Frost/Nixon

[GamePlayer]

I went to see Frost/Nixon the other night and it was great. Granted, it's not a mind blowing triumph of film itself, but it is a fantastic film that focuses solely on the subject matter in the best way possible. The script and the two leads absolutely make this film and watching them act with each other is magic. If you have any interest at all in politics and some solid drama, you won't be disappointed with Frost/Nixon. The film focuses upon interviews former United States President Richard Nixon gave to David Frost in 1977 after Nixon had resigned the presidency in scandal.

Many reviews have talked about the performances of Frank Langella as Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as David Frost and while I share their compliments, again, it is the script and the interaction between these two that are the real stars of the show. Other notable aspects of Frost/Nixon are the cinematography and the use of music. Or perhaps it's more on point to say the manner in which these two filmmaking elements are used form a welcome change for director Ron Howard. I've not made any secret of how overrated I think Ron Howard is nor do I hide my distaste for most of his films, which are often ridiculously shot and so brutally over-scored that they approach comedy. With Frost/Nixon, Howard tones down the visuals to incredibly candid effect and the score never interrupts the drama. The two leads are left to a strong script and their the strength of their performances to make the movie work and with only some cunning lighting and a little music as embellishment.

I'd also like to address the politically balanced aspect of this film. Frost/Nixon does a fantastic job of portraying it's two characters in an honest light and avoiding the left-leaning polarization so often infecting Hollywood films. Sheen's Frost is no faultless white knight and Langella's Nixon is incredibly sympathetic. Further still, the film takes the time to examine the motivations and feelings of the supporting cast rather than just turning them into stolid caricatures. Both Kevin Bacon as Jack Brennan and Sam Rockwell as James Reston each have small but enlightening character arcs in the film. Like any film, there are some historical liberties taken in order to achieve drama, but the spirit of the Frost/Nixon interviews remains unblemished in the best of ways. Aside from his foreign policy and scandal, I've never known that much about Richard Nixon. After watching this film, I feel I've been given some small sense of the larger man that was Nixon, a sense that doesn't come across in the history books obsessed with controversy. How ironic indeed, given that the setting for this film is one of those aforementioned controversies. The Watergate scandal may have been a plot point in the infamous Frost interviews, but its Nixon the man who becomes the winner in this film. Right or wrong, and he was both, we feel for Nixon and by the time this story ends, we are given a precious piece of his humanity.

A solid 4 out of 5. Frost/Nixon may not be the most interesting film visually, nor the most exciting, but it is one of the most dramatically compelling and politically insightful fictional films I've ever seen.

[SandRider]

great review, GP, thanks.

that movie is on my "see at the theater" list, if my
LittleBigTown will show it. (not holding my breath on that)

I remember watching VHS tapes of the interviews
circa 1980 and finally getting a little peace about the
whole thing.

and seeing as how movies seem to be the main way
the younger generations are getting their history, I'm
glad to hear you thought it was well-balanced and honest.

[Robspierre]

All the conservatives hate it , which is funny because you can check out the actual interviews. Of course the same people are apologists for McCarthy...


Rob

[Sole Man]

I respect Nixon and everything his nose ever stood for!

3Isn't this nominated for best picture?

[GamePlayer]

great review, GP, thanks.

I'm glad to hear you thought it was well-balanced and honest.

All the conservatives hate it , which is funny because you can check out the actual interviews. Of course the same people are apologists for McCarthy...
Rob

The film is as fair as can possibly be expected. They can't make a film exonerating Richard Nixon unless they wanted to create some jingoist propaganda to appeal to the fundamentalist crowd.

The neo-conservatives on the other hand just want more one-sided, pro-right films to "balance out" against the "liberal media". My only advice to that is stop paying for films like Bowling for Columbine and start paying for ones like Frost/Nixon and the problem will fix itself.

But you're not going to change human nature. Every hardcore, far-right wing person I've ever met curses like a sailor at Hollywood, but who are the ones teaching their children an arts degree is a joke? Is it any wonder that a larger portion of artists are left leaning when the right does nothing but piss on the arts? So really, these right wing naysayers that cry "bias" at every Hollywood film are their own worst enemies and have only themselves to blame.

What Frost/Nixon does do is put a human face on Nixon and allows you to understand the man rather than portraying him in either some loopy leftist, condescending villainous shadow or in some angelic light as a can-do-no-wrong right-wing wet dream.

[SandRider]

I'm either going to have to travel to see this film
or wait for the DVD. The one theater in the LittleBigTown
is not going to show it.

(Didn't show "W", either, tho.)

Selling advanced tickets for the new Friday the 13th thing ...

[Sole Man]

Selling advanced tickets for the new Friday the 13th thing ...

That's going to be painfully awful. No doubt about it.

[Robspierre]

Sand Rider, W isn't that great. Brolin's acting was excellent but the reality is, Bush just isn't that interesting of an individual to make a movie out of. Kind of hard to make a movie about a washed up frat boy. There is nothing larger than life about him at all to make for interesting cinema.

Gameplayer check out this site for a conservative take on movies:


http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ The comments are to die for. I personally love the conservative who claims the values in Kung Fu Panda were uniquely American and the liberal who pointed out the plot was the same as every Hong Kong action flick ever and Joseph Campbell writings about the hero's quest not to mention that Po came from a family with only one parent.

Read the comments about Frost/Nixon for some entertainment as well.

Rob

[GamePlayer]

I actually thought the term "Barackosis" was quite clever

I like their thoughts of Battlestar Galactica. They must be 24 fans too. They just love those "make the hard choices and be inhumanly brutal about it" characters. Ironic how they all become Russian when it's about politics

The Frost/Nixon review on Big Hollywood is pretty much to be expected. The whole review diverges off into discussion of Nixon's entire life, as if any film could cover that kind of material. This film was Frost/Nixon, not Nixon/China. I applaud the review for attacking liberal Hollywood; gawd knows they deserve a good kick for being loons. I also like the critique of the Frost's motives. But the reviewer is definitely missing the larger issues of the film and concentrating too much on minutiae. The last third of the review is an outright soapbox-sideswipe that couldn't be any more out of place if James Bond suddenly appeared in Finding Nemo.

Fun read

[Robspierre]

There are some good posts by contributors but the comments, my goodness, they are just as loony as the left or worse

Rob

[GamePlayer]

I can't go on reading the comments. It's just so much drivel it's driving me crazy.

I hate extremist politics. The American left deify Kennedy; the right, do Regan. They all perform their impassioned speeches, finish their terms in office and still nothing changes. The whole system is left cascading down the ass crack of the polished politico. I've never heard any extreme left/right pundit tell me once how to actually stop the cycle of drug violence in the U.S. with any hint of credibility. Each side fights the other tooth and nail on every "major issue" (one day I'm going to find out what those are) like the universe itself was at stake. But when it comes to the really hard problems, not one of them has the intelligence to solve them or the guts to face them. And those that do are ostracized as extremist nutjobs for daring to actually suggest "change" and mean it.

Now...where was I?

[A Thing of Eternity]

I can't go on reading the comments. It's just so much drivel it's driving me crazy.

I hate extremist politics. The American left deify Kennedy; the right, do Regan. They all perform their impassioned speeches, finish their terms in office and still nothing changes. The whole system is left cascading down the ass crack of the polished politico. I've never heard any extreme left/right pundit tell me once how to actually stop the cycle of drug violence in the U.S. with any hint of credibility. Each side fights the other tooth and nail on every "major issue" (one day I'm going to find out what those are) like the universe itself was at stake. But when it comes to the really hard problems, not one of them has the intelligence to solve them or the guts to face them. And those that do are ostracized as extremist nutjobs for daring to actually suggest "change" and mean it.

Now...where was I?

I knew I'd stumble across some more of your opinions I agree with.

[Freakzilla]

How to stop drug violence? That's an easy one.

Decriminalize it.

Don't put people in jail for drug charges, put them in treatment.

[GamePlayer]

A Thing of Eternity
You definitely don't want to be agreeing with me. I'm crazy

Freakzilla
Yeah, and the last time a politician suggested doing just that, he was practically burned at the stake before being voted out of office in a landslide. Our democracies are doomed. The war on drugs is a joke, not that anyone cares anymore, since it's all about terrorism now. And as tragic as that is, we deserve our fate for thinking like morons and voting like morons. Since when did legalizing drugs become the greatest "sin" of humanity? People would rather argue with me as we're both falling off a cliff rather than lend me a hand to get our parachutes open.

Damn, I'm having a SandRider attack and I don't even have a cannon

[A Thing of Eternity]

[Freakzilla]

Freakzilla
Yeah, and the last time a politician suggested doing just that, he was practically burned at the stake before being voted out of office in a landslide. Our democracies are doomed. The war on drugs is a joke, not that anyone cares anymore, since it's all about terrorism now. And as tragic as that is, we deserve our fate for thinking like morons and voting like morons. Since when did legalizing drugs become the greatest "sin" of humanity?

I said de-criminalize, not legalize.

Some people can't handle drugs, the others can't handle reality.

[SandChigger]

Nah, legalize but control 'em like alcohol.

Let the riffraff clear themselves out.

[A Thing of Eternity]

Agreed.

[GamePlayer]

Problem solved.

[Freakzilla]

I think alcohol is much more harmfull on multiple levels than most drugs, and I've done most drugs.

Marijuana should be legalized. How a country can make a plant that grows wild in all fifty states illegal is beyond me.

Part of the problem in our culture is the taboo that we put on illicit drugs.

"Incomplete suppression of trade in any commodity always increases the profits
of the tradesmen, especially the profits of the senior distributors." His voice
was warningly hesitant. "That is the fallacy of thinking you can control
unwanted narcotics by stopping them at your borders."
~Miles Teg

[SandRider]

y'all know I'm a pretty anti-military pacifist these days,
but after spending some time in South Texas last year,
and moving back and forth the border at Lardeo and
the Pass, I really think the government needs to deploy
the 82nd. I'll try to find the link to a recent Texas Monthly
article that was very good - lots of details that aren't being
reported nation wide.

I'm not sure the rest of the country truly understands that
Nuevo Laredeo is a fucking WARZONE, complete with rocket
launchers and armored troop carriers.

And while I'll support general drug legalization, I'm also convinced
that will not solve alot of the "crime" problems - certainly not in
northern mexico - if the gangs don't have drugs to make money
from, I figure they'll move into attacking the infrastructure,
oil fields, electrical distrubution systems, etc. These gangs are
way too organized and powerful to just fall apart if their drug
markets in America are dismantled.

the same logic could be applied to urban gangs in America. If the
profit-motive from drug dealing is removed, but the poverty and
opportunity issues aren't resolved, what's to stop the organized
gangs from becoming general chaos-creating terrorists ?

this is where partisan bickering breaks down the whole fucking system.
there has to be a multi-leveled, multi-front solution, and everyone
has to work together toward a common goal.....

and I don't see that shit happening in my lifetime ....

[A Thing of Eternity]

I agree, the bigger crime organizations would not be destroyed by taking away their drug trade, they'd just move into other things (look at how many different things the Hells Angels are into other than just drugs) - but it would put a dent in it at least. You're right that poverty is the real root of the crime, and this wouldn't fix it, but I think it'd be a step in the right direction.

What's to stop the gangs from becomming terrorists? Profit - if you aren't from the middle east I don't see the profit in terrorism. I wouldn't be surprised to see some increases, but lots?? What exactly are you thinking when you say this? I'm not sure if I agree or dissagree with you.

[SandRider]

using a broader definition of terrorist -

I mean what you said - the gangs would expand into other
types of criminal activity - extortion, kidnapping for ransom,
planting bombs on hydroeletric dams, James Bond SPECTRE
kinda stuff. Cargo hijackings. All the things they don't do
now in large amounts because it's easier to sling dope on the
corner.

but you have very intelligent and creative people in charge of
these gangs, and a large group of fearless, immoral zombies
that will follow their orders. I see a potential for big time trouble.
(and there's a case of walking the line between prudence and
reality and Fear-mongering ....)

[A Thing of Eternity]

Tough to say how it would turn out, I think (from my limited experience dealing with the H.A.) that it's more likely that the gangs will branch out more into legitimate business and just continue to opperate in scuzzy and illegal ways. We'll see corporate blackmailing, fraud, bribery, that type of thing, more than kidnapping and bombing IMO...unless someone is dumb enough to open a stripclub in Edmonton right next to Show Girls (H.A. owned... as are all strip joints in Edmonton) and ignore the polite warnings they receive - THEN there might be/was some bombings...

You might be right though, either way, the religious and hardline conservatives will make sure we never find out, and never make one inch of headway against the drug problem.

[SandRider]

this idea I have too is also more centered around the northern
mexican gangs - I'm telling you, there IS NO civil authority.

the gangs are the law ....