Nixon And Ebert At The Movies

eddriscoll.com ^ | December 13, 2008 | Ed Driscoll

[Publius804]

Nixon And Ebert At The Movies

By Ed Driscoll · December 13, 2008

As Christian Toto writes, while Roger Ebert has always been a man of the left, his BDS seems to be getting the better of him these days. In his otherwise appropriately middling review of the Keanu Reeves remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, Ebert opines:

The message of the 2008 version is that we should have voted for Al Gore. This didn't require Klaatu and Gort. That's what I'm here for.

To which Christian replies:

Really? I thought you were here to help the public decide the best way to spend their hard-earned money at their local theater. Maybe that whole "thumb" thing was just a distraction.

Exactly. But Ebert really lets his 1960s-minted BDS flag fly in his review of Frost/Nixon:

Strange, how a man once so reviled has gained stature in the memory. How we cheered when Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency! How dramatic it was when David Frost cornered him on TV and presided over the humiliating confession that he had stonewalled for three years. And yet how much more intelligent, thoughtful and, well, presidential, he now seems, compared to the occupant of the office from 2001 to 2009.

That's not strange, that's what the media does to every Republican president when he leaves office when comparing him to a successor from his same party. Why should Nixon be the exception?

More Ebert:

Nixon was thought to have been destroyed by Watergate and interred by the Frost interviews. But wouldn't you trade him in a second for Bush?

[lilylangtree]

I’ve got this huge framed portrait of Pres Nixon on my office wall.

[ChetNavVet]

I’ll not pay money to see either Frost Nixon, or The Day the Earth Stood Still. I do like Scifi so I will catch the latter someday, But I’ve heard enough about Frost Nixon to not support it with my money. Props to Medved.

[Bernard]

I love the original The Day The Earth Stood Still and there is no way any remake could be even close, even justify the expense in doing the remake.

Unless, of course, there were talking robots in the foreground to help cover the weak plot points. I'lll wait for it to come on TV.

[Vaquero]

The original Nixon/Frost tapes are out there, why not just watch the unedited, unspun tapes and make your own decision....

this movie fills a need that nobody feels the need for, except leftist @$$holes.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Every time I hear about yet another sanctimonious Ebert review, I think back to the times he used to go on Howard Stern (when I used to still listen to Stern) and the whole segment was Stern trying to get Ebert to get on a scale. Ebert would claim that he had lost some weight and Stern would never believe him. It is about all the entertainment value you can get out of a pompous ass like Ebert.

[Vaquero]

I am a scifi fan, but I too will not watch TDTESS...it is a Global Warming, anti-America hit piece...like The Day After Tomorrow.

[peeps36]

Ebert is nothing but a fat ass liberal who contributes nothing but pollution to our society. It’s ridiculous to think that somebody actually pays this goof to watch movies.

[Bunkasaurus]

Ebert’s reviews are the best I’ve ever read, by far, and usually insightful and scholarly.
But my favorite was when he reviewed some Rob Reiner film and simply wrote:
“I hated hated hated hated hated this film.”

[NoRedTape]

I want to see this film.

I'm a fan of President Nixon's. I was in Hangzhou China 2 years ago and they - at the Shangri-la Hotel were still talking about President Nixon's visits.

He was an extraordinary man who never should have taped or hidden anything. Tragic glory.

[donna]

It’s funny how everyone today thinks President Nixon spoke in the cartoon character voice that Nixon impersonators use. In their minds the joke became the reality.

Here is a clip of the real Nixon. He was sophisticated and well spoken:

1960 - Nixon talks about Kruschev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iefrlPqkS0E&NR=1