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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 12/03/2008 : 10:52:45
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Frost/Nixon
With screenplays about Idi Amin and Queen Elizabeth under his belt Peter Morgan's carving out a respectable niche in squeezing drama from real lives - we'll forgive him The Other Boleyn Girl. Frost/Nixon of course documents the four part television debate originally produced by former BBC Director General John Birt but then an executive at London Weekend Television. Morgan based his screenplay on his stageplay and that's partly where this arresting film veers off the rails.
It ends up being not quite a film, its theatrical origins peeking frequently from under its skirt. The fact that it holds your attention for two hours has much to do with Ron Howard's unfussy direction, opening out some of the scenes to impart a real sense of the complex international lives led by the eponymous duo. And it is the performances of Langella and Sheen more than anything which keeps us engaged.
For those too young to remember ex-president Richard Nixon who resigned his office due to dirty re-election tricks, was after several years persuaded to face up-and-coming broadcaster David Frost in what was supposed to be a no-holds barred four-part interview about his time in office, his private life, and the one everyone was really interested in - Watergate.
It's giving nothing away in this accurate re-telling of history to say that the interviews catapulted Frost from the show-biz world to an international political arena. They also served to damn Nixon even among his most staunch supporters.
Though the combo of make-up and both actors' talent to suggest rather than carbon-copy real people works well, it's the transformation of each character taking place before our eyes - and not always evident in the writing - that is the core of the piece.
Yes, of course, the film reminds us of the politics that invades and controls both governments and entertainment empires. But it is just as much about the emotional developments of the people who get seduced into those worlds and whether or not they can come to terms with any moral sacrficies and betrayals they make, whether by choice or expediency.
I don't know enough about any of the satellite characters to know how accurate they are, but every single actor who inhabits them is excellent in his/her own way. The only person I wish had more screen time was Sam Rockwell as newspaperman supreme James Reston. It was, after all, his findings that provided Frost with the ammunition he needed in confronting Nixon.
But it's Rockwell and his cohort of supporting actors who fill in the gaps of Morgan's script. I can see the necessity to keep focussed on the two adversaries, but the comparative lack of screentime for the others sometimes diminishes them as people.
But maybe that's the point. When a has-been lion on the way down is losing his roar, and a prince waiting in the wings finds his voice, everyone around them is just a pawn in the game.
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 12/03/2008 : 11:36:11
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
Frost/Nixon
When a has-been lion on the way down is losing his roar, and a prince waiting in the wings finds his voice, everyone around them is just a pawn in the game.
Gotta love those metaphors. 
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Salopian 
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/16/2009 : 00:36:38
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| By the way, there is a D.V.D. of the original interview in The Independent tomorrow (Saturday). |
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Salopian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/17/2009 : 04:30:53
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Frost/Nixon
I watched this with a live televised Q&A (from elsewhere in London) afterwards. It was very self-congratulatory and not very interesting, so I left before the end (something I wouldn't do if they were there in person), but one thing I remember is that they said at previews everyone in the United States only asked about Nixon, whereas everyone here only asked about Frost.
I noticed during the film that the Frost actor's accent seemed to oscillate between an impression of Through the Keyhole and what just sounds like a general accent, and wondered whether Frost did sound the same in those days. When I saw the advert for the above D.V.D., the voice is very similar but I think that some of the impersonation in the film goes a bit far. That's not disastrous of course.
As someone else has mentioned, it's interesting how one can accept the Nixon actor's face as Nixon's. Periodically, Nixon's face would pop into my mind, but then I'd go back to seeing the actor as Nixon.
I liked the film more at the time than I do now, since I have read reports of Nixon smirking on his way out, i.e. presumably having just tactically decided that he needed to pay lip service to apologising. Hhmmm. |
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Frost/Nixon
