“Why would I want to talk to David Frost?”
After Hitler, arguably the most hated political figure from history is President Richard Milhous Nixon.
Certainly the most polarizing figure from history, at least.
Nixon’s Presidential legacy is nothing but scandal, crime and fraud. Oh, sure, there are people who think Nixon’s foreign policy was top-notch, but the people who argue that point are attempting to counter the whole scandal, crime and fraud bit. We know what’s important.
In 1974, when Nixon resigned the office of the Presidency, I was 9 years old. I had no idea what these old men were doing on my TV as I ate a breakfast of sugared cereals, fortified with 7 essential vitamins and minerals and bathed in milk. Blah, blah, blah, talking heads, so boring. I wanted my Spider-Man and my Bugs Bunny!
Some people, many people, in fact, still think that politics is boring, nothing but a bunch of blathering old bores, taking up space on the people’s high-def entertainment centers. People may not want Saturday morning cartoons anymore, but they certainly don’t understand or, frankly, care, about what rich old people are talking about in studios in the District of Columbia or New York City. People would rather watch people eat live bugs in a competition for the prize, or find out what Lindsey Lohan wore to the Oscars, or whatever.
I think, in large part, that this sad state of affairs is a result of the decisions of the people who sit atop the entertainment corporations. There’s been a reduction of the momentous decisions and actions that our leaders take, a reduction to the level of… gossip. Entertainment. And that reduces people like President George W. Bush from what he is (a radical who has challenged and distorted almost every aspect of the Constitution upon which our country has been founded, and has abused his office to sow death across the globe and reap huge profits to himself and his cohorts) to the same level as… a movie producer, a celebrity, a “mogul”. Opinions differ, they say, and then they quote one from column A (“I don’t like him!”) and one from column B (“I love him!”).
This is a simplification, of course, and just one man’s opinion.
But having just watched “Frost/Nixon”, I can tell you, that there was a time, way back in the ancient times known as 1976, when the world of the disgraced leader Nixon intersected with the world of the glitzy celebrity of David Frost.
And, apparently, the two worlds reversed their importance.
That’s the take I get from watching this movie. David Frost was a flibbertigibbet, a nonsuch, a fluffy emcee, a light-weight. Frost was not a polarizing figure; if you cared about him at all, you either enjoyed his schtick, or you envied him his glamorous lifestyle.
Frank Langella’s Nixon, trying to complete the cover-up of his crimes, tries to cloak himself in the cotton-candy of David Frost. And watching Michael Sheen’s Frost slowly wake up to the fact that he’s being played is compelling.
Most of the movie, once the characters and background are set, is nothing but watching two men talk to each other, while others root from the sidelines. And as boring as that may sound to you, I am here to tell you that it was riveting.
And maybe, seeing the two worlds intersect, will help you untangle them again. Because I think it’s important.
It’s difficult for me to set aside the implications, even today, of Nixon’s actions. Luckily the movie provides me a surrogate in the ever-likeable Sam Rockwell’s character, playing journalist James Reston, Jr. It’s Reston’s real-life work that created the background for this movie. And I recognized my anger at President Bush’s actions today in Rockwell’s rants about trying to get a confession from, and conviction of, Nixon in the film.
But setting aside the politics, the characters and their interactions, as played by Langella and Sheen, stands by itself and makes a extraordinary story.