Frost/Nixon [DVD] [2008] (film on DVD)
from Universal Pictures UK
Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Rebecca Hall, Matthew Macfadyen
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Customer Rating: 
Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
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DVD Box Price: £3.97
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It’s not always that a stage play translates particularly well to the medium of movies. But for anyone considering such a challenge in the future, Frost/Nixon is surely a fine template to follow. In the capable hands of director Ron Howard, the extraordinary story of how a then-fairly low profile television interviewer managed to bring the disgraced former President of the United States to account is, at best, absolutely riveting.Much of the reason for this is the two leading performances, which are both absolutely exception. The awards attention for Frost/Nixon has been directed towards Frank Langella, and truly he’s an actor long overdue some recognition. Here, as ex-President Nixon, he’s flat-out brilliant: a complex, intriguing character portrayed with real measure and expertise. It’s unfair, though, that Michael Sheen has been overlooked by some. Fresh from portraying Tony Blair in The Queen, Sheen is once more brilliant here, injecting Frost with an erratic, on-the-edge fallibility that sets up the film’s final act extremely well. Now you can argue, with some right, that Frost/Nixon flattens out some of the facts to its own liking, and certainly the portrayal of David Frost doesn’t seem to do the man too many favours. But when it gets to the interviews themselves, it’s electric, and proof that you don’t need a bunch of effects and flashy gimmicks to keep you on the edge of your seat. Ron Howard has done this to us before with a true story, in the shape of Apollo 13, and here again, even though we know the ending, the journey there is quite brilliant. You really can make compelling drama with just two people sat in a chair… --Simon Brew Stills from Frost/Nixon 
Michael Sheen stars as journalist David Frost | 
Kevin Bacon stars as Richard Nixon's aide Jack Brennan | 
Michael Sheen and Rebecca Hall | 
Frank Langella works with director Ron Howard | 
A scene in which David Frost visits Richard Nixon’s home |  The superb supporting cast including Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt and Matthew Macfadyen |
A Gripping Drama Sent: 16 August 2010
I thoroughly enjoyed the depiction of Frost as an ambitious and confident young man taking huge risks with his finances and reputation in order to get Nixon in front of a camera giving both a confession and an apology. Nixon is sensitively and roundly portrayed as a skilled politician who is bright and articulate and thoroughly used to wielding power, now exiled and isolated and looking for a way back home. The film is thought provoking and entertaining from start to finish. Younger viewers might be confused by the nature of Nixon's crimes, 'so he broke into and bugged someone's office and lied about it for ages? So what?', because that's nothing by modern standards. It might help them to explain that lying and trampling others to get ahead used to be frowned upon. It's a film not a historical document but it's kindled an interest in me in the real people and events. I was hugely disappointed therefore to discover that the '17 minutes of the real interview' promised on the sleeve was in fact just a few seconds of real footage talked over and around continuously by the Commitee of the Bleeding Obvious splicing it with the film's footage and explaining just exactly what was happening in each frame just in case the viewer was severely mentally challenged. This bit was painful, but the film itself and the 'making of' bits are great and well worth an evening in. Now I'm off to source the real Frost/Nixon tapes.
Inconsequential  Sent: 10 August 2010
Only OK, a bit inconsequential and felt that Michael Sheen on this occasion did not carry his character off particularly. Perhaps more of a storyline would have helped.
wow  Sent: 29 June 2010
Have just watched Frost/Nixon and I got to say how impressed I was with the film, the performances and the direction. You don't think its going to be an
'on the edge of your seat watch' yet it is. I really couldn't fault it, the interviews are close to the originals, they play about with the time frame but as a piece of cinema it works really well. well worth seeing.
Riveting Sent: 16 April 2010
Like at least one other reviewer, I had my doubts about this as a film drama, being based so largely on a series of political interviews. However, I finally took the plunge and have to say it was well worth it. There have been several docu-dramas about Watergate over the years, not least All the President's Men (still a great film), and Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of fairly recent memory. One expects Michael Sheen to shine, as it were, in everything he attempts as he is clearly a rare breed of actor/impersonator, but I have to say that in this film, specifically, the heavyweight acting honours must go to Frank Langella, whose portrait of the disgraced president must rank as the definitive study.
frost/nixon Sent: 14 March 2010
I bought this as a last minute present - ordered on one day and it arrived the next. Great service
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