frost / nixon ( film )
david frost (michael sheen) interviews richard nixon (frank langella) in
frost / nixon .
frank langella as richard nixon in the donmar warehouse production of frost / nixon .
frost / nixon film makes u. s. premiere nov. 21 at l. a. paley center
frost / nixon film makes u. s. premiere nov. 21 at l. a. paley center | playbill
frost / nixon
is based on journalist david frost' s 1977 interview with former president richard nixon. frost obtained exclusive rights to interview nixon and on may 4, 1977, forty - five million americans tuned in .
question: you have seen ron howard' s film
frost / nixon .
what did you think of it as theater ?
frost / nixon has received five academy award nominations, including best motion picture .
i loved the movie. sheen is also very good in frost / nixon .
related: listen to david frost' s conversation with frost / nixon star michael sheen and read the daily beast' s interview with former nixon aide diane sawyer .
what really happened behind the scenes in frost / nixon? the new film tells the story of the epic series of interviews between david frost and richard nixon in 1977 that ended in one of 20th century television' s most dramatic confessions .
they do this for cheap added drama. did the same thing with frost / nixon .
frost / nixon is a 2008 historical drama film based on the play of the same name by peter morgan which dramatizes the frost / nixon interviews of 1977. the film version was directed by ron howard and produced by brian grazer of imagine entertainment and tim bevan and eric fellner of working title films for universal pictures .
... a worthy opponent ...
- frost / nixon on blu ray
go behind the scenes with ron howard and hear more abou the making of frost / nixon .
the author (at right with nixon in 1977) guided frost' s questioning on watergate .
the movie ignores that frost and nixon were already well - acquainted: frost had interviewed nixon during the' 68 presidential campaign, and nixon even invited frost to host his 1970 white house christmas party. it' s certainly true, though, that nixon and his aides didn' t take him or the interviews seriously at first .
nixon to answer frost' s question more directly than he otherwise might have. in other words, more or less the opposite of what the play / film depicts .
from nobody to nightmare: nixon views frost as a nobody he can manipulate to improve his image. thanks to this series, frost became a famous interviewer .
this film' s brilliant screenplay, direction and performances capture frost and especially nixon extraordinarily well – and, while it takes a few liberties with the facts, it doesn' t take as many as nixon himself did .
nonetheless, the frost / nixon film, which i look forward to viewing, embodies the historical consensus: nixon was, in fact, guilty and only he, and his apologists, are able to deny this reality .
frost and nixon behave as if they' ve never met before. in real life, frost interviewed nixon when he ran for president in 1968. nixon enjoyed the interview so much that after he was elected, he met with frost in the white house to discuss producing a television special. see more »
“frost / nixon” is rated r (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). crude language .
this film is no vindication of nixon, but it has already resulted in a resurrection of human and historical interest in him .
the on - camera struggle, and the behind - the - scenes drama, inspired the 2006 stage production frost / nixon, starring michael sheen (frost) and frank langella (nixon). film director ron howard adapted the play for the screen, and the film premieres today in new york. actor oliver platt plays zelnick, who went on to work for abc news for 21 years. bu today spoke to zelnick about his views on nixon, frost, and seizing opportunities .
making it happen again in the 21st century with frost / nixon is undoubtedly a cinematic triumph; but the film has other weaknesses when measured against history. as one of the few people who has known both nixon and frost well, i can say that it only catches one of their characters accurately .
: jack brennan as played by kevin bacon is a humorless military man devoted to nixon, who threatens to ruin frost if he makes nixon look bad. in
in the film he came across quite a bitter and almost jealous during the interview with revie, childish even. great film though, sheen is outstanding for me .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing frost / nixon near you .
mind screw: nixon is a master at this, including a hilarious moment when he asks frost if he' d spent the night fornicating moments before the cameras start rolling. subverted when nixon rings up frost in the middle of his heroic bsod; at first it appears he' s trying to further damage frost' s morale, but nixon is actually drunk. when frost realises just before his final interview that nixon can' t remember the conversation, it' s our first sign that the advantage has passed to frost .
frost / nixon ’s iconic tv moment seems quaint after couric / palin. plus: cadillac records hits its groove .
some of frost / nixon is fiction, but playwright peter morgan does grasp why the interviewer is such a winner .
the film reunites its original two stars from the west end and broadway productions of the play, michael sheen as british television journalist / comedian david frost and frank langella as former united states president richard nixon .
the paley center for media presents the u. s. premiere of the new film
frost / nixon ,
which is based on the award - winning play of the same name, nov. 21 .
question: as a professional, and someone who has studied (and written about) richard nixon' s psychology, was this film a psychological portrayal of nixon? answer: yes. i believe the film effort captured the nixon whom i felt i had captured over three decades earlier: a brilliant, socially phobic, cumbersome, omniscient loner .
com journalism professor robert zelnick headed up the research team behind the historic 1977 interviews between disgraced former president richard nixon and british talk show host david frost. the exchanges, and the tale behind them, inspired the 2006 play frost / nixon. director ron howard’s film adaptation of the play premieres today in new york. photo by kalman zabarsky
just saw the film, i really did enjoy it! brought back a lot of childhood memories to. great film. thats two good footie films now after also watching
awaydays
related: listen to david frost' s conversation with frost / nixon star michael sheen and read the daily beast' s interview with caroline cushing graham, played in the movie by rebecca hall .
at the conclusion of
frost / nixon ,
the audience is told that the stupendous success of the interviews ultimately reflected frost' s instinctive grasp that politics and show business had become one .
a dramatic retelling of the post - watergate television interviews between british talk - show host david frost and former president richard nixon .
a dramatic retelling of the post - watergate television interviews between british talk - show host david frost and former president richard nixon .
as frost' s top researcher robert zelnick describes this cathartic moment:' it happened because the nixon staff made it happen.'
british film excelled, pop fans reclaimed music - and it' s been the best of all art years. from frost / nixon to planet earth, scottish national theatre to a bridge on kew, our critics pick their highlights .
the imagine entertainment and working title films motion picture — which features original frost / nixon stage stars frank langella (as former president richard nixon) and michael sheen (as talk - show host david frost) — also stars kevin bacon, oliver platt, sam rockwell, rebecca hall, toby jones and matthew macfadyen. playwright morgan also penned the film' s screenplay .
these shows all began as movies that eventually became broadway musicals that were adapted once again for film .
? the film is already out in the uk at least and has been for a few weeks .
from a certain point of view: after the interviews, nixon privately asks david what it was that he and frost talked about over the phone. frost replies
cheeseburgers .
this is technically true: the conversation started with frost and nixon discussing cheeseburgers (mostly nixon lamenting that his poor health prevents him from eating them anymore)... and then the conversation basically ends, because nixon proceeds to devolve into a bitter, paranoid monologue against anyone and everyone who' s ever wronged him, while frost could only listen in stunned silence .
those are just a sample of the praises the critics have heaped on broadway' s newest hit play ,
frost / nixon .
now look at frost. although he had a brilliant early career in england, which nixon may not have been very familiar with, he is shown in the film as a virtual has - been, exiled to australia. you can count on nixon and his agent swifty lazar (toby jones) to know that frost had failed to find financial backing, was paying nixon out of his own pocket and would be ruined if he didn' t get what he clearly needed. then factor in nixon' s envy of frost' s popularity and genial personality. in one revealing moment, nixon confides he would do anything to be able to attend a party and just relax around people. nixon also questions him closely about his
girl friends .
frost represented nixon' s vulnerabilities, his shortcomings and even some of his desires .
the film is very much done in a documentary style, whereas the play was played for laughs. in the film, you' re never allowed to forget you' re watching something that really happened .
despite that, the book is fantastic. i think i will go and see the film this week .
frost / nixon
will arrive in select u. s. theatres dec. 5 and 12 and will open nationwide dec. 25 .
it' s pretty heady stuff for any play, especially a first play, and that is exactly what
frost / nixon
is .
i found this film fascinating. it is, of course, about david frost' s historic series of interviews with richard nixon, in which he finally extracted from nixon a partial apology to the american people. in the film, frost is depicted as being on his uppers, desperate the rescue a failing career. before his death, david frost denied that this was actually the case. certainly, he was so keen to do the interviews that he paid nixon a high fee for the interview and both protagonists knew that the interviews could make or break them. the drunken phone call from nixon to frost is also an invention, but since he is dead he could raise no objection. both michael sheen as frost and frank langella as nixon give terrific perfomances, but to me the real star is the script, which allows the actors to demonstrate the complexity of their characters and of the situation which they had created by arranging the interviews. it does use dramatic licence, and some critics thought that it made frost' s interviews more important historically than they really were. but as a film, this really works and grabs the attention from the very beginning. although it has fictionalised the events somewhat, it is in an attempt to demonstrate in a dramatic way the characters of david frost and richard nixon. the film was nominated for a number of awards .
i talked to reston jr. in 1976 when he was preparing material for david frost to interview nixon, and later met with frost as well. more importantly, eli chesen, with whom i have discussed nixon over many years because of his 1974 book, president nixon' s psychiatric profile, had a number of off - the - record conversations with reston jr. , which appear to me to have provided david frost with a key to pressing nixon to actually provide something of value during the interviews. i was curious about eli' s take on frost / nixon film. moreover, knowing of eli' s extensive off - the - record dealings with reston, i was interested in his feelings about reston' s emerging as a central character in the film and play. i was surprised by several of his responses – which are reproduced below .
former president richard nixon (frank langella) faces off against tv personality david frost (michael sheen) in the new drama from director ron howard .
it’s twinkle versus glower in the big - screen edition of peter morgan’s theatrical smackdown “frost / nixon. ” directed by ron howard and adapted by mr. morgan, the film revisits the televised may 1977 face - off between the toothy british personality david frost and the disgraced former president richard m. nixon three years after he left office, trimming their nearly 30 - hour armchair - to - armchair spar into a tidy 122 - minute narrative of loss and redemption that, at least from this ringside seat, would be better titled “nixon / frost. ”
the circumstances surrounding this conversation are the subject of peter morgan' s stage play frost / nixon and the film version which he' s adapted for ron howard to direct, with michael sheen and frank langella reprising their astonishing performances as the interviewer and interviewee .
gilligan cut: jim bitterly says that he' ll never shake the hand of a monster like nixon. cue nixon arriving and jim being so starstruck he shakes nixon' s hand almost unconsciously .
of all the films about nixon, this one gives the most interesting interpretation. each variation on the historical record actually contributes to the film. picasso says art is the lie that tells the truth, and that' s very much what i left the cinema feeling. the film - makers got across the mysterious alchemy of richard nixon' s appeal .
the ron howard film will be screened at the paley center los angeles at 7 pm. the evening will also feature a panel led by
frost / nixon
director howard, producer brian grazer and members of the film' s cast. the paley center for media new york will screen the eagerly awaited film dec. 2 at 6: 30 pm. director howard and producer grazer are also scheduled to be part of the manhattan event, which will also boast screenwriter peter morgan .
while frost / nixon reflects his own version of events, morgan contends that the film is “every bit as valid as frost’s version. ” calling the script equal parts fact, fiction and the territory in between, he points out that “already the tv interviews were a distortion of the truth: the nation saw only six of the 28 hours. ”
also, the climactic scene where brennan interrupts frost just as he' s asking nixon to express contrition over watergate, threatening to stop the interview. in frost' s memoirs, he recounts stopping the interview himself over a misunderstanding with brennan
the gma host—who worked for richard nixon at the time of his interview with david frost—talks with the daily beast about her memories of her ex - boss .
nixon was thought to have been destroyed by watergate and interred by the frost interviews. but wouldn' t you trade him in a second for bush ?
now he is a big hit at the box office, too. who would ever have believed it at the time of those frost / nixon interviews ?
very entertaining film, obviously taken a dramatic license but none the less enjoyable for it. michael sheen was excellent .
the cyclical fact - checking seems intractable. ms. basinger first began fielding calls about such questions in film 53 years ago with the premiere of “lawrence of arabia. ” (“the issue was he was crazy, ” she said .) then came “jfk, ” the oliver stone film. “i must’ve done 500 interviews on that. ” then “frost / nixon. ” then “lincoln. ”
the phone conversation at midnight between frost and nixon never actually happened. screenwriter peter morgan got the inspiration from well - known phone calls at midnight, that nixon did to some government members during the watergate scandal. see more »
don' t make me destroy you: jack brennan threatens to wreck frost' s career if he so much as dares to impugn nixon' s honor .
the dynamic between the protagonists is electrifyingly realised by frank langella and michael sheen, even more compelling as nixon and frost than they were on stage. on the account of peter morgan' s meticulously researched script, frost' s team were in despair as they filmed hour after hour in which nixon comprehensively outmanoeuvred his interviewer .
the film accurately captures the frost camp' s despondency at how badly things had gone. what it does not say is that the nixon camp was equally downcast. they realised that by offering nothing new to the american public, no attempt to explain or justify the events of three years earlier, nixon could not even begin to repair his shattered reputation .
a hit when it was staged in london and later on broadway, frost / nixon turned the background preparations for a series of interviews between talk - show host david frost and disgraced president richard nixon into the stuff of high drama. using only a bank of video monitors to establish settings, playwright peter morgan distilled potentially boring question - and - answer sessions into a riveting examination of power, celebrity and corruption. anchored by a tour - de - force performance by frank langella as nixon, frost / nixon was compelling theatre, immensely entertaining and surprisingly suspenseful .
the good morning america host—who worked for richard nixon at the time of his interview with david frost—talks with the daily beast about her memories of her ex - boss .
papa wolf: inverted. jack brennan is extremely protective of nixon, who serves as a father figure, and threatens to ruin frost if he damages his image .
politically incorrect villain: the film paints a more sympathetic portrait of nixon than most, but it does briefly touch on his real life racism when he wordlessly shows his disapproval of an interracial marriage .
the screenplay was adapted by peter morgan, also known for frost / nixon (2008) (a dramatic retelling of the post - watergate television interviews between british talk - show host david frost and former president richard nixon) and rush (2013) (the merciless 1970s rivalry between formula one rivals james hunt and niki lauda) .
on the surface, frost / nixon seems like a tougher sell than the queen, which won morgan an oscar nomination. thirty years ago is ancient history for many filmgoers, and directors as varied as robert altman and oliver stone have already tackled nixon' s career. two scenes set this film apart. the final interview between frost and nixon hits all the expected notes of anger, intimidation and remorse, revealing hidden reserves in both characters. it is written, staged and acted on a level that lifts frost / nixon far above what passes for drama in most films. an earlier scene in which a drunken nixon makes a nighttime call to frost' s hotel room is even more astonishing. granted, it' s a showboating turn by langella, but it' s also one of the most breathtaking bits of acting you are likely to see this year .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
in 1974, the watergate scandal brought down richard nixon' s presidency in the united states. he eventually confessed his guilt to the late sir david frost in 1977 .
nice job fixing it, villain: nixon' s late night phone call motivates a demoralised frost to get off his butt and start prepping for the crucial watergate interview .
the film begins as a fascinating inside look at the tv news business and then tightens into a spellbinding thriller. early, apparently inconsequential scenes (frost as a
tv star ,
frost picking up a woman on an airplane, frost partying) are crucial in establishing his starting point. he was scorned at the time for even presuming to interview nixon. he won the interview for two reasons: he paid the ex - president $ 600, 000 from mostly his own money, and he was viewed by nixon and his advisers as a lightweight pushover .
to research nixon, morgan traveled to washington, the nixon foundation and library in yorba linda, calif. , and the nixon western white house in san clemente, calif. he interviewed the surviving participants in the drama, including henry kissinger and the research team that wrote nixon' s memoirs .
however, while ron howard' s film made be bad history, i am told it is wonderful theater. in addition, by bringing this historical event back to light, it has raised a couple of long dormant but important questions: how did frost get nixon to go as far as he did in admitting his role in watergate? and, looking back now, how much did nixon really admit during the interviews? to answer the first question, and to understand how nixon was nudged, i turned to a friend who was involved in that process; indeed, he provided david frost with the key to getting nixon to talk. in turn, i myself can cover the issue of how much or little, in fact, nixon actually conceded to frost and the american public .
in the film, this phone call sets the stage for the final interview. a suddenly courageous frost wrongfoots nixon with new evidence, prompting a dramatic confession from the ex - president. brennan jumps in to stop the interview, but nixon forges ahead :
i let them down. i let down my friends, i let down my country, and worst of all i let down our system of government
. nixon biographer jonathan aitken (who knows a thing or two about politicians and lying) disputed the film' s take on this. he argued that nixon and his team had carefully prepared the confession, but when it came to the actual interview nixon couldn' t bring himself to say it. his entourage – including brennan – helped coax him into admitting his guilt. the film accurately represents perhaps the most revealing quote frost extracted from him :
when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal .
“‘alone yet not alone’ is opening in the fresno / clovis / visalia area because moviegoers requested this film through a new film distribution platform called seatzy, in which the public can participate in the process of supporting the films they love by getting ticket reservations in early (500 minimum) and assuring the film will play in the theater closest to them, ” explained publicist lauren johnston .
daniel day - lewis as abraham lincoln in “lincoln” (2012). the steven spielberg film was accused of having factual lapses .
but the film is not just an exposé on one of television’s biggest stars, or, more generally, an inside look at the entertainment industry. the film highlights the dramatically changing standards to which fans hold their stars, in particular their sexual mores .
plays often lose their energy when adapted for the screen. but even on the stage, frost / nixon had a cinematic dynamism, and howard has only enhanced that quality .
frost / nixon is unsatisfying even if, like me, you’re a lifelong aficionado of nixon - bashing. morgan makes him out to be a great white whale, but when he sat down with frost, nixon was already dead in the water—convicted by his own words in white house transcripts to the point where even his republican allies had long deserted him. and with selective editing, morgan makes it seem as if frost got nixon to admit more than he actually did. the original watergate interview is now on dvd, and there are self - exculpatory escape clauses in every interminable, circumlocutory utterance. when frost read aloud from the white house transcripts, nixon’s eyes darted around as he searched his brain for linguistic loopholes. in frost / nixon, langella’s heavy features move slowly; he seems to be plumbing the depths of his soul and glimpsing, for an instant, the abyss. alas, the shit that dribbles from langella’s mouth is still tricky dick’s .
although frost' s story is not without its intriguing aspects, morgan treats him and his companions as little more than comic relief. (partisans on both sides have complained about the script' s accuracy .) sheen depicts frost as too lightweight to compete with langella' s nixon, underplaying his role in anticipation of the film' s climactic confrontation. the rest of the cast is serviceable if unspectacular .
the film is the perfect embodiment of that interview aspiration ,
flirtation, seduction, betrayal
. nixon' s hubristic flaw is that he thinks he has already got the better of frost by the final session, because he has made mincemeat of him before. and that, of course, is when frost
betrays
him - goaded by his insouciance, he finally finds the passion to strike .
: early in the interview session, frost attempts to trap nixon by playing graphic video footage of the aftermath of his controversial decision to start dropping bombs in cambodia. the idea, no doubt, was to guilt nixon into feeling regret for what happened afterwards
diane sawyer hasn’t seen frost / nixon (the movie). but then she doesn’t have to. she was there—well, not there during the sit - down sessions, but there in the nixon post - white house, helping the resigned president with his memoirs and, more specifically, helping prepare the research he digested before being questioned by david frost .
you never feel like you' re watching a play on film: the way morgan has opened up the proceedings in his screenplay feels organic under the direction of ron howard, who has crafted his finest film yet, and one of the year' s best .
in 1977, three years after the watergate scandal that ended his presidency, richard nixon (frank langella) selects british tv personality david frost (michael sheen) to conduct a one - on - one, exclusive interview. though nixon believes it will be easy to snowball frost, and frost' s own team doubts their boss can stand up to the former president, what actually unfolds is an unexpectedly candid and revealing interview before the court of public opinion .
frost / nixon directed by ron howard. universal pictures. r. cadillac records directed by darnell martin. sony / tristar. r. e - mail: filmcritic @ urltoken .
this shows the situations in which president nixon sits down with david frost and answers questions about his presidency, he explains that he feels the president can do what he ...
both frost and mike wallace of cbs are in the running to bag the nixon interview. the film is right to suggest the decision came down to money. cbs offers $ 350, 000. nixon' s agent swifty lazar (toby jones) gets frost to beat that .
it' ll be a big wet kiss ,
he assures nixon .
this guy' ll be so grateful to be getting it at all, he' ll pitch puffballs all night and pay a half a million dollars for the privilege .
nixon considers this, then replies :
you think you could get five - fifty ?
the shot cuts to lazar confirming :
i got six .
the film doesn' t mention that, in addition to his $ 600, 000 fee, nixon received 20% of the syndication profits from the interviews .
frank langella did capture the brooding quality, the brooding intelligence which nixon had .
pet the dog: after the last interview, nixon plays this completely straight .
and that highlights the final flaw in the film. frost is depicted as the clear winner of the contest, jetting off to greater fame and fortune (correct, although he only just broke even financially on the interviews), while nixon is seen as the abject loser, marooned forever in golf - playing exile .
morgan had doubts that frost / nixon would translate to the screen. so did howard, when morgan first described the play to him. “i didn’t think of it as a film at all, but a little one - act play, ” recalls howard, who, after seeing frost / nixon at the donmar in 2006, phoned his agent to say he was ready to commit to the film. “i found the play surprisingly engrossing, ” says howard, “and i loved what peter did with the characters: he humanized them without being sentimental. and i liked the way he made his point—without taking sides or being preachy. ”
morgan traces his interest in the nixon story to a 1993 two - hour television profile of frost. although the program devoted a mere five minutes to the frost - nixon confrontations, the writer sensed immediately that a play about
two people with everything to gain and everything to lose pitched in gladiatorial combat with one another
held the potential to become exciting theater .
[ from trailer ] david frost: are you really saying the president can do something illegal? richard nixon: i' m saying that when the president does it, it' s * not * illegal! david frost: ... i' m sorry? see more »
the real caroline cushing graham—who’s played by actress rebecca hall in the movie—talks to the daily beast about her romance with frost, drinks with richard nixon, and what the movie gets wrong .
battle of wits between talk - show host david frost and former president richard nixon, based on the stage hit. frank langella' s bravura performance helps make this a dramatic knockout .
i would frankly be quite disgusted should anyone deign to drop me a pm with the contents of a torrent to this film. disgusted .
frost: if this is anything like our conversation last night, it' s sure to be interesting .
in 1978, david frost published his account of his dealings with nixon in
i gave them a sword
: behind the scenes of the nixon frost interviews. there, he explained how he negotiated the deal with nixon for his
television memoirs
for a payment of $ 600, 000 plus 20 percent of the profits from the interview' s airing. when the american networks refused to pay for the four - part program of ninety - minute shows, frost had to assemble his own network and find sponsors. to make it work, frost had to crack nixon' s i - didn' t - do - anything - other - presidents - hadn' t - done defense. it was a high - risk venture that succeeded .
the scene
captures the nixonian self - pity and his sense of being the wrong side of the tracks ,
frost told an interviewer. but unlike nixon, frost said he wanted to make it clear that
i never felt i was born on the wrong side of the tracks .
ron howard' s
frost / nixon
is a somewhat fictionalized version of the famous 1977 interviews, all the more effective in taking the point of view of the outsider, the
lightweight
celebrity interviewer, then in his own exile in australia. precisely because david frost (michael sheen) was at a low ebb professionally and had gambled all his money on the interviews, his pov enhances and deepens the shadows around nixon (frank langella). this story could not have been told from nixon' s pov because we would not have cared about frost .
the queen is hovering at the top of the uk box office and frost / nixon, the play currently packing out the donmar warehouse in central london, is the hottest ticket in town .
but he did this only because frost changed gear, too. instead of crossexamining like a prosecutor on steroids, as he had been, frost offered empathy, sympathy and gentleness to the visibly tormented ex - president .
i can understand why the clough family are so unhappy with the book, though i beleive the film paints clough in a much better light .
nice to the waiter: nixon is portrayed as being quite a pleasant man in this film, his relationship with jack brennan being almost fatherly. whether it averts or sticks to the rule of this trope depends on your view .
then they got to watergate. reston uncovered fresh ammunition to use against nixon; frost surprised his team by finding fire in his belly. he provoked nixon into making the self - damning assertion that
when the president does it, that means it' s not illegal
.
break them by talking: richard nixon attempts to do this to frost with a late night phone call, but as his drunken ramblings progress, all his lines only reveal how broken and full of self - loathing he is. frost doesn' t need to say shut up, hannibal! - he knows that all he needs to do is corner nixon and he' ll destroy himself .
in a repeat of their london assignments, two - time tony award winner frank langella and michael sheen (british prime minister tony blair in
the queen
) portray nixon and frost respectively .
however, frost also pointed out a series of factual errors in the script, some with stunning dramatic license .
there are some revealing moments along the way: the former naval officer nixon doing his morning exercises to richard rodgers' s theme music from the tv series victory at sea; frost leaving his hardworking advisers at the beverly hills hotel as he goes off to the black - tie premiere of the slipper and the rose, his latest film production. the film' s most haunting sequence is peter morgan' s invention, a phone conversation between frost and nixon in which the drunken ex - president suggests they' re both motivated by a sense of being patronised, lower - middle - class outsiders. this is like the dubious meeting between mary, queen of scots and elizabeth in schiller' s mary stuart or gordon and the mahdi in khartoum. when later nixon can' t remember it, one wonders for a second whether it was something going on in frost' s mind .
in the case of “selma, ” jerome christensen, a professor of humanities and a film scholar at the university of california, irvine, noted that several of the film’s opponents were people with close connections to the johnson administration. “it’s a question of reputation rather than accuracy, ” he said .
i had accepted frost' s offer with some reservations. nixon was a skilled lawyer who had denied watergate complicity for two years. he had seethed in exile. for him, the frost interviews were a chance to persuade the american people that he had been done an epic injustice—and to make upwards of $ 1 million for the privilege. and in david frost, who had no discernible political philosophy and a reputation as a soft - soap interviewer, nixon seemed to have found the perfect instrument for his rehabilitation .
age lift: swifty lazar was six years older than richard nixon but toby jones, who plays swifty, is nearly thirty years younger than frank langella, who plays nixon .
it appears destined to have a long life, as ron howard has purchased the motion picture rights. filming is scheduled for this summer, and although warren beatty and kevin spacey are reportedly both vying for the opportunity to portray nixon, langella is negotiating to reprise his stage performance on film. sheen has already been signed to be the screen frost .
the result was one of the most gripping moments in television history. under frost' s coaxing, nixon finally conceded that he had participated in the cover up and lied to the world about it .
frost nixon, brokeback mountain, lily allen, jane eyre, velazquez... what have been your cultural highlights of 2006? we want readers to contribute to our arts review of the year .
i came to see nixon and frost as a combination of ingredients. each had what the other desired ,
he said .
nixon had this extraordinary awkwardness and inability to be liked; frost, this great superficiality, charm and ease with life. yet the moment that i knew i had to write about them arrived when i came to see their similarities and not just their differences .
. however, nixon somehow manages to wiggle out of this by detailing how a philadelphia construction worker wished that nixon had gone into cambodia sooner because it might have avoided the death of his son. it is a masterclass in obfuscation, and frost' s producers and researchers are flabbergasted with how
friends who have seen either the frost / nixon film or the play, and in a few instances both, and many of whom are very aware of these original frost interviews, have all been struck by the dramatic license that peter morgan employed – first, in the play, and then, with steroids, in the movie. washington writer elizabeth drew, who is no nixon apologist, nicely summed up the take of most of those with whom i have spoken when she explained in the huffington post ,
the film' s plot is a contrivance; its telling is so riddled with departures from what actually happened as to be fundamentally dishonest; and its climactic moment is purely and simply a lie .
the third part of the interview will be titled,' nixon, the man.'
answer: the amalgam of howard and langella' s nixon was sympathetic, reflecting nixon' s joyless existence on one hand and his not having suffered fools readily on the other .
this would be the nation' s only chance for no holds barred questioning of nixon on the scandal that drove him to resign the presidency in 1974. pardoned by his successor, gerald ford, nixon could never be brought into the dock. frost had secured the exclusive rights to interview him. thus the prosecution of richard nixon would be left to a television interview by a foreigner .
richard milhous nixon might not end up on the side of mount rushmore, but his face is arguably carved into american pop culture in richer, more complex strokes than the image of any other president. as frost / nixon reaches uk cinemas, ben walters says tricky dicky is ready for his closeup
never my fault: nixon refuses to accept any responsibility for watergate, which is partly why frost and co. want to do the interview: they want him to finally confess and admit his own guilt .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
not sure about the film, but in the book, that scene is written exactly as it happened - clough being consolidatory, yet in total control .
oscar - winning director ron howard brings to the screen writer peter morgan' s (
the queen ,
the last king of scotland
) electrifying battle between richard nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and david frost, a jet - setting television personality with a name to make, in the untold story of the historic encounter that changed both :
frost / nixon .
reprising their roles from morgan' s stageplay are frank langella, who won a tony for his portrayal of nixon, and michael sheen, who fully inhabited the part of frost onstage in london and new york .
that never happened either. for frost did not ambush nixon during the final interview into a damaging admission of guilt. what the former president' confessed' about watergate was carefully pre - planned. it was only with considerable help and advice from his adversary' s team that frost managed to get much more out of nixon, in the closing sequences, by reigning in his fierce attitude and adopting a gentler approach .
unfortunately for frost, most of the recorded interviews were a journalistic disaster. nixon, the master stonewaller, fulfilled his contractual obligation to get through all 24 hours of televised interrogation. although he never actually gave an answer lasting 23 minutes to a single question (as the film suggests), he did succeed in weaving a web of maximum tedium and minimum disclosure .
it' s an extremely enjoyable film and very well made, and they' ve opened out the stage play in quite a clever way. i don' t know if it was peter morgan' s intention, when he wrote it, for nixon to emerge as the hero: the president certainly does in this film, but maybe it' s simply due to frank langella' s amazing performance .
british broadcaster and journalist david frost comes up with the idea of setting up a series of exclusive televised interviews with the disgraced former president of the united states, richard nixon. believing he could use the publicity as a chance to resurrect his political career and make some easy money, nixon agrees but soon realises he has underestimated frost. fact - based drama, starring frank langella, michael sheen, sam rockwell and kevin bacon .
very loosely based on a true story: jack brennan is actually quite funny and not all that stern, nixon got 20% of the ad revenue from the interviews enticing him to want to get more people to watch it, there was no midnight call about
cheeseburgers ,
and frost thought he did a great job on the first three interviews. also, the film overstates the impact of the interviews: many in the media felt that nixon got the best of frost, nixon didn' t admit to anything that wasn' t already public knowledge, and the ratings of the interviews dropped dramatically after the first night (when all of the watergate material was discussed) .
frost pointed out that the delay would result in the interviews being screened in august - a notoriously poor month for ratings .
more than thirty years ago, jet setting beauty caroline cushing graham travelled with her boyfriend david frost to los angeles where he conducted his famous interview with richard nixon. graham, a budding journalist, remained largely in the background, making sandwiches for the two heavyweights and sharing a drink with nixon. before long she was a high powered journalist herself, serving as an editor for vanity fair and the new yorker. today, graham runs a marketing and media relations firm—and remains best friends with frost, who, she insists, isn’t as big of a playboy as the film would have you believe .
james reston jr. is the author of the conviction of richard nixon and 12 other books .
the film conveys the poetic truth of who nixon was magnificently. they got his shambling physical awkwardness, which he learned to overcome when the camera was on. the scene where he has the phone conversation with frost in the hotel late at night quite splendidly captures his political identity, and his ability to reach out to people by speaking to the common condition of being condescended to .
and so he seems during the early stages of the interviews (the chronology has been much foreshortened for dramatic purposes). he sidetracks frost, embarks on endless digressions, evades points, falls back on windy anecdotes. frost' s team grows desperate. consisting of an experienced tv newsman named bob zelnick (oliver platt) and a researcher, james reston jr. (sam rockwell), they implore him to interrupt nixon, to bear down hard, to keep repeating questions until he gets an answer. frost was a man accustomed to being nice to zsa zsa gabor. he didn' t have to be nice to nixon. he had hired nixon .
i loved that film, and if brian clough was half a person he was depicted in that movie he must have a been a real character then. good laugh
but, the purpose of the film was not to present a documentary of amin’s dictatorship – there are a slew of documentaries that serve that purpose. instead, the film was a showcase for the acting ability of mcavoy and, especially, whitaker, who won an oscar for his powerful portrayal of the dictator’s descent into paranoia .
the tale has been given a riveting screenplay by peter morgan (the queen, longford and the last king of scotland) and is magnificently acted by its two stars - frank langella as nixon and michael sheen as frost .
he is a deeper and kinder man, too. it was these underestimated qualities which earned frost the trust of the nixon team and eventually prised the historic lines of regret out of the 37th president of the united states .
not so. this was a win - win result. nixon used his massively viewed' confession' to frost as the springboard to a re - invented role which the cynics called' running for ex - president' .
question: tell me about the character james reston jr. how would you describe this character in the film? answer: the reston character was the film' s moral conscience or, in freudian terms, the film' s superego. the film - reston was a highly fictionalized, self - serving, joan - of - arc - in tennis - shoes kind of person. i see reston as having been a cinemagraphic used car salesman vis - à - vis his narcissistic self - portrayal. while i have no way of knowing whether or not reston objected to his sacrosanct movie paragon, he certainly fell short of objecting to the euphemistic treatment of his soul .
at my suggestion, frost posed his questions with an assumption of guilt. when nixon was taken by surprise—as he clearly was by the new material—you could almost see the wheels turning in his head and almost hear him asking himself what else his interrogator had up his sleeve. at the climactic moment, frost, a natural performer, knew to change his role from inquisitor to confessor, to back off and allow nixon' s contrition to pour out .
from academy award - winning director, ron howard, comes the electrifying, untold story behind one of the most unforgettable moments in history. when disgraced president richard nixon agreed to an interview with jet - setting television personality, david frost, he thought he' d found the key to saving his tarnished legacy. but, with a name to make and a reputation to overcome, frost became one of nixon' s most formidable adversaries and engaged the leader in a charged battle of wits that changed the face of politics forever. featuring brilliant portrayals by frank langella and michael sheen, frost / nixon is the fascinating and suspenseful story of truth, accountability, secrets and lies.
frost/nixon is a 2008 british-american historical drama film based on the 2006 play of the same name by peter morgan , who also adapted the screenplay . the film tells the story behind the frost/nixon interviews of 1977 . the film was directed by ron howard and produced for universal pictures by howard , brian grazer of imagine entertainment and tim bevan and eric fellner of working title films , and received five academy award nominations , including best picture , best actor and best director . the film reunites its original two stars from the west end and broadway productions of the play : michael sheen as british television broadcaster david frost and frank langella as former united states president richard nixon . 
frost/nixon is a 2008 british-american historical drama film based on the 2006 play of the same name by peter morgan, who also adapted the screenplay. the film tells the story behind the frost/nixon interviews of 1977. the film was directed by ron howard and produced for universal pictures by howard, brian grazer of imagine entertainment and tim bevan and eric fellner of working title films, and received five academy award nominations, including best picture, best actor and best director. the film reunites its original two stars from the west end and broadway productions of the play: michael sheen as british television broadcaster david frost and frank langella as former united states president richard nixon.
frost/nixon is a 2008 british-american historical drama film based on the 2006 play of the same name by peter morgan, who also adapted the screenplay. the film tells the story behind the frost/nixon interviews of 1977. the film was directed by ron howard and produced for universal pictures by howard, brian grazer of imagine entertainment and tim bevan and eric fellner of working title films, and received five academy award nominations, including best picture, best actor and best director. the film reunites its original two stars from the west end and broadway productions of the play: michael sheen as british television broadcaster david frost and frank langella as former united states president richard nixon.