Am I going to take Watergate seriously?

Lonzo 2022-04-22 07:01:31

"Conversation with Nixon" is also based on real events. It is about an interview that Nixon gave after he stepped down due to the Watergate scandal. The whole country believed that although Nixon resigned unwillingly, he owed the people a confession. Nixon wanted to take this opportunity to flaunt himself and rebuild his reputation in order to make a comeback. The reporter who interviewed him was a talk show host and a playboy. He originally wanted to make a big sale, but he encountered an economic trap. At the same time, he was forced into a life-and-death showdown by the high-spirited Nixon. The basic routine of the film is still Hollywood inspirational start-up and turn-around. At first, the reporter who underestimated the enemy was defeated completely in front of Nixon's eloquent eloquence, and in the last few days, he turned the tide.

The brilliance of the film is of course in the interviews with both parties, and the highlight is Nixon. At the beginning, the very sophisticated babble was like a rainbow, leaving the opponent with no defense. If it weren't for the fact that he drank too much before the last round and called to provoke the opponent's fighting spirit, maybe this would be the end. Of course, this should be a Hollywood-style plot arrangement. The final confrontation is naturally a climax. Although Nixon, who was defeated after the fierce confrontation, was lonely, he still played a full role in this film. Frank Langella, who played Nixon, didn't look like Nixon at all, but he played Nixon's inner world as he understood it. Especially the complex facial expressions after the final blow, the swollen face, the continuous subtle changes between the eyebrows and the eyes, the "loneliness, self-loathing, frustration", such a big close-up can only be done by a really good actor, Oscar is the best. The Best Actor nomination is well-deserved.

This is just an interview after Nixon stepped down, and it can have extraordinary historical significance. It can be seen that the Watergate incident caused such a turmoil in the United States that the subsequent political scandals were added with the suffix of "gate", which has far-reaching consequences. affected the American political system. However, this matter has not received much attention in our country, and even its weight is far less than that of Teacher Chen Yanzhaomen. Presumably, most Chinese people don't care about the original meaning of "election" (it's just a cover), let alone eavesdropping on opponents. Just like the movie "The Inside Story", in a country where everything is a black box, it is impossible to understand or even laugh at it all.

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Extended Reading

Frost/Nixon quotes

  • James Reston, Jr.: You know the first and greatest sin or deception of television is that it simplifies; it diminishes great, complex ideas, tranches of time; whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot. At first I couldn't understand why Bob Zelnick was quite as euphoric as he was after the interviews, or why John Birt felt moved to strip naked and rush into the ocean to celebrate. But that was before I really understood the reductive power of the close-up, because David had succeeded on that final day, in getting for a fleeting moment what no investigative journalist, no state prosecutor, no judiciary committee or political enemy had managed to get; Richard Nixon's face swollen and ravaged by loneliness, self-loathing and defeat. The rest of the project and its failings would not only be forgotten, they would totally cease to exist.

  • Richard Nixon: You know those parties of yours, the ones I read about in the newspapers. Do you actually enjoy those?

    David Frost: Of course.

    Richard Nixon: You have no idea how fortunate that makes you, liking people. Being liked. Having that facility. That lightness, that charm. I don't have it, I never did.