I recently watched the movie Frost Nixon. If you google enough search results, you will find that the movie has indulged in in its own latitudes and the background through which Nixon came to the confession might not be exactly as shown. The phone call from Nixon definitely seems to be pure fiction. None the less, the movie makes for a riveting watch.This is why..
I am a movie buff and also love politics. Few politicians in last 50 years have received the kind of attention that Nixon received. He was considered efficient (his achievements in foreign policy as well as on domestic front would probably make him amongst the top 2 American presidents of the last 50 years). At the same time, he was considered extremely mean, revengeful and someone for whom politics was an everyday war. All of it came out in the Watergate scandals and more so, in his interviews with David Frost. The movie has some defining moments which if you watch it next, you should look out for:
a) One of the researchers, who has stridently anti-Nixon, while describing the final confession from Nixon describes how television as a medium just deconstructs you in the most vivid fashion. (Think about what Arnab Goswami's interview did to Rahul Gandhi...the television had reduced Rahul Gandhi to a picture of a hesitant politician struggling with the hustle of a general election, articulating what was mundane and ill at ease with the reality that he faced. No words or allegations about Rahul Gandhi could have proved the same and all of it just happened within 2 hours of the interview.)
b) At one place, Nixon says that Democrats got an opportunity and they stuck the knife in and made sure it hurt to the maximum. In the same breath, he has no qualms mentioning that if he was in their shoes, he would have done the same.
c) While Nixon has zero regard for Frost, to the point of disdain, the greeting would always be a warm "Mr. Frost" As the movie is coming to a close, Nixon probably gives a better perspective of what he thought of Frost with all his flamboyance and partying ways. Nixon thinks that Frost loves to be around people which should make him a better politician and Nixon with his love for the intellect & rigor would make a better journalist.
d) The description of the chief of staff (played by Kevin Bacon) of the first salvo in the interview (where Frost and team came prepared with the question to nail Nixon and the big winding nothing response they got from Nixon) is really good.
e) Finally, the waiting game that Frost plays, and I am not sure if he planned it this way, till the time Nixon gave him an opportunity makes for a fascinating viewing.
a) One of the researchers, who has stridently anti-Nixon, while describing the final confession from Nixon describes how television as a medium just deconstructs you in the most vivid fashion. (Think about what Arnab Goswami's interview did to Rahul Gandhi...the television had reduced Rahul Gandhi to a picture of a hesitant politician struggling with the hustle of a general election, articulating what was mundane and ill at ease with the reality that he faced. No words or allegations about Rahul Gandhi could have proved the same and all of it just happened within 2 hours of the interview.)
b) At one place, Nixon says that Democrats got an opportunity and they stuck the knife in and made sure it hurt to the maximum. In the same breath, he has no qualms mentioning that if he was in their shoes, he would have done the same.
c) While Nixon has zero regard for Frost, to the point of disdain, the greeting would always be a warm "Mr. Frost" As the movie is coming to a close, Nixon probably gives a better perspective of what he thought of Frost with all his flamboyance and partying ways. Nixon thinks that Frost loves to be around people which should make him a better politician and Nixon with his love for the intellect & rigor would make a better journalist.
d) The description of the chief of staff (played by Kevin Bacon) of the first salvo in the interview (where Frost and team came prepared with the question to nail Nixon and the big winding nothing response they got from Nixon) is really good.
e) Finally, the waiting game that Frost plays, and I am not sure if he planned it this way, till the time Nixon gave him an opportunity makes for a fascinating viewing.
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