12/18/08: Frost/Nixon (2008)
This was going to be our classy surprise for the Christmas season. Then we forgot that
Frost/Nixon was opening early in select cities. You might have already heard conservatives like Hugh Hewitt saying nice things about Ron Howard’s big-screen adaptation of this hit Broadway play. If so, just act surprised.
The true meaning of
Frost/Nixon is nicely summed up at the end. Crusading journalist James Reston, Jr.—played by Sam Rockwell—is discussing Richard Nixon’s legacy in the wake of the disgraced President’s 1977 interviews with television personality David Frost. The character’s speaking in the modern-day, but he’s still outraged over Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal. Reston giddily notes that President Nixon’s greatest legacy is that all political scandals are now given the suffix of “-gate.”
That’s probably the dumbest political insight you’ll hear this year. Reston would have a point if he noted that Nixon would always have to put up with people wanting to talk about the Watergate scandal. That’s not hyperbolic enough, though. The character of Reston—who was one of Frost’s researchers for the Nixon interviews—is stating that a bit of lazy journalistic shorthand is the most enduring legacy of (as just one example) the first American President to travel to China.
Frost/Nixon is the tale of journalists like Reston, and how gentlemanly President Nixon was in dealing with those types even after resigning from office in 1974. The script—which does a dazzling job of expanding on the original play—returns to Nixon’s early exile after being caught covering up a break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters. Nixon is looking to make a comeback, and his staff is happy to help British talk-show host David Frost attempt to sell a package of interviews. They see Frost as the rare softball interviewer amongst the media that passionately dislike Nixon.
There’s plenty of compelling drama as Frost goes into debt while trying to put together his big opportunity. He’s got some confrontational sidekicks in angry young Reston and the more pleasant Bob Zelnick (played by Oliver Platt in typical scene-stealing style). There’s little confrontation from Richard Nixon, though. Frank Langella—who, like Michael Sheen as Frost, is reprising his Broadway success—plays the most likable Nixon since Dan Hedaya in
Dick. The former President is a good-humored type who actually encourages Frost to be aggressive in the interviews. “No holds barred,” he insists.
Maybe his staff thinks that’s just being polite.
Frost/Nixon, however, understands the 37th President as a man who thrives on confrontation. That can’t be said for the affable Frost. His researchers become convinced that Frost will ruin their reputations by showing interest in anything Nixon accomplished outside of Watergate. As the interviews proceed, Reston and Zelnik get more hysterical over how their fellow journalists will be mocking them for failing to go after Nixon in an appropriately savage way.
It’ll be left to Nixon to come to the rescue. Unfortunately,
Frost/Nixon’s most dramatic moment has no factual basis. It’s also the sole scene where Nixon comes across as a seriously troubled man. The film’s big tension is over whether Frost will properly confront Nixon. The big joke is that this supposedly classic confrontation has been forgotten. The audience sure doesn’t know the ending.
As a result, the film’s most touching moments come from the eager Leftists who are celebrating their idea of victory. Those angry white males would be better off having long conversations with the character of Nixon aide Diane Sawyer. The real-life Sawyer would later go to work for the networks, of course, where she continues to do things like gushing over Obama/Clinton as a “dream ticket.”
Which brings us back to the cartoonish character of Reston. The real-life journalist should sue over how he’s portrayed in both the play and the film. He won’t, though. Reston’s really proud of Frost/Nixon. He’s out promoting the film, and is finding plenty of like-minded journalists looking for a last indulgence of Watergate-era nostalgia. People like Reston capture the institutional mindset of what’s now the media.
Frost/Nixon captures the start of that media’s own sad legacy.
And when it comes to political scandals, some of us use the suffix “-quiddick.”
Make it your own: In theaters now if you’re in Los Angeles or New York City; starting in theaters on Christmas Day if you’re in one of those tacky states that voted for John McCain.
Also, check out Clint Eastwood’s
Gran Torino on Christmas Day. The film’s grimly realistic about the only role left for certain people in our society.
