Frost/Nixon

Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: April 21, 2009.
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Toby Jones, Rebecca Hall, Matthew MacFayden
Year: 2008
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The Movie:

The idea of a movie based on a play that was in turn based on an interview shoot for television more than thirty years ago, admittedly, sounds a little dry, doesn't it? Why would you want to see film actors recreating what stage actors recreated rather than simply go straight to the source and watch the old interviews themselves? Well, in the case of Ron Howard's five time Oscar nominee Frost/Nixon, the reason is simple - the story behind the now legendary interview between David Frost and Richard Nixon is as interesting as the interview itself.

The screenplay by Peter Morgan, based on his own play, sets the stage two years after Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) has left the Whitehouse due to his involvement in the Watergate controversy. Still bitter over that issue, he's approached by a British journalist named David Frost (Michael Sheen) who pays him six hundred thousand dollars to do his first televised interview since he left office. Frost figures that since over four hundred million people watched Nixon's resignation speech that his interview will find similar success and bring him the recognition he wants in the United States, while Nixon and his crew, made up of Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon) and Diane Sawyer (Kate Jennings Grant) with some early assistance from Swifty Lazar (Toby Jones), see this as a way for the former President to redeem himself in the eyes of the American public and tell his side of the story.

Nixon's team figure this interview will be a cinch, but despite a detailed contract between the two parties dictating what can be talked about and when, Frost has put together his own team - John Birt (Matthew Macfayden), James Reston Jr. (Sam Rockwell), Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) - who really know their stuff and have every intention of making this interview the trial that Nixon never got thanks to his pardon from Gerald Ford. In short, they intend to put the screws to him. While Frost deals with investor problems and chases the beautiful Caroline Cushing (Rebecca Hall), Reston and Zelnick are preparing to help Frost, regarded more as a performer than a legitimate journalist, take on a very clever political opponent with a very obvious agenda of his own.

Howard keeps the pace moving but it's Langella and Sheen who really keep this film alive. Their performances are excellent. Langella plays Nixon as a down but not quite out fighter, a man who is nothing short of incredibly pissed off about what happened to him and who doesn't really care who knows it. He's a bit of a homophobe and a bit of a racist, though he'd likely never see himself that way, and he's portrayed as in quite a bit of pain. Frost, on the other hand, really evolves as this film plays out, from a fairly aloof hotshot to a considerably more serious journalist by the time the interview starts to pick up. There's a ridiculous amount of depth to these two portrayals that really elevates this film into something incredible, something more than just a simple recreation. Langella, in fact, is so good here that you soon forget that he doesn't really look or sound all that much like the Nixon we knew - it doesn't matter. He doesn't play the Nixon of caricature or political cartoons, he plays a very real human being. Likewise, Sheen, who does bare a pretty uncanny resemblance to the real David Frost, also gives his character a massive amount of believability as we see him change from cocky and self assured to a man really wrestling with his 'opponent' in front of the entire world.

Howard's film doesn't take sides. Nixon is not portrayed as a bad guy and Frost is not championed. It's a pretty impartial work that simply allows two brilliant actors to do what they do best. It's a brilliant and subtle film that lets the performances most of the work and a film that is absolutely worth every minute spent with it.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Universal's 1080p VC-1 2.40.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer of Frost/Nixon looks excellent. Detail is strong throughout, especially in facial close ups of which there are plenty. Some of the opening stock footage inserts are a little worse for wear but that's to be expected and the newly shot material looks uniformly excellent throughout. Black levels and shadow detail are nice and strong while color reproduction looks lifelike and natural even if the film makes use of a more subdued color palette than you might expect it to. Skin tones are perfect and there are no problems with mpeg compression or edge enhancement. Some mild grain is noticeable but it's never overpowering or in the least bit distracting. This is a more subtle transfer than a lot of recent films, so you have to keep that in mind when discussing the picture quality, but this Blu-ray really does do a fantastic job of replicating Howard's intended look and tone.

The primary audio track on this release is a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track in English with optional DTS 5.1 tracks available in French and Spanish. Subtitles are provided in English SDH, French and Spanish. As you'd understandably expect from a movie centered on an interview, this is a pretty dialogue intensive track. This is a movie that doesn't require a lot of sound effects, so you don't get the kind of immersion that you would from a more action oriented film. That said, the audio quality here is very good. You'll notice some very subtle surround usage when the movie calls for it, such as the scenes where Nixon gets out of his limo and is bombarded by the press, and these moments flesh things out very effectively. Dialogue is crystal clear throughout and there are no problems at all with any hiss or distortion. This may not wind up your new home theater demo disc, but it certainly does the movie justice.

The extras start off with a commentary track from director Ron Howard that, while quite interesting in spots, suffers from regular periodic 'quiet spots' where the man more or less clams up. When Howard is talking, he's definitely on and delivers some interesting stories about putting this rather unique picture together, how the play was adopted for the big screen, why he shot certain parts of the movie in sequence to keep the performers in character and other, standard subjects like scoring, casting, and locations. What's here is good, and quite interesting, but it might have been better had there been a moderator on board to keep Howard moving along.

From there, dig into the half an hour's worth of deleted scenes that have been included here (presented in SD only, while the rest of the extras on the disc are all in HD). While none of these excised bits would have changed the film if they'd been included, they do serve to flesh out the two main characters a fair bit as well as their respective relationships with some of the supporting characters, a prime example being an interesting bit between Nixon and Lazar and some even more interesting bits involving Frost and his research team.

Up next, we move on to the first of four featurettes. The Making Of Frost/Nixon is a very good twenty-plus minute look at how the film was put together by way of bringing the play to the screen and proper casting. The principal cast and crew appear here to talk about their work on the film and it's interesting to hear from Langella in particular, who discusses how he tried to 'be Nixon' for the entire shoot, which must have drove some people nuts. Discovering Secrets: The People And Places Behind The Story is an all too short thirteen minute segment featuring interviews with the real David Frost as well as members of the Smith family, who you'll remember allowed the use of their house for the interviews to be shot in. The featurette also touches on how as many real locations were used as possible, to give the film some genuine authenticity. The Real Interview is a seven minute clip from the actual interview that gives us a good indication of how accurate the recreations are in the film, while the six minute The Nixon Library segment is an interesting exploration Nixon's Presidential Library and what sets it apart from other Presidential Libraries.

Universal has also supplied some interesting interactive content courtesy of their U-Control functionality, the first of which is a very well done Picture-In-Picture track that plays out scene specifically for the entire film. There's a lot of very interesting material in here including quite a bit of input from David Frost who shares his thoughts on the play, the film, and his work. James Reston also shows up here as do many of the performers, Langella in particular, who really opens up about his method acting and his work on this picture. The second U-Control supplement is The Nixon Chronicles, which delivers a fair bit of very welcome historical context as the film plays out, elaborating on various historical details and the influence that many of these events had on American history and the state of political journalism. A wealth of archival clips featuring Nixon flesh this out quite nicely.

Rounding out the extras are some classy menus, chapter selection, and some Blu-ray live capability. Surprisingly, the trailer for the feature is nowhere to be found on this release.

The Final Word:

A surprisingly intense and engrossing political character study, Frost/Nixon makes for incredibly riveting viewing and Universal has really gone all out with their excellent Blu-ray release issuing very strong A/V quality and a wealth of interesting and appropriate supplements.