Battle Of Two Giants In The Political Media Arena

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2008)

It may not have seemed too much like it back in the spring of 1977, but the lengthy interview between British talk show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon from Nixon's San Clemente home base is now considered one of the defining moments where politics and the media came together for compelling and dramatic results. Peter Morgan capitalized on the event in his play "Frost/Nixon"; and now, that play, expanded into a feature-length film by Morgan himself, has succeeded well on the big screen as well, under the aegis of director Ron Howard (BACKDRAFT; APOLLO 13).
Michael Sheen and Frank Langella recreate the roles they created onstage (which was done at Howard's insistence) as, respectively, the erudite British talk show host and the brooding ex-president. What could have been a talking-heads kind of show is instead turned into a riveting and, on more than one occasion, somewhat satirical look at the shallowness of the media. That last aspect is quite brilliantly looked at, as Frost was largely the British equivalent of Johnny Carson back in the day, and was thus not deemed worthy by American television to interview the disgraced former commander-in-chief. On the other side of the coin, of course, there's Nixon, of whom millions upon millions of words continue to be written and spoken about. By the time he was interviewed by Frost, he was resigned to a life of continuous brooding and still unwilling to repent for the sins he did in office. With this true-life setup in place, Sheen and Langella engage in a very taut verbal duel that reaches a chilling climax when Langella's Nixon explains to Frost, "When the president does something, that means it's NOT illegal!" Under Frost's rather withering cross-examination, Nixon was finally forced to admit that he had let the country down; and while there was no admission of remorse, no "I'm sorry" ever spoken by the man, it was clear he needed to make some kind of repentance if he ever wanted to be seen by future historians in a better light.
As was the case with Anthony Hopkins' performance of the 37th president in Oliver Stone's 1995 film NIXON, Langella's performance in FROST/NIXON is a performance of incredible darkness and complexity, much like the real Richard Nixon himself. The toughness that Nixon displayed also revealed the demons that drove him to order the crimes that got committed under that all-encompassing Watergate umbrella. Frost, meanwhile, was heretofore taken far more seriously in America for taking on the challenge of getting Nixon to come out with the admission of personal failure, if not with an out-and-out apology. Howard's direction is as effective as it had been in APOLLO 13; and Sheen and Langella are incredible, as are supporting players like Kevin Bacon, Patty McCormack, Oliver Platt, and Sam Rockwell.
In the end, I found FROST/NIXON to be an incredible piece. David Frost came out as a TV personality who fought against enormous odds and won, while Richard Nixon came across as being quite sympathetic, given the magnitude of the kinds of crimes he committed as President. This is a film that should be seen for anyone interested in how politics and the American media have intersected throughout modern history.