Quite the history lesson

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2008)

"Im saying that when the president does it, that means its NOT illegal!" That sentence lingered in the minds of the audience and David Frost himself I'm sure. Director Ron Howard creates an epic by elaborating on a controversial historic moment -the Frost/Nixon interviews that were taken a little while after President Nixon was impeached. Frank Langella and Martin Sheen were excellently cast as Richard Nixon and David Frost respectively.
The movie starts off as we hear excerpts from Nixon's actual Watergate tapes as the credits are rolling; We then see Langellas's Nixon announcing on live television that he will resign the presidency. The story goes from there, as British talk show host David Frost is looking for a big break in his career- something that will make him big bucks, and President Nixon is enjoying "unemployment" in his home with his financial adviser Swifty Lazar. Frost then has this crazy idea to interview Richard Nixon. After a long while of arguing and mini-conflicts arising, Frost finally gets the interview, and both parties do extensive research on each other, in order to outsmart the other on television- which takes up the bulk of the movie. Thats all I can really say without spoiling anything.
An excellently crafted piece, which gives us a ton of information we might not have known on Nixon, whether you are the political fanatic or not. Ron Howard was always good at making his movies entertaining, and he merged fact with fiction to help keep the audience on the edge of their seats throughout most of the movie. With witty humor, and a truly emotional ending, Frost/Nixon has it all. All that mixed with a free history lesson is a pretty good deal for $10.