Frost Nixon Blu-ray Edition
Frost Nixon starring Frank Langella and Michael Sheen chronicles the famous President Nixon interviews three years after his resignation.
Film making 21/25
Cinematography 22/25
Audio 22/25
Bonus Features 18/25
Total 83/100
Frost Nixon was directed by Ron Howard and stars Frank Langella as President Richard Nixon with Michael Sheen as David Frost. The film is based on the play by Peter Morgan that dramatized the 1977 interview of President Richard Nixon by David Frost three years after the President resigned office.
The film does a great job of quickly highlighting the Nixon resignation and the major events leading up to it to give viewers a basis for the film. The first scenes detail the break in of the Watergate complex and the hearings regarding bugging the Democratic National Committee that Nixon said he did not take part in.
When David Frost sees the resignation on television he sees an opportunity and gets the idea to interview the President but first has to come up with the money to do so. David Frost ends up financing the interview to the tune of $600,000 which was mostly paid by David himself with some funds from wealthy friends.
The interviews take place over a series of four sessions spread throughout a several week period after negotiations between Frost and Nixon’s chief of staff Jack Brennan. Once the specifics are nailed down the first three interviews are handled well by former President Nixon when he confidently walks Frost through his various accomplishments.
The final session involves the Watergate scandal and Frost really turns the tide and takes charge of the interview, getting the President to finally admit that he might have done something wrong. In the heat of the moment Nixon tells Frost that when the President does something it is not illegal, further admitting to a cover up and that he let the American people down.
Frost ends up having no problems recovering his money from the interviews when he did so well getting something out of Nixon after the three years of silence following his resignation. The film ends with Frost and Nixon saying a private farewell and discussing a private moment that was a bit odd for the film but understandable.
Frost Nixon is a well made film and really shows the men behind the titles of President and star reporter as well as shows how the entire affair of the interviews took place. The film really does get into how David Frost was risking his entire career as well as personal money to finance the interviews even after he could not get any television stations to purchase the interviews to air on TV.
Frank Langella does a very good job as President Nixon getting enough of the voice and movements down so you did not have to think twice about who the character is behind the actor. Michael Sheen does well as David Frost with the air of high society and the touch of public idol that David shows in real life.
Frost Nixon showed the characters as they probably were at the time, both in moments of their life that they probably both loved and hated at the same time. In the end both actors did an excellent job of bringing the situations of the characters to life instead of trying to imitate the men they were portraying.
Yes, for Nixon you do get some of the unmistakable accent and gestures which were well documented but the acting completed the picture for you. David Frost may not be as readily a recognizable person to many but Michael Sheen did not struggle to portray a high rolling talk show host who at least pretended he knew what he was doing.
The film shows a lot of the technical aspects surrounding the interview such as the location at someone’s house and the price that Frost had to pay. It also goes into how Frost had to pay for most of the interview himself and ended up almost losing his talk shows due to him working on the interviews.
Frost Nixon received good ratings from critics and did well at theatres as well as its DVD release and now comes out in Blu-ray for some more political drama. The film is entertaining and informative as you get a good behind the scenes look at how journalism was done at the time.
The film captures both sides of the drama of the interview with one side of course protecting the memory and historical perspective of the President. I think David Frost really wanted to give people what he saw they wanted both the truth and an apology.
The Blu-ray edition contains enough extras to be a worthwhile purchase including a couple making of features and a comparison between the real interview and the film one. The Real Interview is a comparative feature about the real interview and compares it to the acted one giving an explanation of how they did it for the film.
The two making of features include an in depth look at the production from cast and crew as well as the real people involved with the actual interview. The additional content on the Blu-ray edition also includes a feature called The Nixon Library which gives an in depth look at the Nixon Library at Yorba Linda, California where Richard Nixon was born and buried.
The bonus features give a better look at both the film and Richard Nixon as well as his accomplishments as President to round out the Frost Nixon film. I highly recommend watching this as a finale to the Presidency of Richard Nixon that shows his sincere apology to the people.