Reviewed by Amanda Ondretti
(March 2009)

Directed By: Jørn Winther
Program Editors: James Reston Jr. and C. Robert Zelnick
Starring: David Frost and Richard Nixon

The timing of the release of Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon is interesting given the dramatic changes in American politics, which makes ideal timing for the DVD release of the original Watergate interveiws with David Frost and Richard Nixon. Frost had a reputation for being a frivolous celebrity interviewer, so it seemed unimaginable at the time that he would be able to sit down with Nixon for any sort of exchange, let alone one of significance. Nixon, on the other hand, as President had shared words with some of the most powerful men in the world, so it's ironic that he fell to his knees before this British journalist. But then, perhaps it was because of the very fact that Nixon considered Frost so unimportant that he failed to anticipate the history-making outcome of this interview.

In true David-and-Goliath fashion, the newly released presentation of the original Frost/Nixon interviews shows an elderly Frost stating, "Never before and never afterward would Nixon confront the issue of Watergate."

In the famed three-day interview explored on this DVD, Frost and Nixon got to the issue of Watergate only after Nixon's initial denials and deflections laid blame on his staff for not doing things properly and he'd affirmed and restated all the good things he had done for the country. Frost seemed to allow Nixon's controlling behavior until (as we learn from the behind-the-scenes footage) he put down his clipboard and directly requested the former president to apologize.

The key moment to understanding the extent to which Nixon underestimated Frost arrives when Frost challenges the former leader to explain whether or not "mistake" was sufficient to explain what happened and then proceeds to demand the former president proclaim "‘I abused the power I had as president...and I put the American people through two years of needless agony and I am sorry for that.' I think the people need to hear that, and I think that unless you say it, you're going to be haunted the rest of your life."

Of interest also in this presentation is the statement by a now-elderly Frost that Nixon most likely regretted his participation in these interviews. However, Frost says the former president would later come to realize that, if it weren't for this publicly cathartic experience, he would have never been able to re-emerge in society.

Nixon's catharsis seemed complete when he muttered, "I'm sorry. I just hope I haven't let you down. That said it all. I let down my friends; I let down the country, let down our system of government, let down all those young people; most of all, I let down an opportunity to proceed on great projects and programs for building an everlasting dream." In the behind-the-scenes, Frost continues to reveal his lasting impression: Nixon was "just a sad man that so wanted to be great."

Why did he do the interviews in the first place? Well, Nixon seemingly had a lot to gain. He would be paid a lot of money for them, for one thing, and they would allow him a possible re-entry to the political forum in which he needed to rehabilitate his reputation. What Nixon failed to appreciate, however, was that Frost was a diligent and cunning adversary who would come prepared - though not even Frost could have anticipated the outcome. For Frost/Nixon, the relationship - the balance - had surely shifted. -MPM

Photos courtesy of World Ages Archive and Ronald Grant Archive. Top: David Frost/Richard Nixon.