February 13, 2012

Video Views Pick: Frost/Nixon

by Art Slavin | Published April 28, 2009

directed by Ron Howard
DVD Release: April 21
R; 122 minutes

With Howard at the helm, Michael Sheen as David Frost and Tony-winner Frank Langella as Richard Nixon transfer their Broadway performances onto the screen in excellent fashion. Along with background commentary provided by the other players in America’s most highly-rated television interview program, Frost’s producer John Birt (Matthew McFadyen), career-conscious Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt), passionately liberal investigator James Reston, Jr. (Sam Rockwell) and Nixon aide Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon), we are allowed backstage leading up to, during and after the legendary 1977 public conversations between the British talk show host and the disgraced former President.

It wasn’t easy getting this seemingly crazy idea to make it to the air, but the ambitious playboy TV star put all he had into making it happen. The first three sessions definitely went in favor of Mr. Nixon, but after an unusual telephone conversation between the two adversaries, the final episode was a bombshell that exploded right in front of us.

DVD Extras: Commentary; Deleted Scenes; Featurettes (“Making of,” The Real Interview, “The Nixon Library”).

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