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Feb.27,2005 -Mar.6,2005 |
When truth is stranger than fiction
First-time feature filmmaker Niels Mueller discovers history in Assassination
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2005-02-13
In 1974, a little-known incident happened that today would've sent shockwaves throughout the world. It involved a Philadelphian, Samuel Byck, who was married and had four children, but could not hold a job and failed in several businesses. Byck began to blame his problems on a government conspiracy to keep the poor man down. He became an outspoken critic of President Nixon.
Just before 7:15 a.m. on February 22, 1974, the 44 year old cut a vicious swath through Baltimore-Washington International Airport, pulling a .38-caliber revolver. He went through the line, shot an airport security guard in the back and, before stunned onlookers, leapt over the security check and boarded a DC-9 Delta Airlines Flight 523 destined for Atlanta. He stormed the plane's cockpit and shot the co-pilot. He commanded the pilot to take off immediately but was shot through the plane's window by a police officer.
Byck left a tape recording in his car about an insane murder plot called "Operation Pandora's Box," the aim of which was to hijack the plane and steer it into the White House, incinerating President Richard Nixon, whom he blamed for his business failures. Before boarding the plane, he also sent bizarre, rambling tapes to such public figures as Leonard Bernstein, who wrote the musical Assassins based on those tapes.
Screenwriter Niels Mueller (Tadpole) was doing his own research for a movie about a presidential assassin when he stumbled upon Byck's story. With a few tweaks here and there, he wrote The Assassination of Richard Nixon, his feature-directorial debut.
The film centres on 44-year-old Samuel J. Bicke (Sean Penn), who wants to believe in something but is undermined constantly by his boss (Jack Thompson). He is separated from his wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), who refuses to consider the reconciliation he wants so desperately. He is estranged from his brother Julius (Michael Wincott), a businessman whose success mocks Bicke's constant string of professional failures. The only bright spot in Bicke's life is his dream of opening a door-to-door tire repair service with his auto mechanic friend, Bonny (Don Cheadle). Their business proposal requires a modest bank loan, which is denied him. This pushes the troubled man over the edge.
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