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| “ | It's about money, Dick! | „ |
| ~ Samuel's most famous quote. |
Samuel Bicke is the villainous main protagonist in the 2004 thriller film The Assassination of Richard Nixon. Samuel is a salesman in Philadelphia with a history of short-lived jobs who decides to take extreme measures to achieve his American dream. He is based off Samuel Joseph Byck, who on February 22, 1974 attempted to hijack a Delta Air Lines DC-9 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, in order to crash it into the White House and kill President Richard Nixon.
He was portrayed by Sean Penn, who also played Mickey Cohen in Gangster Squad, Mick O'Brien in Bad Boys, David Kleinfeld in Carlito's Way, and Sergeant Tony Maserve in Casualties of War.
Biography[]
in 1973, 44-year-old Philadelphia resident Sam Bicke is a down on his luck salesman who desperately wishes to reconcile with his estranged wife and waitress Marie. A constant moralizer, he states that he stopped working at the tire shop owned by his brother Julius because he would lie to his customers. Believing that society's discrimination affects poor white people just as much as it does blacks, he attempts to join the Black Panthers. His dream is to own his own mobile tire sales business in partnership with his African-American best friend and mechanic Bonny. He finds employment at an office furniture retail business, where his boss Jack gives him patronizing advice, while his awkwardness makes him a poor salesman. Jack describes US president Richard Nixon as the greatest salesman in history, because his election promise in 1968 was to exit the Vietnam War, and four years later he again coasted to win an easy re-election in 1972 on the promise of ending the same war.
Bicke becomes increasingly disillusioned with his status in society. He applies for a government loan to set up the business with Bonny, and he frantically waits for an answer in the mail. His sales figures continue to deteriorate, and Jack, who only hires married salesmen, begins to suspect Sam lied about his marriage. In fact, Marie keeps rebutting all of Sam's awkward attempts at reconciling, and later sends him a divorce decree, leaving him weeping in despair. Shortly afterwards, he deliberately tanks a sale and quits his job. While watching Nixon giving a speech on TV during the Watergate scandal, he screams at him, "It's about money, Dick!" With the loan still not finalized, he breaks into his brother's tire sales business to make a large order that will be delivered to Bonny. Ultimately, the loan is rejected, his rent is past due, and his brother Julius reveals he had to bail out Bonny, who was arrested for receiving stolen goods, and is now done entirely with his deadbeat, hypocritical brother. A broken Sam begins obsessing more and more about Nixon. One night, after watching a news story about a helicopter pilot who did a fly-by around the White House and got arrested, he begins putting together a plan to hijack a passenger airliner and crash it into the White House. In the two weeks leading to his action, he records a message detailing his intentions and state of mind and addressed to Leonard Bernstein, whom he greatly admires. Sam liquidates his bank account, steals Bonny's gun, and heads to a restaurant where Jack is dining. He aims the gun at Jack under the table, but cannot pull the trigger and flees. He goes to his and Marie's old house and sleeps in the empty home, then shoots and kills the family dog. The next morning, he drives to the Baltimore–Washington International Airport with the gun concealed against his leg and a suitcase full of gasoline. After mailing his confession to Bernstein, he plans to wait in line to board a flight, but seeing the security procedures are more thorough than expected, he panics and rushes on board, shooting a cop as he goes.
Once on board he haphazardly shoots one pilot in the head and the other in the shoulder, then finds a passenger to act as co-pilot. However, he is shot through a window by an intervening policeman, but commits suicide before he could be killed or arrested. The day's events are shown on TV, though neither Bonny nor Marie appear to react to the mention of Sam's name.
Trivia[]
- Sean Penn was attached to this project for six years before the financing for the picture was secured.
- Actor Sean Penn said he enjoyed seeing the furniture store set demolished, as this was because his character of Samuel Bicke had not enjoyed his time there.
- Contrary to Sean Penn's slim and muscular build, the actual Sam Byck was pudgy.
- In real life, Samuel Joseph Byck passed away on February 22nd, 1974. This film was made and released in 2004, the 30th anniversary of Byck's passing.
- According to Andre Soares at the ALt Film Guide in a postscript entitled "Samuel Byck and Travis Bickle: 'Taxi Driver' connection?": "Initially, this review of The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) stated that Samuel Byck also inspired the character of Travis Bickle. However, that film's screenwriter, Paul Schrader, claims he wrote the film's screenplay at age 26 (1972), or about two years before Samuel Byck attempted to kill Richard Nixon. If that chronology is correct, the similarity between the names Byck and Bickle is a mere (and bizarre) coincidence. According to Schrader, Travis Bickle was inspired by Arthur Bremer, the man who shot U.S. presidential candidate George D. Wallace in 1972. Curiously, The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) evolved from [writer-director] Niels Mueller's totally fictitious screenplay called "The Assassination of L.B.J." (U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson.) While doing research, Mueller discovered Samuel Byck's story, which paralleled that of his lead character; the writer-director then decided to reconstruct his screenplay using Byck as its direct inspiration".