What if Conan O'Brien landed a series of interviews with former President George W. Bush? And what if, towards the end of hours of slightly interesting political banter, the president admitted that there had been no real evidence to go to war with Iraq? Such an implausible scenario is precisely the story of Ron Howard's Oscar-nominated film, Frost/Nixon. Having resigned the presidency on the heals of Watergate, the disgraced Richard Nixon is shown plotting his redemption from his Californian ocean-side mansion. Director Howard portrays the infamous president as a somewhat awkward man with little use for small talk who, despite his public disgrace, believes he will soon return to political power. An opportunity for such a return presents itself in the unlikely form of British television personality David Frost.
In the film version of this story (the original Frost/Nixon interviews were broadcast in 1977 and are available on DVD) Frost is a talented showman and savvy business man but hardly possessing the experience and gravitas to interview the man so reviled by much of the nation. Once Nixon had received a presidential pardon from his successor there was no chance he would ever stand trial for the crimes he was accused of. In Frost/Nixon we glimpse a nation in need of catharsis. Honor and dignity had been sullied with no hope for restoration on the horizon. American expectations for the man known as "The Bubonic Plagiarist" from his days hosting a variety show seemed impossible to meet.
As the film progresses Frost begins to feel the weight of these expectations. What began as a savvy media deal had turned into a public trial, a last chance for justice. Michael Sheen as David Frost captures the slow dawning of this awesome responsibility. As he experiences the power and prowess of Richard Nixon (convincingly played by Frank Langella) Frost realizes just how desperate his situation has become: these interviews may grant the most hated man in American a new lease on his political life.
It is the tension between Frost, the out-of-his-league television personality, and Nixon, one the world's most powerful men, that drives this film. Here we see the foolish things of the world shaming the wise. No one is more surprised than Frost at Nixon's eventually revealing answers. The films climactic moments leave the constantly chattering host literally speechless, gasping for air. Director Howard does not reveal whether the lives of these two wildly different men ever intersected after the interviews, but then it probably doesn't matter. For a few days in 1977 the man known as "Tricky Dick" met his match. Catharsis, it seems, is surprising in both its form and timing.
