Frost/Nixon
Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Matthew McFayden, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon
Rated: R for some language
Parental Notes: Most youngsters will probably be bored by this talk-heavy film, though there’s little objectionable here — very little violence (some footage of American involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia) and even less sexual content. Teens with interest in politics should definitely check it out, though — ideally with their parents. This film would make a great starting point for a discussion of the ramifications of Watergate.
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Coming Up In Film Got a film event you want listed? Email reviewer@ealasaid.com with details. DECEMBER 2008 * December 19-20, Midnight Movie Madness: “Bad Santa.” Midnight screenings at Camera 7 (Friday) and Camera 12 (Saturday). See www.cameracinemas.com/midnight.shtml for details. * December 20, The New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Thais” broadcast live in local theaters. See www.fathomevents.com for details. * December 21 (11am) & 23 (7pm), La Scala Opera House’s production of “La Traviata” at Camera 7. See www.cameracinemas.com/operas.shtml for details. JANUARY 2009 * January 7, The New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of Massenet’s “Thais” broadcast in local theaters. See www.fathomevents.com for details. * January 10, The New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of Puccini’s “La Rondine” broadcast live in local theaters. See www.fathomevents.com for details. * January 11 (11am) & 14 (7pm), Italy’s Grand Opera’s production of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” at Camera 7. See www.cameracinemas.com/operas.shtml for details. * January 15-21, Berlin and Beyond Film Festival. See www.berlinandbeyond.com for details. * January 16-17, Midnight Movie Madness: “Army of Darkness.” Midnight screenings at Camera 7 (Friday) and Camera 12 (Saturday). See www.cameracinemas.com/midnight.shtml for details. * January 21, The New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of Puccini’s “La Rondine” broadcast in local theaters. See www.fathomevents.com for details. * January 23-February 1, Noir City Film Festival. This year’s theme is newspaper noir. See www.noircity.com for details. * January 24, The New York metropolitan Opera’s production of Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” broadcast live in local theaters. See www.fathomevents.com for details. * January 25 (11am) & 28 (7pm) Italy’s Grand Opera’s production of “Norma” at Camera 7. See www.cameracinemas.com/operas.shtml for details. |
“Frost/Nixon” is structured like a prize fighter film. We meet the two contenders: the grizzled, tired champion and the young, excited newcomer. We see the machinations that go into setting up their fight, the fight that all the networks think will be too one-sided to make good television. The newcomer insists, though, and finally gets his day. Round after round the newcomer is hammered against the ropes until he reaches deep within himself and manages to defeat the old champion in the last moments of the fight. The difference here is that instead of pummeling each other with fists, the two central characters battle with words.
The events that led to Richard Nixon resigning the presidency are still reverberating through American politics, even today. At the time “Frost/Nixon” takes place, the American people were still stinging with betrayal — Nixon had just been pardoned by his successor, and it looked like he would never pay, let alone apologize, for what he had done. He simply retired to a seaside home in California and vanished from the public eye.
“Frost/Nixon” tells the story of how that apology was drawn out of the former president (Frank Langella) by a flashy British talk show host named David Frost (Michael Sheen). Frost had the help of his producer John Birt (Matthew McFayden) and two investigators, Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) and James Reston, Jr. (Sam Rockwell), but ultimately he is alone with Nixon and the cameras, having to battle a master politician on his own ground: words.
Sheen and Langella have been playing their roles since the play “Frost/Nixon” is adapted from premiered in London in 2006, and they inhabit the characters brilliantly. The film is shot in a quasi-documentary style, and it’s easy to forget that it’s a dramatization of real events rather than actual footage from the period.
Sheen’s portrayal of Frost is layered and complex, showing us the man beneath the glitzy, famous talk-show-host exterior, but Langella’s performance is the real centerpiece of the film. His Nixon is someone at once thoroughly human and larger than life, a man who can’t make small talk to save his life, but who knows how to throw his interviewer off-balance with just a couple of well-placed questions. By the end of the film, he is both a villainous and a sympathetic character — we loathe him for his crimes, but feel for him because he hates himself even more than we do and has to live with what he’s done.
The full recordings of Frost’s interviews with Nixon are now available as a DVD set, and well worth seeing for history buffs. “Frost/Nixon” gives us something more, though: a portrait of what went into getting the interviews to happen in the first place, and insight into the two men whose face-off resulted in Nixon finally coming clean about what he did.