Frost/Nixon (2008) (NYT Review)
It’s twinkle versus glower in the big-screen edition of Peter Morgan’s theatrical smackdown “Frost/Nixon.” Directed by Ron Howard and adapted by Mr. Morgan, the film revisits the televised May 1977 face-off between the toothy British personality David Frost and the disgraced former president Richard M. Nixon three years after he left office, trimming their nearly 30-hour armchair-to-armchair spar into a tidy 122-minute narrative of loss and redemption that, at least from this ringside seat, would be better titled “Nixon/Frost.”
Broadcast in four 90-minute programs, the interviews were seen as an enormous risk both for Mr. Frost, who was gambling with his money and future, and for the presidentially pardoned Nixon, who was seeking absolution but risked further public humiliation. (Whatever the outcome, he was guaranteed a sweet jackpot: some $600,000 and 10 percent of the profits.)
For James Reston Jr., who helped Mr. Frost prepare for the interviews (and is played by a rabbity Sam Rockwell in the movie), and whose book “The Conviction of Richard Nixon” was the so-called grist for Mr. Morgan’s play, the former president was akin to Proteus, the wily, shape-shifting Old Man of the Sea from “The Odyssey.” It’s an evocative image, though the thing about Proteus is that when caught he does tell the truth.
As it happens, the worst didn’t happen to either Frost or Nixon, the worst being relative to your political view. The fallen leader fell no further, despite the choking close-ups, beads of sweat, agonized stammers, weird digressions and outrageous pronouncements: “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” The reviews were decidedly mixed — from prison his former aide John D. Ehrlichman gave Nixon’s performance the big thumbs down, calling it “a smarmy, maudlin rationalization.” But the audience share was huge, blockbuster-size: the first program, on Watergate, which played against a John Wayne flick and reruns of “Good Times” and “The Bionic Woman,” attracted as many viewers as the year’s reigning ratings champ, “Happy Days,” the Eisenhower-era sitcom in which Mr. Howard played the Everyboy Richie Cunningham.
Read entire article at NYT
Broadcast in four 90-minute programs, the interviews were seen as an enormous risk both for Mr. Frost, who was gambling with his money and future, and for the presidentially pardoned Nixon, who was seeking absolution but risked further public humiliation. (Whatever the outcome, he was guaranteed a sweet jackpot: some $600,000 and 10 percent of the profits.)
For James Reston Jr., who helped Mr. Frost prepare for the interviews (and is played by a rabbity Sam Rockwell in the movie), and whose book “The Conviction of Richard Nixon” was the so-called grist for Mr. Morgan’s play, the former president was akin to Proteus, the wily, shape-shifting Old Man of the Sea from “The Odyssey.” It’s an evocative image, though the thing about Proteus is that when caught he does tell the truth.
As it happens, the worst didn’t happen to either Frost or Nixon, the worst being relative to your political view. The fallen leader fell no further, despite the choking close-ups, beads of sweat, agonized stammers, weird digressions and outrageous pronouncements: “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” The reviews were decidedly mixed — from prison his former aide John D. Ehrlichman gave Nixon’s performance the big thumbs down, calling it “a smarmy, maudlin rationalization.” But the audience share was huge, blockbuster-size: the first program, on Watergate, which played against a John Wayne flick and reruns of “Good Times” and “The Bionic Woman,” attracted as many viewers as the year’s reigning ratings champ, “Happy Days,” the Eisenhower-era sitcom in which Mr. Howard played the Everyboy Richie Cunningham.