Frost/Nixon (2008)

Frost/Nixon is a 2008 historical drama film based upon the play of the same name by Peter Morgan, writer of The Queen, which dramatises the 1977 televised Frost/Nixon interviews. The film version is 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. The film reunites its original two stars from the West End and Broadway productions of the play, Frank Langella as former President of the United States Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as British television broadcaster David Frost. Filming began on August 27, 2007.

Plot

A series of news reports documents the role of Richard Nixon (Langella) in the bugging of members of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex up until news that the House of Representatives is likely to vote to impeach Nixon. The film then cuts to a behind the scenes view of Nixon making his resignation speech. Nixon is shown leaving the White House in a helicopter and flying away.

Meanwhile David Frost (Sheen) is finishing an episode of his talk show Frost Over Australia, until he comes off set to see Nixon entering the helicopter on a television. He asks a producer to ascertain the worldwide viewing figures for the event.

A few weeks later in the London Weekend Television (LWT) central office, Frost discusses with his producer and friend, John Birt (Matthew Macfadyen), the possibility of an interview. When Frost mentions Nixon as the subject, Birt doubts the likelihood that Nixon would be willing to talk to Frost. Frost then tells Birt that 400 million people watched President Nixon’s resignation on live TV.

Nixon is shown recovering from illness in La Casa Pacifica, in San Clemente, California, discussing his memoirs with literary agent Irving “Swifty” Lazar (Toby Jones), who tells the former president of a request by Frost to conduct an interview. Lazar mentions that CBS was offering $350,000 to Frost’s $500,000. In a series of cutaway interviews, Lazar explains how he managed to talk Frost up to $600,000.

Frost and Birt fly to California to meet with Nixon. On the plane, Frost meets an attractive woman, Caroline Cushing (Rebecca Hall) and invites her to accompany him to meet the ex-president. At La Casa Pacifica, after receiving a tour from Nixon, Frost makes the first partial payment of $200,000. However, Nixon’s post-presidential chief of staff Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon) doubts that Frost will be able to pay the entire amount.

Frost, however, manages to finance the entire fee, by selling his shares in LWT and by calling in help from wealthy friends. He hires two investigators, Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) and James Reston Jr. (Sam Rockwell) to dig for information along with Birt, mainly on the Watergate scandal. Zelnick is a veteran reporter who is outwardly genial; Reston takes a confrontational stance towards Frost, angrily asking him what he hopes to accomplish with the interviews and declaring that he wanted “to give Richard Nixon the trial he never had.” During the research process, Reston mentions a lead in the Federal Courthouse in D.C. that he thinks he can lock down with a week of work, but Frost says they can’t afford to be without him for that long.

Frost is shown trying to sell the series of four interviews (to be broadcast as four 90-minute specials) to the U.S. broadcast networks, but they all turn him down. Despite the financial issues, Frost is able to finance the hiring of recording equipment and a venue and the interviews begin.

Over the first eleven recording sessions (each at two hours in length covering Nixon’s foreign policy, domestic policy, biography, handling of Vietnam), Frost is shown struggling to ask planned “on the spot” questions of Nixon, with Nixon able to take up much of the time during the sessions by making long speeches without enabling Frost to challenge him. The former president fences ably on the Vietnam section and is able to dominate in the area where he had substantial achievements, foreign policy related to Russia and China.

Frost’s editorial team appears to be breaking apart as the two American members (Zelnick and Reston) express anger that Nixon appears to be exonerating himself, and Reston belittles Frost’s abilities as an interviewer. Frost suggests that the four of them separate over a small break for Easter, after having been together almost daily for a month.

Four days before the final session on Watergate, Frost is awakened in his hotel room by a phone call from a drunken Richard Nixon asking Frost what he was doing in his room on a Friday night. Frost answers that he was expecting a call from Caroline inquiring about dinner arrangements. Nixon, in his cups, proceeds to bemoan his lot, suggesting that, like Frost, people of a higher social class brought him down, as they refused to accept him in a high position. Nixon tells Frost that they both know the final interview will make or break the other’s career. If Frost fails to implicate Nixon definitively in the Watergate scandal, then Frost will have allowed Nixon to revive his political career at the expense of Frost, who will have an unsellable series of interviews and be bankrupt.

The conversation knocks Frost into action declaring, “I’ve got to work.” Until now, having spent most of his time selling the show to networks and gaining advertisers, Frost resolves to ensure that the final interview will be successful. He calls Reston and tells him to follow up on the federal courthouse hunch and works relentlessly for three days.

Shortly before the final interview, Frost mentions the phone call; however, Nixon asks him, “What phone call?” and looks very unsettled. As the final recording begins, Frost is a much sterner adversary, providing evidence of Nixon’s full involvement and bringing up damning information about Charles Colson that Reston uncovered, causing Nixon to admit that he did things that would otherwise be illegal, were he not the president. Frost asks if the president took part in a cover-up, at which point Brennan bursts in and stops the recording as Nixon is visibly unable to answer. The president and Brennan confer in a side room, Brennan telling Nixon that there will be “No way back East” if he admits to any cover up. Nixon says he is tired of lying, but thanks his chief of staff as he returns to complete the recording, admitting that he participated in a cover-up and “let the American people down,” and that his political life was now over.

Shortly before Frost returns to the UK, he and Caroline visit Nixon in his villa and Frost thanks him for the interviews. Nixon questions Frost if they really had a discussion on the phone, and asks what they discussed. Frost replies “cheeseburgers,” and bids goodbye to Nixon and leaves. The closing titles describe Frost’s future successes and Nixon’s continued controversy and absence from political activity until his death in 1994.

Release

The film had its world premiere on October 15, 2008 as the opening film of the 52nd annual London Film Festival. It was released in three theaters in the United States on December 5, 2008 before expanding several times over the following weeks. It was released in the United Kingdom and expanded into wide status in the United States on January 23, 2009.

Box Office

The film had a limited release at 3 theaters on December 5, 2008 and grossed $180,708 on its opening weekend, ranking number 22. Opening wide at 1,099 theaters on January 23, 2009, the film grossed $3,022,250 at the domestic box office this weekend, ranking number 16. As of January 26, 2009 the total gross at the domestic box office is $12,231,106, including the international box office the total gross is $14,596,107. The film grossed estimated $420,000 on January 31, 2009. As of February 2, 2009, the film grossed estimated $14,311,000 at the box office and $16,676,001 worldwide. As of February 9, 2009, the film grossed estimated $$15,632,000 at the domestic box office and $19,684,550 at the box office worldwide.

Cast & Credits

• Directed by: Ron Howard
• Produced by: Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
• Written by: Peter Morgan
• Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Matthew Macfadyen, Toby Jones, Andy Milder, Rebecca Hall
• Music by: Hans Zimmer
• Cinematography: Salvadore Totino
• Editing by: Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill

Other Information

• Studio: Imagine Entertainment, Working Title Films, Relativity Media, StudioCanal
• Distributed by: Universal Pictures
• Release dates: October 15, 2008 (London Film Festival); December 5, 2008 (US, limited); January 23, 2009 (UK/US wide)
• Running time: 122 min.
• Country: United States, United Kingdom
• Language: English
• Budget: $25,000,000
• Gross revenue: $$23,661,728 (world-wide)

Links

• Frost/Nixon at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• The Original Interviews website
• Universal Pictures Awards
• Frost/Nixon box office information at The Numbers
• Frost/Nixon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Frost/Nixon at Metacritic
• Frost/Nixon at Box Office Mojo

Tags: Kevin Bacon, michael sheen, Oliver Platt