Frost/Nixon

You better not shout, you better not cry
you better not pout, I'm telling you why
Richard Nixon's coming to town!
Well, after all, when you get right down to it, is anyone more Santa-like than Nixon? Yeah, good point. Maybe I better just get on with talking about the movie.

I have long been an admirer of MOST of the films of Ron Howard(let's face it, folks, did anyone really like "The Grinch"?), and prior to last Friday, the 12th, I would have said that "Apollo 13" was his best movie (and actually DID, on a number of occasions). But then I saw "Frost/Nixon", one of the most astonishing movies I've seen in ages, with one of the most incredible performances, and had no choice but to change my mind.

I'm old enough to remember watching the actual Frost/Nixon interviews back in 1977, and even then I think I always knew that there must have been a really fascinating story behind them. In "Frost/Nixon", Ron Howard (aided by writer Peter Morgan, with a screenplay based on his original stage play) confirms that in no uncertain terms. Three years after he resigned from office as a result of Watergare, Nixon still had not given a single major interview or even come close to admitting any participation in the Watergate break-in or cover up. Probably the least likely person to get such an interview (and in the process "give Nixon the trial he never had", as one of Frost's researchers puts it) was David Frost, up until then known primarily as a comedian and variety/talk show host whose career was not what it had once been and who was looking for a means of bringing it back to life. Frost seemed to think that the interviews would be a simple way of getting back in the spotlight, and Nixon saw them as a way to "clear his name" while avoiding the harder questions he'd probably get from people like Dan Rather or Mike Wallace. Both of them wound up being very surprised.

Howard presents the two sides as brilliant strategists fighting a series of battles aimed at winning an ultimate war, and even someone (such as myself) who knows the outcome will still find themselves on the edge of their seats as Nixon throws Frost an ingenious curveball, and Frost (after starting to take his opponent more seriously) tosses back a casual statement that has Nixon reeling. Howard achieved something of the same effect on "Apollo 13", another true story where the outcome was already known, but on "Frost/Nixon" the effect is even more powerful, with the end result of this war having a dramatic effect on not only the country, but, in the end, even the world.

Of course, as dramatic and well-told as the story itself is, the film could have been a near-miss if the performances had been less than they might have been. No need to worry. I quite literally could not name so much as one single instance of an actor portraying a real person that I've EVER seen that matches what Frank Langella does here as Nixon. It's comparatively easy to simply ape Nixon's voice and physical mannerisms (though not every actor who's played him has managed to do even that), but Langella achieves the surface stuff and then goes way, WAY deeper, down into the very core, the very soul of who and what Richard Nixon was, and puts it right up there on the screen. You're virtually watching Nixon incarnated on the screen, sitting right there in the room with the real thing. Langella's achievement borders on scary, and if he doesn't get an Oscar for it there truly is no justice. In fact, he's so good that he could probably overshadow some fine work by the other members of the cast, particularly Michael Sheen (Tony Blair of "The Queen") as Frost and the seemingly ever-present Kevin Bacon as a fierce, determinedly loyal Nixon staff member. Hopefully that won't happen, though, as they also make essential contributions to the movie that deserve to be recognized.

There might be people old enough to remember the interviews who don't see the potential drama in a simple re-enactment. Well, this film is much more than a simple re-enactment: it also gives you the story behind the scenes that you never saw, looks more deeply into the characters of its participants than you've ever seen, and makes clear the historical significance of those interviews. "Frost/Nixon" is every bit as powerful a political drama as "All The President's Men", and then some. There may also be younger people who won't understand the relevance of something that happened 30 years ago to what's going on today. They would do well to compare the Richard Nixon story to what George W. Bush has done over the past eight years, and be aware that what happened with Nixon (other than HIS getting caught) is not that far removed, and that the earlier story has a lot of light to shed on the latter. And oh, if only some intrepid current David Frost could go after Bush in a similar manner!

In fact, a subject that might to some seem dry and boring has in fact resulted in what, as far as I'm concerned, is the single best major Hollywood studio-released film of 2008 (I know it's going to be number one on my list), with possibly the most effective recreation of an actual historical figure of all time. "Frost/Nixon" is an incredibly powerful, amazing film on an emotional, intellectual, historical... oh, on any kind of level you'd care to name. It's amazing that commercial Hollywood is still capable of something like this, and it certainly doesn't happen often enough. Which would make it a real mistake if you decide not to go and see it. Maybe not quite as big a mistake as the ones Nixon made, but still...