Frost/Nixon Film Review
February 24, 2010
“When the President does it, that means it’s not illegal,” proclaimed the former President, Richard Nixon, in the film recreation of the 1977 Frost-Nixon interviews. The 2008 historical drama “Frost/Nixon” takes place three years after President Nixon resigned due to the Watergate Scandal. Adapted from a play written by Peter Morgan, and directed by Ron Howard, this movie is a slow hour and a half lead up to about five minutes of interesting plot.
Cocky British talk-show host David Frost, played by Michael Sheen, creates a plan to get his American stardom back by interviewing former President Nixon. His idea is to interview Nixon in hopes the president will breakdown on national TV. He recruits his producer John Brit, played by Matthew MacFayden, and a crack team of investigative reporters, Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt), and James Reston, Jr. (Sam Rockwell).
Frank Langella stars as the misanthropic former President Nixon, who had been forced to resign in disgrace after being linked to the Watergate Scandal. What he believed was the opportunity to clear his name and respark his political career, not to mention $600,000 and 10 percent of the profits, arose, President Nixon could not pass up the prospective interview. He agrees to the meeting, being assured by his Chief-of-Staff, Jack Brennan, played by Kevin Bacon, that Frost was not a worthy match for Nixon’s “caliber.”
On one fateful night, three nights prior to the last interview, Nixon makes a drunken phone call to his nemesis Frost. “That's our tragedy, you and I Mr. Frost. No matter how high we get, they still look down at us,” Nixon baits. “Isn't that why we work so hard now, why we fight for every inch? Scrambling our way up in undignified fashion… Isn't that why we're here? Now? The two of us. Looking for a way back into the sun. Into the limelight. Back onto the winner's podium.” This short phone call was to be the demise of Nixon.
Although Nixon historians have minor disputes over some situations in the film, such as whether President Nixon made the drunken phone call to Frost, “Frost/Nixon” is a fairly accurate representation of what took place.
But how can it not be? “Frost/Nixon” was a 1977 era documentary that happened to be filmed in 2008. Including “interviews” and behind-the-scenes information, “Frost/Nixon” recounts the events leading up to, and snippets from the actual interviews. It might not be word-for-word, but the ideas and events were actual. Frost really did interview Nixon. He really was not doing a great job in the beginning, letting Nixon get the best of him. And at the end, Frost did get Nixon to admit he was wrong.
“I let them down. I let down my friends, I let down my country, and worst of all I let down our system of government, and the dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government but now they think: 'Oh it's all too corrupt and the rest.' Yeah... I let the American people down. And I'm going to have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life. My political life is over,” Nixon finally confessed.
Frank Langella did capture the anti-social, brooding intelligence of Nixon. He did not so much as imitate Nixon, but became Nixon. He perfectly portrays Nixon’s paranoia, cunning, failed charm and unavoidable sadness. It is no wonder he was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Leading Actor.
Michael Sheen was an excellent choice for the role of Frost, with his phony smile, good looks, and a small amount of fear underneath his smooth confidence. He had the starry-eyed, 70s playboy look about him, and portrayed Frost’s inexperience and inability to conduct an investigative interview well.
In the beginning of the movie, Frost was shown hosting a small talk-show, conducting trivial interviews. When he went to American networks, trying to get funding for his interview with Nixon, he was denied, sometimes because he was not thought to be the “right” person for the job, he was not seen as a strong enough interviewer, a strong enough journalist to be interviewing a disgraced past president. And at first, he did not take the job seriously. He let his producer and his reporters do all of the grunt work. But after the drunken phone call from Nixon, Frost realized the interviews were not going the way he wanted them to, that his money was on the line, and most importantly, that this could make or break his career, Frost became serious about the final interview.
“Frost/Nixon” is a true testament to how important hard work, heavy researching, and never accepting defeat can be to a journalist. Because Frost gave the last interview everything he had, he was able to get the truth on television and to the public.
Overall, “Frost/Nixon” is a rental. It is not a date movie, but a movie for those of us who were not around in that time period and are curious as to what happened. The phenomenal acting makes up for the slow moving plot.
“Frost/Nixon” was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. It is Rated R and is 2 hours, 3 minutes in length.