Customer Rating:  
Summary: President Nixon's Chance to Speak - Compelling, But Only The Highlights
Comment: Four years after President Nixon's resignation, Sir David Frost interviewed him about his term in office. The original interview was five hours, aired over five nights. Although the Amazon.Com product description doesn't state it as so, this DVD is only highlights of the interview, focusing exclusively on the Watergate scandal.
The interview makes for compelling television. Sir David Frost's questions hit hard, President Nixon did not have the right to edit the interview, nor did he know the questions in advance.
As such, emotions are raw, as President Nixon attempts to answer the questions as honestly as he is able. He quibbles with the legal language a bit, in the same way that President Clinton "did not have sex with that woman". But, otherwise, he tries to be understood and give his perspective.
At times, President Nixon's eyes nervously shift from side to side when asked difficult questions. At other times, he looks down from the camera, as his eyes fill with tears. President Nixon may not confess guilt, but there is a peek deep into his mind and heart.
Because of my disappointment that the full interview is not available on DVD, it loses a star in my rating. What can I tell you? I'm harsh. But to not have the full interview available is frustrating. By showing only selections, viewers' perspectives are slanted by the choice of footage, rather than seeing the full interview and arriving at their own conclusion. Admittedly, five hours may be too long for some, but it should be offered as an alternative to only the highlights.
As an aside, the interview alone is insufficient to give a history of the Watergate scandal. Without some background, it may also be a bit difficult to follow and, at least, not as compelling.
However, since this is the best we got, it's worth a viewing to better understand President Nixon and for a study of the human character in those honest moments captured during the interview.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nothing Learned
Comment: Thirty years on and Frost's interview of Nixon is even more compelling.
It is as if every shot and every word had been scripted and directed. Nixon seems ill prepared for the depth of research and preparation evident in Frost questioning. This is drama at its best and its real. And Frost despite the affected, feined and sometimes breathy interview style actually pulls it off like no other.
What is it about Nixon's reflections on Watergate that now resonates so much with the style and nature of the political leadership that lead the shamefully described "coalition of the willing"? Still they are blinded by power, still they are without integrity, still truth doesnt matter.
For political nutters, this is a must have DVD. It will sit alongside my autographed copy of Nixon's memoirs. I still wonder whether the signature is genuine. Doesnt that say it all.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Frost/Nixon DVD
Comment: Having just seen the show, I was very curious. And I'm glad I saw the actual interviews. The show paints David Frost in a very unfair manner - it shows him to be a little bit of a "bungler" which he most definitely is not and never was. And the real interview shows Nixon to be the bumbling dufus that he was, albeit a very intelligent man, but he was so filled with psychological hangups that he just couldn't tell the truth -- a true sociopath. The show was very good, with very good acting, but it was not accurate.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not What Was Promised
Comment: I received the DVD of the Nixon/Frost interviews: it is BLANK...there is NOTHING on it. Very dissatisfied with purchase.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Riveting document of a bygone chapter in American history
Comment: The recent success of the play "Frost/Nixon" on Broadway, with its Tony-winning performance by Frank Langella, has revived interest in its dramatic source: the exclusive interviews that a talk-show host then widely regarded as a lightweight scored with the former President of the United States, three years after his exit from office under a cloud of political scandal.
David Frost's interviews with ex-President of the United States Richard M. Nixon caused great excitement at the time of their first airing in 1977. This DVD makes available the most interesting of the segments, in which Frost confronts Nixon about his involvement in the Watergate scandal which had forced his resignation from the Presidency. Alternately ingratiating and truculent, Nixon vehemently denies that he committed any illegal act, even in the face of Frost's verbatim readings from the transcripts of the White House tapes that certainly suggest that the President condoned obstruction of justice, and payments of hush money to the perpetrators of the break-in to the Democratic Party's national headquarters.
Though the haggling over legalistic issues and exact meaning of words and phrases gets a bit tiresome early on, the later payoff is more than ample compensation, as Frost draws wrenching accounts from Nixon about firing his trusted aides, Haldeman and Ehrlichman, and, in the climactic last portion, elicits from the former President the admission that he "let the American people down." Seen in the light of the continued hubris of the present administration in the face of what to many are much greater transgressions, Nixon's contrition, veiled as it is, is extraordinary. This DVD brings back a fascinating chapter in American history. Framing interviews with Sir David Frost, reminiscing about the circumstances under which the interviews were arranged and executed, are a worthy bonus.
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