Maybe, in light of the above-named’s passing, it’s worth relating something I’d thought of including in my review of Oliver Stone’s Nixon (see relevant two parts), but which I did not include for space considerations.
One fictional liberty that Stone’s movie took (which was one of its freer conceits, but wasn’t quite so bad as any possible canard about a “Track 2” Cuba/JFK plot) was representing the business interests behind Nixon largely in one obviously composite figure, “Jack Jones,” played by Hagman, complete with cowboy hat and J.R. Ewing look. Hagman and other apparent “boys in the back room” first appear with Anthony Hopkins’ noodgy Nixon, as if helping philosophically prepare the old Trickster as “their boy” for his 1968 presidential run, in expected liberal-defined “conservative interests” fashion, including darkened room in a Texas locale.
Later, Hagman’s character appears (as Nixon pays him another courtesy call) as if to complain disillusionedly about the new governmental enactments that seemed to be putting his shorts into a twist, like hands being tied (amid his oil business) by the EPA (yes, that agency started during the Nixon administration), and among other new pains in the ass, having to bus his kids to a different district (for racial desegregation purposes). (We’d forgotten about bussing as an old hot-button topic, hadn’t we?)
I thought this portrayal by the movie was rather weak. I mean, even in 1995 (when the film was released), of all the things a J.R. type could have grumped about in trying to convey his conservative disappointment in about 1973, was bussing such a big deal? (Just check out how Jack Jones lists this among his grievances. Doesn't it seem like self-parody?) Oh, boo hoo! J.R. was pissed over having his kids bussed to go to school with a bunch of “coloreds” [or whatever Jack Jones would have called them]!
If only that was Nixon’s worst legacy.
And how far we’ve come in terms of headache-giving issues we want to choke a politician about today.
I’ve always thought of Larry Hagman as “Major Nelson!” (as hollered by his supervisor, Colonel Bellows, I think his name was) from I Dream of Jeannie. But of course, he seems more remembered for his longer-lived role as J.R.
