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Frost/Nixon One of the Best Films of the Year
AICN ^ | Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 1:09pm | Massawyrm

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: frost; hollywood; moviereview; nixon; presidents
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To: nufsed
By the time Watergate was in full development, the ground war was almost done - but you miss the 1973 Easter Offensive, where the NVA violated the peace accords and made a major push to seize South Vietnam. Nixon ordered the Air Force and carrier aircraft to hit the NVA columns and decimated them. It was pretty certain that very few presidents would have had the guts to do that and it was just as certain to Hanoi that they would never win while Nixon stayed in office.

The Left played their part: first there was the "illegal bombing of Cambodia scandal" which didn't gain traction because pretty much everybody knew that we were bombing the NVA in Cambodia (which was there "illegally" if such a term can apply to Communists). Then the Left tried something called the "Milk Fund Scandal" which went over like a personal gas event in church. That didn't work, so next came Watergate - which really only involved slimy 'ol John Dean and his black bag team. The investigators had that wrapped up in less than two weeks and had indictments ready - but the Democrats weren't about to let the guilty parties get charged and tried until they had a chance to get at the Nixon White House and 'ol Archy Cox was the right guy for the job. They deliberately held back the indictments, stalling for the Ervin committee and Cox (and a young unknown radical named Hillary in a supporting role) to find something, anything to connect to Nixon.

They pulled it off and Nixon resigned rather than put the country into a civil war.

With Nixon gone and the country in shock, the slimes in Congress passed the War Powers act, and the NVA steamrolled through what was left of our democratic ally almost unapposed.

We have that shame to live with - with the refugees and the "reeducation camps" and the genocide in cambodia - and it took a long time and Ronald Reagan to finally regain some trust with our allies.

But of course, you can't stand Nixon and he was a "crook". He didn't have people murdered, like JFK and he didn't use the White House as his personal bordello, like JFK and he didn't stand around looking stupid while the enemy stomped our ally like Jerry ford, and he didn't pardon the draft dodgers on his first day in office and then drastically reduce our defense department and intelligence agencies like Carter - but he was a bad man, right?

You are a true product of our Leftist school system...

61 posted on 11/20/2008 1:24:44 PM PST by Chinstrap61a
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To: Chinstrap61a
Never said I couldn't stand Nixon. Said he was stupid and a crook and hung himself.

You're history of Viet Nam does not negate the fact that we had already survived a change of president during that war. So your original point was ridiculous and a weak attempt.

I went to very conservative catholic boarding school where they also taught us to think and regognize that people who name call usually have already lost the argument.

Prissy.

62 posted on 11/20/2008 1:37:37 PM PST by nufsed
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To: EyeGuy
This young'un is 61 and read the transcripts or the tapes and watched the hearings. I know that Nixon hung hiself taping his cover-up conversation. All you young'uns no matter how conservative or great someone is, they can't trap you if you don't step into the trap.

But hey, let's all weep because those evil leftists made him do it.

63 posted on 11/20/2008 1:41:19 PM PST by nufsed
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To: Chinstrap61a
With Nixon gone and the country in shock, the slimes in Congress passed the War Powers act,

The War Powers Act was enacted on November 7, 1973, after congress overrode Nixon's veto. Ten days later, Nixon gave the "I am not a crook" speech. It was the following August before he resigned.

64 posted on 11/20/2008 1:53:15 PM PST by Bubba Ho-Tep ("More weight!"--Giles Corey)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep
"The War Powers Act was enacted on November 7, 1973, after congress overrode Nixon's veto"

Right.

And it was the kiss of death for South Vietnam. The Democratic Congress had that final act of betrayal to be proud of.

So why aren't you describing the evils of the corrupt and pro-enemy Congress or the slimy media or the 5th Column masquerading as a "peace movement"?

Nixon was the only patriot left in the government.

65 posted on 11/20/2008 3:26:09 PM PST by Chinstrap61a
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To: Chinstrap61a

Hey, I’m just correcting your timeline. You said that Nixon was gone when the act was passed, when in fact he was in office nearly a year more. Beyond that, rave on. The Paris Peace Accords had long been signed. Do you really think that NIxon was going to introduce troops back into Vietnam after they’d all been withdrawn? And frankly, the Case-Church amendment, passed with a veto-proof, bipartisan vote had more to do with Vietnam than the War Powers Act did.


66 posted on 11/20/2008 3:53:04 PM PST by Bubba Ho-Tep ("More weight!"--Giles Corey)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep
Corrected timeline or not, bottom line was that Congress surrendered and we failed the Vietnamese.

Nixon didn't have to re-introduce troops - he launched the B-52s from Guam and Thailand and the carrier aircraft against the NVA columns in 1973 and crushed their Easter Offensive. (So much for the NVA and living up to the Paris Peace Accords...)

Nixon was the only one hanging on to our obligations and the NVA and their supporters here knew that. That's why the campaign to get him out of office, not any sudden surge of morality in our government.

67 posted on 11/20/2008 5:29:53 PM PST by Chinstrap61a
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To: nufsed
You're 61 and spouting anti Nixon stuff, huh?

Strongly suspect you didn't serve during the war..

That would explain a lot.

68 posted on 11/20/2008 5:35:29 PM PST by Chinstrap61a
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To: Chinstrap61a
Here's what I'm spouting: Nixon was guilty of committing a crime as proven by his own recorded statement.

You get squat until you admit that simple fact.

69 posted on 11/20/2008 5:48:25 PM PST by nufsed
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To: nufsed
Thought so.

Real conservatives serve when a war's on. Unless you had something wrong with you that kept you from serving, that's the way it is.

70 posted on 11/20/2008 6:08:44 PM PST by Chinstrap61a
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To: Chinstrap61a
That's your response to defending a criminal who had to rsign form office? Conservatives don't support criminals, they shun them. You're not fit to call yourself a conservative.

The day you get any more personal information about me will be if you happen to read my obituary.

I thought so!

71 posted on 11/20/2008 6:19:28 PM PST by nufsed
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To: nufsed
Then you were a coward, weren't you?

You're busy trying to make Nixon seem like a bad guy in comparison to what preceded him and then what followed, when in fact you let others risk their lives for their country.

Who took your place while you stayed hidden under your bed?

72 posted on 11/20/2008 11:00:44 PM PST by Chinstrap61a
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To: Chinstrap61a; Grampa Dave; ntnychik; potlatch; devolve; MeekOneGOP
August 8, 1974, Nixon's enemies cheered.

The election of James Earl Carter was to be the wholesome catharsis.

1975-81 was spent encouraging the Soviet bear, betraying the Shah and empowering the Ayatollah, humiliating the leader of the Free World for 444 days, the inverse of Kennedy's Innaugural in which Carter "betrayed every friend, embraced every foe, to bury the survival of freedom in the world."

Carter and Turner chopped 820 CIA case officers Halloween 1977.

The Pol Pot regime (Durbin, hang your head) massacred two million as a direct legacy of the Democrat betrayal of South Vietnam and the 58,000 Americans who gave their lives to oppose Communist tyranny.

And what did Nixon do? A single file--compared to Hillary and Craig Livingstone's 1,000. . . .

The Communists hated Nixon then and hate him now because he outed Alger Hiss.

And what do we have now. . . .


73 posted on 11/20/2008 11:21:24 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hussein: Islamo-Commie from Kenya)
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To: Chinstrap61a
You're busy trying to make Nixon seem like a bad guy.................

Apologist. It must be easy to call someone a coward on the internet. I'm sorry your hero turned out to be a crook.

74 posted on 11/21/2008 6:51:05 AM PST by nufsed
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To: PhilDragoo

Good post Phil. I like him in that garb.
August 8, the day before my birthday. I am Leo, hear me roar.


75 posted on 11/21/2008 10:12:26 PM PST by potlatch
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