Frost/Nixon is a
2008 historical drama film based
on the
play of the same name by
Peter Morgan which dramatizes the
Frost/Nixon interviews of 1977.
The film version was directed by
Ron
Howard and produced by
Brian Grazer
of
Imagine Entertainment and
Tim Bevan and
Eric
Fellner of
Working Title
Films for
Universal
Pictures.
The film
reunites its original two stars from the West
End
and Broadway
productions
of the play, Michael Sheen as British
television broadcaster David Frost and
Frank Langella as former United
States President Richard Nixon.
Filming began on August 27, 2007. The film was first released at
the
London Film Festival on
October 15, 2008, before expanding to a wider release in the U.S.
on January 23, 2009. The movie was released to DVD on April 21,
2009.
Plot
A series of news reports documents the role of
Richard Nixon in the
Watergate scandal, prior to
his resignation speech.
Meanwhile, David Frost has finished recording an episode of his
talk show and watches on television as Nixon leaves the White
House.
A few weeks later in the
London Weekend Television (LWT)
central office, Frost discusses with his producer and friend,
John Birt, the possibility of an
interview. When Frost mentions Nixon as the subject, Birt doubts
that Nixon would be willing to talk to Frost. Frost then tells Birt
that 400 million people watched President Nixon's resignation on
live television.
Nixon is
shown recovering from phlebitis at
La Casa
Pacifica
, in San Clemente
, California
. He is discussing his memoirs with literary
agent
Irving "Swifty" Lazar, who
tells the former president of a request by Frost to conduct an
interview with an offer of $600,000. Lazar contacts Frost to inform
him that Nixon is interested, so Frost and Birt fly to California
to meet with Nixon. While on the plane, Frost meets
Caroline Cushing. At La Casa Pacifica,
Frost makes the first partial payment of $200,000. However, Nixon's
post-presidential chief of staff
Jack
Brennan doubts that Frost will be able to pay the entire
amount.
Frost hires two investigators,
Bob
Zelnick and
James Reston Jr. to
dig for information along with Birt, mainly on the
Watergate scandal. During the research
process, Reston mentions a lead in the Federal Courthouse in D.C.
that he thinks he can lock down with a week of work, but Frost
decides against it. Frost is shown trying to sell the series of
four interviews to the U.S. broadcast networks, but they all turn
him down. Despite the financial issues, Frost is able to finance
the hiring of recording equipment and a venue and the interviews
begin.
Over the first eleven recording sessions, Frost is shown struggling
to ask planned questions of Nixon. Nixon is able to take up much of
the time during the sessions by giving lengthy monologues,
preventing Frost from challenging him. The former president fences
ably on the Vietnam section and is able to dominate in the area
where he had substantial achievements—foreign policy related to
Russia and China. Frost's editorial team appears to be breaking
apart as Zelnick and Reston express anger that Nixon appears to be
exonerating himself, and Reston belittles Frost's abilities as an
interviewer.
Four days before the final session on Watergate, Frost is in his
hotel room when he receives a phone call from Nixon. The drunk
Nixon tells Frost that they both know the final interview will make
or break their careers. If Frost fails to implicate Nixon
definitively in the Watergate scandal, then Frost will have allowed
Nixon to revive his political career at Frost's own expense, who
will have an unsellable series of interviews and be bankrupt.
The conversation spurs Frost into action, as, until now, having
spent most of his time selling the show to networks and gaining
advertisers, Frost resolves to ensure that the final interview will
be successful. He calls Reston and tells him to follow up on the
federal courthouse hunch and works relentlessly for three
days.
As the final recording begins, Frost is a much sterner adversary,
providing damning information about
Charles Colson, resulting in Nixon admitting
that he did unethical things, but "defending" himself with the
statement, "When the President does it, it's not illegal!" Frost is
shocked by this statement, and asks if the president took part in a
cover-up, at which point Brennan bursts in
and stops the recording as Nixon is visibly unable to answer. After
Nixon and Brennan confer in a side room, Nixon returns to the
interview, admitting that he participated in a cover-up and that he
"let the American people down."
Shortly before Frost returns to the UK, he and Caroline visit Nixon
in his villa. Frost thanks Nixon for the interviews and gives him a
pair of Italian shoes. Nixon speaks with Frost privately, asking
him whether they discussed anything important the night Nixon
called his hotel room. Frost answers, "cheeseburgers", and he bids
Nixon goodbye.
Cast
Other
real-life figures and personalities depicted in the film include
Diane Sawyer, Tricia Nixon Cox, Michael York, Hugh Hefner, Gene
Boyer (helicopter pilot, as himself), Raymond Price, Ken Khachigian
, Sue Mengers and
Neil Diamond. To prepare for his
role as Richard Nixon, Frank Langella visited the Richard Nixon
Presidential Library
in Yorba Linda, California
, and interviewed many people who had known the
former president.
Release
The film had its world premiere on October 15, 2008 as the opening
film of the 52nd annual
London Film
Festival. It was released in three theaters in the United
States on December 5, 2008 before expanding several times over the
following weeks. It was released in the United Kingdom and expanded
into wide status in the United States on January 23, 2009.
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 21, 2009.
Special
features include deleted scenes, the making of the film, the real
interviews between Frost and Nixon, the Richard Nixon
Presidential Library, and a feature commentary with Ron
Howard.
Box office
The film had a limited release at three theaters on December 5,
2008 and grossed $180,708 on its opening weekend, ranking number
22. Opening wide at 1,099 theaters on January 23, 2009, the film
grossed $3,022,250 at the domestic box office, ranking number 16.
The total gross at the domestic box office is $12,231,106,
including the international box office the total gross is
$14,596,107. The film grossed estimated $420,000 on January 31,
2009. As of February 2, 2009, the film grossed estimated
$14,311,000 at the box office and $16,676,001 worldwide. The film
grossed estimated $18,622,031 at the domestic box office and
$8,393,048 at the international box office for a total of
$27,015,079 worldwide.
Critical reception
Reviews of the film were largely positive. The review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 92% of
critics gave the film positive reviews based on 203 reviews, with a
weighted average score of 7.8 out of a possible 10. Among Rotten
Tomatoes's
Top Critics which consists of popular and
notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and
radio programs, the film holds an overall high approval rating of
89%.
Metacritic reported the film had an
average score of 80 out of 100.
Critic
Roger Ebert gave the film four
stars, commenting that Langella and Sheen "do not attempt to mimic
their characters, but to embody them" while
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone gave the film 3 1/2 stars,
saying that Ron Howard "turned Peter Morgan's stage success into a
grabber of a movie laced with tension, stinging wit and potent
human drama." Writing for
Variety, Todd McCarthy praised
Langella's performance in particular, stating "by the final scenes,
Langella has all but disappeared so as to deliver Nixon himself."
Rene Rodriguez of
The Miami
Herald, however, gave the film two stars and commented
that the picture "pales in comparison to
Oliver Stone's
Nixon when it comes to humanizing the
infamous leader" despite writing that the film "faithfully reenacts
the events leading up to the historic 1977 interviews." Manohla
Dargis of
The New York
Times said, "stories of lost crowns lend themselves to
drama, but not necessarily audience-pleasing entertainments, which
may explain why
Frost/Nixon registers as such a soothing,
agreeably amusing experience, more palliative than
purgative."
Noted fiction and inaccuracies
Several historical inaccuracies were noted in the film by multiple
sources, including Nixon biographers
Jonathan Aitken and
Elizabeth Drew. Aitken, one of Nixon's
official biographers, spent much time with the former president at
La Casa Pacifica and rebukes the film's portrayal of a drunk Nixon
and a late night phone call as never having happened and "from
start to finish, an artistic invention by the scriptwriter Peter
Morgan." Aitken remembers that "Frost did not ambush Nixon during
the final interview into a damaging admission of guilt. What the
former president 'confessed' about Watergate was carefully
pre-planned. It was only with considerable help and advice from his
adversary's team that Frost managed to get much more out of Nixon,
in the closing sequences, by reining in his fierce attitude and
adopting a gentler approach."
David Edelstein of
New York Magazine wrote that the film
overstated the importance of its basis, the Frost interview,
stating it "elevates the 1977 interviews Nixon gave (or, rather,
sold, for an unheard-of $600,000) to English TV personality David
Frost into a momentous event in the history of politics and media."
Edelstein also noted that "with selective editing, Morgan makes it
seem as if Frost got Nixon to admit more than he actually did."
Edelstein wrote that the film "is brisk, well crafted, and
enjoyable enough, but the characters seem thinner (Sheen is all
frozen smiles and squirms) and the outcome less
consequential."
Elizabeth Drew of the
Huffington Post and author of
Richard M. Nixon noted some inaccuracies,
including a misrepresentation of the end of the interview, a lack
of mention of the fact that Nixon received 20% of the profits from
the interview, and what she purports to be inaccurate
representation of some of the characters at hand. Though generally
liked by critic Daniel Eagan, he notes that partisans on both sides
have questioned the accuracy of the film's script.
Fred Schwarz writing for
National
Review online commented that, "
Frost/Nixon is an
attempt to use history, assisted by plenty of dramatic license, to
retrospectively turn a loss into a win. By all accounts,
Frost/Nixon does a fine job of dramatizing the
negotiations and preparation that led up to the interviews. And
it’s hard to imagine Frank Langella, who plays a Brezhnev-looking
Nixon, giving a bad performance. Still, the movie’s fundamental
premise is just plain wrong." The real interviews were a one-day
news story and even that was mostly due to advance media hype. They
uncovered no new information, contained little drama, and were
unsurprising to anyone who had followed Nixon's career.
Top ten lists
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films
of 2008.
Movie City News shows that the film appeared in
72 different top ten lists, out of 286 different critics lists
surveyed, the 10th most mentions on a top ten list of the films
released in 2008. In addition, the film was selected by the
American Film Institute as
one of the best ten movies of 2008.
Awards and nominations
| Award Show |
Nominations |
Result |
| Golden
Globes |
Best Motion Picture |
Nominated |
| Best Actor (Langella) |
Nominated |
| Best Director (Howard) |
Nominated |
| Best Original Score (Zimmer) |
Nominated |
| Best Screenplay (Morgan) |
Nominated |
| Vegas Film
Society |
Best Actor (Langella) |
Won |
| Best Director |
Won |
| Best Editing |
Won |
| Best Film |
Won |
| Best Screenplay |
Won |
| Screen
Actors Guild |
Best Actor (Langella) |
Nominated |
| Best Cast (A.K.A. Best Picture) |
Nominated |
| Academy
Awards |
Best Picture |
Nominated |
| Best Actor (Langella) |
Nominated |
| Best Adapted Screenplay |
Nominated |
| Best Director (Howard) |
Nominated |
| Best Editing |
Nominated |
| BAFTA
Awards |
Best Film |
Nominated |
| Best Director |
Nominated |
| Best Actor |
Nominated |
| Best Screenplay-Adapted |
Nominated |
| Best Editing |
Nominated |
| Best Make up and Hair |
Nominated |
References
- http://www.movieweb.com/news/NE0Zk220M6di25
- Edelstein, David, Unholy
Alliance Frost/Nixon’s iconic TV moment seems quaint after
Couric/Palin, New York Magazine, November 30,
2008
- 2008 American Film Institute Awards
External links
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