Frost/Nixon is a movie based on a series of interviews between Robert Frost and Richard Nixon right after his resignation from the presidency of the United States of America, the focal point being the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s involvement in the cover up. It is a dramatised version of the Frost Nixon interviews of 1977. It starts with Nixon’s resignation from the presidency of the United States of America. Nixon was pushed up against the wall with allegations, threats and the fear of being impeached, which eventually led to him being the first president to ever resign from office. Meanwhile, David Frost, a talk show host, is shown watching Nixon resign on television with the rest of the world. A few weeks later Frost discusses with his producer friend John Birt the possibility of an interview with Nixon.

“Richard Nixon: Why would I want to talk to David Frost?
Swifty Lazar: I've got half a million dollars.
Richard Nixon: Really?”

The movie touches on cheque book journalism, Frost even outbid a television channel to get the interview.

Frost realised that four hundred million people tuned into watch Nixon’s resignation speech. Frost saw the interviews as a way to be a part of history whereas Nixon looked at the interviews as a form of redemption. Journalism plays a key role in holding the powerful accountable; a news article can make or break careers. The power a journalist holds is immense which is aptly shown in the movie.

The movie is the story of a talk show host who went head to head with the former president of the United States of America. Over the first eleven recording sessions, each two and a half hours long, Frost is shown struggling to ask planned questions of Nixon for which he was prepared with in typical presidential fashion, all the right answers.

The brilliance of the movie is that even after everything Nixon did, they showed a human side to him and left you feeling sympathetic for a man who may or may not have deserved it. It gives you a perspective from Nixons point of view, and lets you understand what may have been going through his mind.

And although you do sympathise with the former president in the very end, if you had no idea what happens during the interview you’re left sitting on the edge of your seat hoping and praying that Robert Frost, a very easily likeable “talk show host” pulls one out of the hat and screws Nixon over. You can tell right from the start of the interviews why Nixon became president, they show how he turns the hardest hitting questions starting from the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia into a justifiable cause. He manages to convince people that if they we’re in his place they would do no different. Nixon is able to take up much of the time during the sessions by giving lengthy monologues, preventing Frost from challenging him.

In the interest of artistic tension and drama, a fictional, crucial telephone call was introduced into the film because people who saw the actual interviews said they were almost boring, it is a commercial movie after all. The entire Nixon incident required this little bit of dramatisation, it made Nixon seem vulnerable and in many ways human.

“Richard Nixon: That's our tragedy, you and I Mr. Frost. No matter how high we get, they still look down at us.
David Frost: I really don't know what you're talking about.
Richard Nixon: Yes you do. Now come on. No matter how many awards or column inches are written about you, or how high the elected office is, it's still not enough. We still feel like the little man, the loser.”

The last interview should be given its due importance, up until the end Nixon has been giving all the right answers with not so much as a flinch but finally when Frost brings up a conversation between Nixon and Charles Colson, not previously known to his opponent, he pushes Nixon into a corner.

The gloves were off, resulting in Nixon admitting that he did unethical things, but defending himself with the statement, "When the President does it, it's not illegal!"

Nixon after a short break and a chance to self evaluate decided it was time to come clean, no more hiding behind diplomatic answers and lies. Nixon proceeds to admit to being involved in a cover up, and apologises to the American people for letting them down, ending his political career in the process.

It was in this scene where you start to see the human side of Nixon, where finally he’s not just the relentless politician who will stop at nothing for political gain but just a lonely old man.

Watergate became a mission for journalists and why wouldn’t it? Where there’s a scandal there’s always a journalist waiting to lap it up. This particular scandal dealt with the President of the United States of America and a massive cover up, it deserved the media attention it got.

Shortly before Frost returns to the UK, he and Caroline visit Nixon in his villa. Frost thanks Nixon for the interviews and gives him a pair of Italian shoes as a gift. Nixon, realizing he has lost, however, does graciously thank Frost in return and wishes him well in future endeavors. Nixon then asks to speak to Frost privately. Nixon asks if he had really called Frost before the final interview and if they had spoken about anything important. Frost replies that Nixon did indeed call and they talked about “cheeseburgers.”

Reston says that Nixon's lasting legacy was the suffix "Gate" being added to any political scandal. The epilogue tells the audience that Nixon wrote a biography about himself, but never escaped controversy, until his death in 1994.

The movie was tastefully done with respect to both Frost and Nixon, Excellent cast and direction, Truly a movie worth watching.