat Nixon.  Both received Oscar nominations for their roles.

The supporting cast is full of familiar faces and names; while they all put in fine performances, Stone did not go for dead ringer look alikes in his casting.  The cast includes Powers Bothe as Alexander Haig, David Hyde Pierce as John Dean, JT Walsh as Erlichman, James Woods as Haldeman, EG Marshall as John Mitchell, Paul Sorvino as Henry Kissinger, Madeline Kahn as Martha Mitchell, and Ed Harris as Howard Hunt. 

Stone's emphasis in this psuedo-biographical film begins with a disclaimer as his certainly takes artistic license in some scenes.  Nixon is portrayed as a tragic figure, deeply affected by his upbringing and low self-esteem.  Here is a man who had everything and was on the brink of becoming one of the great Presidents of the 20th century and threw it all away in a fit of paranoia never witnessed before in US history.  Always comparing himself to the Kennedy's and the Eastern establishment, Nixon never could get over their popularity even though they were also deeply flawed.

The three hour film is a magnificent work and one of Stone's best. 
The Blu-Ray disc edition contains the feature length film, with additional scenes introduced by Stone, and an entire second disc with other and new extras.  Picture and sound are top-notch, up to Disney's usual standards for high defintion discs.  I do wish Disney would cut out the adverts at the front of their discs however; load times are long enough without having to skip through a bunch of movie trailers. You get an almost hour long Charlie Rose interview with Stone, and a new documentary with comments from John Dean and others by Sean Stone.  Two commentaries with Oliver Stone are also included in the disc set.

"Nixon" is an acting tour-de-force for Anthony Hopkins, one of his finest roles.  If you thought his Hannibal Lector role was scary, wait until you see him portraying Nixon.  The film is one of Stone's best works and this new "Election year" edition will make you think about the trials our country has been through and survived.  A must see film and Blu-ray makes it even better.