In Contention

Tag: Richard Nixon

  • New to DVD, the real Frost/Nixon Watergate interviews

    Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate InterviewsAs Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” continues to step up during the film awards season this year, it might be worth noting that Liberation Entertainment has gone to the trouble of putting together a hell of a study guide: “Frost/Nixon: The Original Watergate Interviews,” currently available on DVD.

    Patching together the Watergate portion of Sir David Frost’s legendary four-part interview session with the former Commander-in-Chief, the DVD captures a moment in time that was of course expanded to an edge-of-your-seat drama by playwright Peter Morgan two years ago.

    One thing that I paid attention to, seeing as I’ve never taken the time to view these interviews in the past (and certainly wasn’t around for their original airing), was Nixon’s unmitigated manipulation, reminding me of Robert McNamara’s peculiar obssession with control in Errol Morris’ sublime “The Fog of War” from 2003.  It also adds a whole other perspective to Frank Langella’s performance on stage and screen, clearly an embodiment of Nixon the idea rather than Nixon the man (because a straight impersonation of the man’s disposition from the interviews would have been perhaps overly awkward and flat).

    The piece runs roughly an hour and a half, with introductory and intermission commentary from Frost himself.  There is also, of course, Frost’s book, “Frost/Nixon: Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews,” if you really want to be completest.

    Here’s a trailer for the DVD:

  • 12/12 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Ben Stiller aand Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder• Sean Penn writes in support of dictators Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro. [The Nation]

    • James Kirchick skewers him as “a friend to gays and anti-gay dictators alike.” [The Advocate]

    • And Patrick Goldstien is right on top of it. [The Big Picture]

    • Earlier, Goldstein calls the Golden Globes “the ultimate Hollywood fantasy.” [The Big Picture]

    • Speaking of the Globes, Rachel Abramowitz sees the nominations for Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr. and James Franco as “recognition…of that Apatow brand of ribald comedy.” [The Envelope]

    • Susan King, meanwhile, talks to a couple of actors who’ve taken on the task of portraying Richard Nixon on the big and small screens. [The Envelope]

    • Simon Beaufoy recalls the inspiration for “Slumdog Millionaire” on the streets of Mumbai. [The Guardian]

    • Meanwhile, safely landed back east, David Carr gets Danny Boyle on the phone for reaction to the film’s HFPA acknowledgments. [The Carpetbagger]

    • British talent glitters at the Golden Globes. [The Independent]

    • Eugene Hernandez and Peter Knegt go back and forth on the week in critics kudos. [indieWIRE]

    • Brad Brevet chats with “Wrestler” director Darren Aronofsky. [Rope of Silicon]

    • Kevin Kelly talks to “Reader” screenwriter David Hare. [Spout Blog]

    • T.L. Stanley spotlights Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Sex and the City” Globe snub. [Gold Rush]

    • With “Doubt” releasing, Susan Wloszczyna looks at nuns on the big screen. [USA Today]

    • If Christopher Nolan won’t do a “Dark Knight’” DVD commentary, we’ll step up to the plate. [The Movie Blog]

  • Skeletor yields Nixon?

    Frank LangellaAnthony Breznican’s USA Today profile of “Frost/Nixon” star Frank Langella is a nice sprint through the actor’s career with nice anecdotes from this year’s Best Actor hopeful.  But sue me for relishing the send-off more than anything else:

    In the 1980s, his movie career waned, but one high-profile performance was that skull-faced villain Skeletor in 1987’s Masters of the Universe, based on a hit toy line and cartoon his children watched. “In the end, they couldn’t care less,” he says. “I had a screening for them, and they both fell asleep!…I loved playing Skeletor, and people sometimes say, ‘Aren’t you embarrassed?’ Not in the least! I loved my performance in that. I worked very hard to make him as exciting as I could. It was a great paycheck. But it was also delicious.”

    He also wrote some of his own dialogue, including this question to Dolph Lundgren’s muscle-bound hero: “Tell me about the loneliness of good, He-Man. Is it equal to the loneliness of evil?”

    The actor pauses as an idea occurs to him. “Sir Thomas More and Richard Nixon,” he says. “I am playing in both of these men the loneliness of good and the loneliness of evil. Jeez, I never thought of it before.”

    Langella starts to laugh: “The parallels between these two … Who would have known Skeletor would be the precursor?”

    Brilliant.  Read the rest here.

  • 10/15 Oscarweb Round-up

    Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married• Tom O’Neil mulls over the Hollywood Film Festival honorees. [Gold Derby]

    • Peter Bart is paralyzed in front of his absentee ballot after watching two Presdential fuck-ups in “W.” and “Frost/Nixon.”  WTF? [Peter Bart]

    • Jeffrey Wells ponders the glut of Best Actress contenders at Sony Pictures Classics. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David Frost makes it clear that he wasn’t the underdog when he went toe-to-toe with Richard Nixon. [The Times]

    • Kim Voynar goes from Voynaristic to The Oscar Outsider in a new schtick at MCN. [Movie City News]