Posted on 11/19/2008 4:17:41 PM PST by lewisglad
Frost/Nixon screams For Your Consideration. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, and sprinkled with just the sorts of actors who elevate the Oscar buzz factor like Toby Jones and Sam Rockwell, this thing is gonna get talked about over and over again. But the kicker is that this is the real deal. Easily Howard’s best film of the last decade (and arguably his best ever), this film is everything Howard does well brought together into one scintillating barn burner of a drama. The movie is simply incredible. Absolutely incredible.
And to be honest, it’s hard to believe they pulled it off. Not for lack of talent, but the content. This is the story about an interview, pure and simple. There are no backroom sessions screwing people over. There’s no physical danger as an embittered ex-president sicks CIA agents on the interview team. No romantic tension tearing at the characters. It is a battle of wills between one of the most intimidating and cunning Presidents in modern history and a television personality woefully out of his depth. And it is not the stuff of fiction – but historical fact.
What makes it work is that Howard sets this up and delivers it like you would a boxing match. He spends the movie building up this plucky team of investigators who are getting the shot of a lifetime – a bout with the champ. A man no one has been able to defeat in the verbal arena. David Frost was not the man set up to take him down. It was supposed to be Mike Wallace – exactly the type of contender you would put in the ring with a man like Nixon. Instead, with some financial maneuvering and an overconfident opponent looking for an easy win, this interviewer scored a chance at history. And history is what he got. The resulting tale is positively riveting from beginning to end, and watching the verbal sparring between the showy Frost and the stonewalling Nixon is as jarring, tense and thrilling as any boxing match.
This is the Cinderella Man of political biopics. Only it’s better than Cinderella Man.
Everyone in this movie is at the top of their game, from veteran character actors Oliver Platt and the always frenetic Sam Rockwell as Frost’s research team - to the other side, where Toby Jones continues his climb as the go to character actor of the year, giving a great performance as Nixon’s sleazy entertainment agent ‘Swifty’ Lazar. Also in Nixon’s corner is Kevin Bacon, giving a wonderfully moving portrayal of one of the last of the Nixon loyalists, Jack Brennan. But the real story is Langella as Nixon, which truly is, without hyperbole, the single greatest performance of his career. Langella has never been given a role with this much depth, power and range before, and he meets it on all fronts with the tenacity of a man possessed. He is simply astonishing, and it is completely incomparable to his previous work. Michael Sheen, who plays Frost, also gives a powerful performance. But there is this moment in the film when Nixon says to Frost “the thing about being in the limelight is that it only shines on one person,” and I couldn’t help but think about how true that was, even at that very moment. Sheen is acting his butt off, taking a character that amounts to little more than a professional smile and a hairdo and confers upon him a level of depth that makes you really feel for this guy who has bitten off more than he can chew. But as good as he is, every time Langella is onscreen, you can’t take your eyes off of him.
Based upon the play of the same name, these two actors no doubt honed their chemistry performing it together on stage and every bit of that shows here. But this film never feels like a play. Quite the contrary, Howard manages to pace this in a way that keeps it thrilling, exciting and makes you feel more like you are watching a spirited sporting event rather than an interview. Never dull for a moment and positively gripping the whole way through, this movie is going to get itself a lot of Oscar buzz and earns every bit of it.
If ever there was a year for Langella, this is it. Now that Warner Brothers has chosen to pursue best supporting actor for Heath Ledger, the Best Actor category is wide open and Langella has just moved to the position of frontrunner. Handily one of the best films of the year, this NEEDS to be on your must see list. Check this out the very first chance you get.
Amen. If you take the Nixon Presidency and changed only the R to a D and Freepers would rank him with Carter and Clinton.
Innocent people don't resign the presidency and they don't fire the investigator that's investigating them and their staff on a Saturday night and try to get away with it. That's not what innocent people do.
He had a good, solid 6 years of continuous combat with the Left and the press - it shouldn't be too surprising that this was just another fight to him.
You really think that talking about possibly supporting the Watergate defendants compares to LBJ's hash of the Vietnam War, JFK's three near-nuclear war confrontations/assassinations of world leaders, Carter's idiotic trashing of our intelligence agencies/defense department, Clinton's venalities and policy failures..etc.,etc.?
Nixon fired Cox because Cox was Ted Kennedy's hatchet man who was uninterested in indicting the Watergate consprirators and far more interested with investigating every inch of the White House, using every unethical means possible.
Nixon resigned because he recognized that the coup had been played to an indefensible end and he valued the presidency too much to put the country through an impeachment.
Contrast that with "Loverboy" Clinton's performance.
Your living in a fantasy world. Finding ways to bribe participants and saying he could get the money is “finding a way out.” Great and robbery is just a part-time job.
Another one of those diehard Nixon-haters. Suggest you do a little more reading before doing the "high dudgeon" bit.
Nixon is the main reason we aren't facing the Soviets and the Chinese with a hair trigger. He did this despite the endless and relentless hatred of the press and the Left. We owe him a debt of gratitude, not one-dimensional revisionism.
I didn't say those things and it means you can't argue your way out of his conspiracy to make a minor crime go away. His actions were worse than that what he tried to cover-up. In the end he lied, he was a crook.
And that is why they can beat us to a bloody pulp and make us pay them for the privilege!
There is such a thing as a pragmatic approach for the greater good. President Nixon was looking for the International Communist link to the liberal Democrats and their Antiwar minions, which we now know in retrospect, was a fact.
If you have to be a crook to be president, then you’re correct. But don’t count me in the herd of sheep.
Here we have an all-out war going 10,000 miles away, 58,000 dead, 250,000 wounded (I was one of these), the Israelis fighting for their existence after Sadat crossed the Suez and the Syrians came from the Golan, we have a pro-NVA 5th column carrying enemy flags in the streets, the cities have gone up in flames in the riots..and you prissily point out that he was in a "conspiracy" to try to keep his government alive.
Good to have perspective, isn't it?
The only thing about Langella is that he’s about 6’5”, whereas Nixon was only about 5’10”. I hope they compensate for that in the movie.
Those are my sentiments as well.
I know we swim against the tide.
I would love to see a study of what the world might have been like if Nixon had been elected in 1960 instead of John Kennedy. The confrontations between the Soviets and the US that came so close to thermonuclear war would likely not have happened, the Vietnam War would almost certainly not have happened, and while we wouldn't have had "Camelot", we wouldn't have spent ourselves into the dirt the way Kennedy and LBJ did.
There would have been a whole lot more of us alive if Daley's machine hadn't shoved Kennedy on us instead of Richard Nixon.
Prissy
Nothing that you have expressed is any different than what is being pushed as "history" by today's Leftist educational system. As long as go along with that, you'll fit in fine.
I'll change my name to prissy if you change yours to shill.
Never mind that a wartime sitting president was thrown out of office by a hostile (and pro-enemy) press, opposition party, and "antiwar" movement (that was by the way, in continuous contact with Hanoi throughout the war).
Never mind that the methods used to get him out of office were slimy, underhanded, and unethical and would cause these tactics to become the standard now for all of our political culture, from that time forward.
Never mind that Nixon was the one guy to defuse the Cold War and get the policies of American adminstrations to stop with the provocative acts (like JFK's campaign of assassinations).
Never mind that JFK and LBJ were far more venal, far more corrupt - but had the advantage of a sympathetic, even fawning press to cover things up for them.
Yup, No matter what the damage was to our country and our future, we should have always have gone after Nixon.
Perspective, please.
Well done.
You are absolutely correct.
Young un’s here need to read your posts on this thread to understand what went down before, during and after Watergate.
Richard Nixon was targeted by the odious Left from his days on HUAC. With a fully compliant, propagandizing LeftMedia and a key contribution from a cowardly little, back-stabbing rat-faced weasel named John Dean, they finally achieved their revenge in Watergate.
The process leading to his resignation was constitutional and within the power of congress.
Here's a hint. If the other party is in power and you're not popular and you keep a personal enemies list, don't say into a tape machine in your own office that you can get money to hush up witnesses and the accused. Not a good idea. Not very presidential.
You carry on with your job at the Nixon library. I'm sure your history book will be on the fiction best seller list.
I saw a preview for this in September and it looked painfully boring. Insomnia cure boring. And I find Nixon fascinating.
'Che', 'Frost/Nixon,' 'Doubt,' & 'Milk' as opposition sounds like a winner for Eastwood and Gran Torino.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.