Frost/Nixon (2008) on Netflix
British talk show host David Frost wants to interview Richard Nixon on television after Watergate. Nixon agrees, expecting to outmaneuver an interviewer known for entertainment, not politics.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.6/10116,420 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
After Richard Nixon resigns over Watergate, British talk show host David Frost pursues a series of televised interviews with him. Nixon accepts, drawn by the guaranteed fee and the chance to appear presidential again, and he believes he can railroad a host known for entertainment rather than political interrogation. Frost brings in his producer John Birt and hires Bob Zelnick and James Reston Jr. to research and prepare. Nixon's chief of staff, Jack Brennan, keeps watch. American networks turn the project down, so Frost finances it himself, striking deals with advertisers and local television stations. Before the cameras roll, the two sides negotiate ground rules, including how much of the interviews may deal with Watergate.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Frost/Nixon (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To prepare for his role as Richard Nixon, Frank Langella visited the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California, and interviewed many people who had known the former president; on the set, the cast and crew addressed Langella as "Mr. President".
- Jonathan Aitken, one of Nixon's official biographers, rebukes the film for its portrayal of a drunken Nixon making a late-night phone call, which never happened. Ron Howard called it a deliberate act of dramatic license, noting Nixon had occasionally made midnight phone calls during Watergate that he could not recall the next day.
SPOILER
Drew points out that a critical line in the movie is particularly deceptive: on screen Nixon admits he "was involved in a cover-up", with an ellipsis the audience cannot see, when what he actually said was "You're wanting me to say that I participated in an illegal cover-up. No!"- Warren Beatty was offered the role of Richard Nixon and turned it down, because he felt that Nixon was not treated compassionately.
- Elizabeth Drew, author of Richard M. Nixon (2007), noted inaccuracies including a misrepresentation of the end of the interviews and the failure to mention that Nixon received 20% of the profits from them.
- According to a 2014 Baltimore Sun article by Jules Witcover, Nixon did not admit his guilt until he was interviewed in 1983 by former White House aide Frank Gannon, played by Andy Milder in the film.
- Caroline Cushing Graham said in a December 2008 interview that her first trip with Frost was to the Muhammad Ali fight in Zaire, and that the two had been together for more than five years before the point at which the film shows them meeting.
