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"Frost/Nixon" Review

Title: Frost/Nixon
Director: Ron Howard
Staring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre(s): Drama
Rated: R (For some language)


On August 9th, 1974 history was made in the political system. That was day President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) resigned, and became the first president to resign from the presidency. He was succeeded by President John Ford, who pardoned Nixon on all charges of the Watergate scandal. As if the country hadn’t lost enough faith in the government, this act of pardon insured that Nixon would never stand trial for his crimes. Once pardoned he spent his days on his retirement beach in California, writing his memoir and doing fund-raising speeches for some extra money. Yet he was unhappy, still haunted by what his image had become, and how people seemed to ignore all the good things he’d done.

As we see in Ron Howard’s new film, “Frost/Nixon,” he would get his chance to try and clear the record when a TV talk show host named David Frost (Michael Sheen) would offer him half a million dollars to do a weeks worth of sit-down interviews. Though skeptical of the host who’s had several canceled shows, Nixon felt this would be easy work. Instead it turned into the trial Nixon never got from the courts, and what viewers were treated to was a one-on-one verbal duel on camera. Not that Frost was much of a political thinker. He proposed the situation to try and save his career more then to try and bring peace to the American public. The only reason he even approached the controversial subjects was because his sponsors, a couple of radical liberals, wouldn’t sponsor the show otherwise.

It was lucky for us things went down this way, and the American public for once got a sense of the true Richard Nixon. This is the key reason this movie works so well: Because Nixon is a sympathetic human in this film. History has taught us that Nixon was a terrible man, driven by greed and power. Chances are he was, but he was also human, and that many people tend to forget. We see that in this film. He’s not a completely sympathetic character, but we see that, even at his worst, he had America’s best interests at heart. Watching Langella play Nixon is like watching a man who’s morals are eating him up on the inside. He seems to lie so hard because he knows, more then anyone else, that he was wrong.

This is just the icing on the cake though, and all that happens in the middle of the movie is also great stuff. Frost gets lots of sympathy for backing such a risky project in the first place. When networks refuse to pick it up and sponsors leave the project, Frost finds all his shows canceled and funding the interviewing sessions himself. When the interviews do start the dialog is smart, fast, and tense. This is a text-book example of how to write good dialog and make it interesting, even when there is nothing else going in the film (the movie is, what the old-timers would call, a “talkie”). Ron Howard has been making some very miss films lately. After “The Da Vinci Code” I was ready to write him off.

Now we have “Frost/Nixon,” his best movie since “A Beautiful Mind,” and my personal favorite of his behind “Apollo 13.” While the movie revels it’s stage roots it’s never boring nor does it feel contrived. I know that some of the facts are stretched with a bit, and the Watergate interview is taped on the final day in this film when it was really filmed on the third day, but these are minor problems I can live with. Only a good director, with a good screenplay, with compelling actors can make a movie like this work. And when all the above are great, you’ve got something special.

Grade: **** and a half stars

"Milk" Review

Until I open my movie site again, I've decided to start publishing my reviews here. Hope you don't mind.

Title: Milk
Director: Gus Van Sant
Staring: Sean Penn
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Studio: Focus Features
Genre(s): Drama
Rated: R (For language, some sexual content and brief violence)

Contrary to what you might have been led to believe, Harvey Milk was not one of the most influential politicians who ever lived. He assumed public office in his late forties. He held that position less then a year before he was killed by a fellow politician. Truthfully, if you were to look at the biggest thing he accomplished, it would be that he got people to start picking up their pets droppings in public. Yes, the biggest law he helped get pasted involved poop. So if this was his greatest claim to fame why would Gus Van Sant make a biopic of this man, simply named “Milk.” Well, it’s easy: Because Harvey Milk was an unconventional man who lived an unconventional life. He was the first openly gay man elected to public office.

The fact that he was more politician then activist helped solidify his reputation. Milk (Sean Penn) came from a poor background and didn’t run for public office until late into his life, when local hatred inspired him to change things. He ran a few times unsuccessfully, which cost him his personal life as well as his boyfriend, Scott (James Franco). When he was elected as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors you could hear the celebrated cries from gay men and women throughout the world: Someone who understood them and their problems was finally part of “the machine.” So inspirational is this fact alone that a young gay teenager in a wheelchair even finds the strength to keep on living after contemplating suicide.

So while Milk’s biggest claim to fame may be that he solved the poop problem, as you can see he is legend in San Francisco. This movie will help you understand why. Rather then give us a three-hour biopic though, Van Sant only briefly mentions Milk’s past and only hints at the controversial events after his murder. This is a movie about Milk’s political run, most noticbly his fight to defeat Proposition 6, a bill that, if passed, would discriminate against homosexuals and force them out of teaching positions at schools. Some people may make comparisons to the recent Proposition 8 at this point, but the reality is the laws are two very different things, with very different debates going on between them. Besides, even this topic isn’t delved into too deeply.

The movie is mainly about relationships. Milk’s relationships with men in his life. His relationship to the public. At the core of the movie is his relationship with Dan White (Josh Brolin), a conservative who often clashes with Milk on various subjects, and who would eventually become Milk’s assassin. Their relationship is tense, with enough love/hate emotions going back and forth to make it all the more unsettling. Hopefully a sequel will be made so that the Dan White character can be analyzed some more. For now though, this will have to do. When I told my friends at church I saw this movie they were surprised. They wanted to know why I would go see a movie about people who were so obviously living in sin.

I told them that this was hypocritical. We all obviously live in sin. We don’t try, we just do sometimes. And while the movie had one too many sex scenes for my personal comfort, the theme of giving people hope and inspiration is a story that has worked many times before. It worked in “The Ten Commandments,” it worked in “Schindler’s List,” and it works here. Is it a perfect movie? No. It has too many little problems that add up to make it that. But it is one of the best films of the year, and it’s certainly going to get people talking. Not so much about homosexuality, but about hope, love, and compassion. Ironically enough, even though most churches will boycott this movie, these are many of the key things Jesus himself preached.

Grade: **** stars