[sauropod]

read

[a fool in paradise]

So let me ask you about the controversial part, which is the conversation between Nixon and Frost which the Nixon people say does not happen, didn’t happen in real life.

RH: Right.

HH: Why use that device?

RH: Well, we said, of course, we say it didn’t happen. I mean, it’s an example of creative license, but creative license born out of research and a desire to offer a more comprehensive sense of both of these characters.And of course, the president was known for some of these rambling, late night phone calls, and not that he was any kind of a heavy drinker, but by all accounts, very light-headed. And you know, I mean if he had a couple of drinks, and if he was taking any sleep medication or anything like that, which he was also, would sometimes do, these calls, he wouldn’t always remember them the next day. And so when Peter Morgan bumped into that in the research, he was looking for a way to have a really personal confrontation between he and Frost off the record that would allow him as the writer, and us as the audience, to really understand that as different as these guys were in personality and outward appearances, they had so much in common.

A bit stilted "plot device". "he was drunk and called him and used expressions that showed he was uncomfortable..."

[ClearCase_guy]

Pretty good interview with Ronnie. I liked that he recognized that Nixon was truly smart. I see the characterization of presidents this way:

Eisenhower -- dumb and boring
Kennedy -- god-like
Johnson -- Good man, overwhelmed by Vietnam, sad story, let's forget about him.
Nixon -- can't call him dumb, so let's call him evil.
Ford -- Dumb.
Carter -- Brilliant.
Reagan -- Dumb
Bush I -- Dumb.
Clinton -- Brilliant.
Bush II -- Dumb.
Obama -- Brilliant.

All the Democrats are brilliant. All the Republicans are dumb -- the only exception is Nixon. They couldn't call him dumb, so they called him evil and hated him all the more.

[goodnesswins]

Ronnie’s a good Goebbels propagandist (he was during the election.)

[Poser]

I watched the Nixon/Frost interviews on TV. The movie is BS. Pretty much nobody cared at the time and nothing interesting came out of them.

[Cyman]

Really resisted going to see this even though I admire Ron Howard's work. Saw the TV trailers and was very upset that Howard and Langella chose to play Nixon as a caricature the entire movie. In the theater there were only a few of us that laughed at the lines that would favor Nixon but the theater died laughing for every anti-Nixon ploy.

Went with another friend(conservative) and his son. Now mind you, this boy is around conservatives all the time except when he is in a charter christian high school. After the movie we went to get a bite to eat but my purpose was to hear the young man's impression of the movie. He thought that the movie was good and he felt that Nixon was a buffoon(his words). When we went over the movie it was amazing how much of the movie he thought was fact and not artistic license. We tried to explain the truth. He seemed slightly skeptical until I told him that the part that Sam Rockwell plays was how I felt about Nixon in those exact days and months leading up to the resignation and for some time after. The point that we tried to stress to him was that history has a present and a future. Most times history is best judged with the passage of time so that events and people can be put in their proper perspective.

[macamadamia]

I mean, it’s an example of creative license, but creative license born out of research and a desire to offer a more comprehensive sense of both of these characters.


Howard strikes me as really a sort of nasty person. It seems like every time he makes a movie there's some controversy regarding facts and biographies.

[Doc Savage]

This was disgusting. I thought Hewitt was going to tongue him as they embraced. Howard is a disgusting liberal hack. And his brother is the original UGLY!