Frost/Nixon

Bea says: Seen at a favourite venue of mine, the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, late on a cold, wet Sunday afternoon. The cinema was rammed with people going to see "Milk", but "Frost/Nixon" was our choice, luckily. Before seeing this film I knew a few things about Watergate - mostly that it involved President Nixon in a not very flattering way, and I knew of David Frost as a fairly serious political interviewer (imagine my surprise when I saw the lightweight TV he was doing prior to the interview). That's about it - sketchy. I think this film was probably made for people of my generation; it filled in the gaps in my knowledge, and I found the story gripping from start to finish. Frost as a character doesn't really come out of it very well, despite the interview being his idea originally; he comes across actually as more of an ideas man, without the necessary tenacity to follow things up, and without his crack research and production team the interview as we know it would never really have happened (although that is probably true for many key television interviews in history). A few scenes stay with me - Nixon's phone call to Frost which changed the direction of the interview entirely; intentional on Nixon's part perhaps?? Late in the film, the scene where Frost watches Nixon leave the filming, knowing what has just happened, and knowing what he has just done - a slightly bitter victory. And toward the end, and I probably paraphrase here: "people only remember Watergate because every political (and other) scandal now has a -gate attached...". That is, I am afraid, true for me.

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Cecil says...For me, the Watergate hearings conjure up memories of the TV being on all day - something we were definitely not normally allowed as kids - and dominating a summer holiday (at my uncle's?); and the famous Nixon sweaty-armpits moment...The whole episode is one of the early big political moments in world politics at a time when I was gradually becoming more politically aware. Fascinating for me, therefore, was to hear from Bea after the film how little she really knew about Nixon and the Watergate story. Even more fascinating was to meet Bea's cousin after the film: this guy was not even born when Watergate happened so it is part of his educated awareness but not something that has any personal resonance for him. It made me think that for someone of his age, Watergate must be a bit like Suez for someone of my age: not quite born so no sense of the time or the people involved, but aware through education and listening to older people of just how significant this moment was in history.

So 'Frost/Nixon' didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know about the events of the time; nor did it give me any real insight into Nixon, who was pretty well laid bare at the time. As Bea says, the only intrigue in the film was this mysterious phone call from Nixon to Frost on the night before the final interview. Did it really happen? Why does Nixon have no memory of it, or why does he pretend it didn't happen?

But it is Frost, whose characterisation interested me. As a small boy, Frost was famous for me as one of the men who did 'That was the week that was' (a kind of Have I got News for You of its day, but in sketch-format rather than a quiz); his time as a trivial TV presenter is lost in my memory, but then he returns in more recent years as the presenter of the BBC's main Sunday morning political programme. He was never seen as a real hard-hitting political interviewer in the Brian Walden, John Humphries mode, though - in fact, in my vaguely political circles in the 1990s, I seem to recall him being considered a bit of a soft touch.

I hope one day the BBC do a more substantial profile of the guy. How did he progress from satirical comedy to trashy trivia to interview with Nixon to his own Sunday morning programme? Was the Nixon interview really his only punchy interview which broke new ground? Certainly he comes across in the film as a rather dislikeable character, more interested in glamour than substance, and only really working for a few last-minute hours on the preparation of this Nixon interview which gave him all the fame when, as Bea says, it is unlikely he'd have got anywhere without his researchers.

The final credits to the film amused me - and showed, I guess, that the film - as all US films - is targeted at an American audience. They gave a little list of 'what are they doing now'- style mentions, and Frost apparently has an annual summer party, which is 'still one of the big events on the London social scene' - well, this may impress an American audience, which probably sees the 'London social scene' as something to be in awe of, but it's not on my to-do list and somehow, I don't imagine I'll be getting an invite soon - but with a character like that, would I want to be invited?

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