By Richard Luck
Satirist-turned-media star David Frost sets out to interview disgraced former president Richard Nixon. Big-screen adaptation of the hit play starring Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, and directed by Ron Howard
What have Dan Hedaya, Bob Gunton, Philip Baker Hall, Anthony Hopkins, Rip Torn, Rich Little and Beau Bridges all got in common? Yes, that's right - they've all played Richard Milhous Nixon.
As the role of Tricky Dick has been essayed by all manner of actors, so there has been a great disparity in the performances. In Dick, Dan Hedaya plays the 37th Commander-In-Chief strictly for laughs. In Secret Honor, Philip Baker Hall plays up the sadness of the man. And in Oliver Stone's Nixon, Anthony Hopkins plays the president like someone from another planet, his ridiculousness, gruffness and permanently scrunched forehead inspiring 'Futurama's' super-crotchety head-in-a-jar Nixon.
Called upon to play the infamous politician in Frost/Nixon, it's notable that Frank Langella neither looks nor sounds like Nixon. In spite of these apparent handicaps, his take on the man is by far the most convincing. The reason? While everyone else has been bent on impersonating the president, Langella presents his interpretation of a character. Because of this, Ron Howard's film has the fortune to centre around someone who's actually recognisable as a human being.
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Satirist-turned-media star David Frost sets out to interview disgraced former president Richard Nixon. Big-screen adaptation of the hit play starring Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, and directed by Ron Howard
What have Dan Hedaya, Bob Gunton, Philip Baker Hall, Anthony Hopkins, Rip Torn, Rich Little and Beau Bridges all got in common? Yes, that's right - they've all played Richard Milhous Nixon.
As the role of Tricky Dick has been essayed by all manner of actors, so there has been a great disparity in the performances. In Dick, Dan Hedaya plays the 37th Commander-In-Chief strictly for laughs. In Secret Honor, Philip Baker Hall plays up the sadness of the man. And in Oliver Stone's Nixon, Anthony Hopkins plays the president like someone from another planet, his ridiculousness, gruffness and permanently scrunched forehead inspiring 'Futurama's' super-crotchety head-in-a-jar Nixon.
Called upon to play the infamous politician in Frost/Nixon, it's notable that Frank Langella neither looks nor sounds like Nixon. In spite of these apparent handicaps, his take on the man is by far the most convincing. The reason? While everyone else has been bent on impersonating the president, Langella presents his interpretation of a character. Because of this, Ron Howard's film has the fortune to centre around someone who's actually recognisable as a human being.
More.....
