In Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard employs many of the same techniques that he used in A Beautiful Mind. To me, the wide angle shots that would dissolve into the next scene were especially reminiscent of the 2002 Academy Award Best Picture. Howard’s close-ups of Frank Langella allow the audience to see Richard Nixon as a real person but shots from the side or behind capture the ex-president’s loneliness.
In my opinion, one of the main flaws of the film is the closing shot. Nixon is often seen looking out towards the audience and the final shot shows him alone on his estate. When the camera pulls away, the top of Nixon’s head lines up exactly with the horizon. The vanishing point falls in Langella’s hair, as opposed to his body. The actor should have been shot in the foreground or blocked off to the side to avoid the awkward view.
Otherwise, Frost/Nixon was well directed. Perhaps it is typical of this year’s crop of films that direction was inconsistent and uneven. For example, a good piece of direction is how Howard puts the audience inside David Frost’s head. The tight interview set becomes engraved in the minds of the audience; later in David Frost’s hotel room the entertainer is facing an empty armchair and one expects to see Nixon sitting there, until the silence is shattered by a loud telephone ring.
Both lead actors are excellent. After he won the Tony Award for Best Actor last year for the same role, it was imperative to cast Frank Langella as Richard Nixon. His portrayal was closed to flawless, showing Nixon’s public persona and his personal flaws. Martin Sheen received some criticism but he was in a difficult position: David Frost was supposed to be the lightweight in the film. Sheen combined daft and serious aspects in his character.
Frost/Nixon is also enjoyable for the philosophical questions that were raised. Plato would have appreciated the debate over how can one determine what is right and wrong and Machiavelli would have enjoyed Nixon’s quote that “it’s not illegal if the President does it.”
In addition to Watergate, the interview covers foreign and domestic policy. Frost has trouble landing any blows regarding Vietnam or Cambodia as the ex-president successfully justifies his actions early in the film. When Nixon drops his guard during the latter part of the film, Frost is able to quiz him about the break-in and the failed cover-up, asking if obstruction of justice could ever be justified.
Richard Nixon closes the interview by apologizing to the young people who he discouraged from participating in government. He maintained that he made mistakes of the heart and that he didn’t mean to poison the public opinion of the presidency. Even if Plato spent most of his time debating other issues, he still understood the importance of government and how it should work. Likewise, Nixon expresses a view that arguments about right and wrong aside, all countries require effective leadership. ****