Posted on 01/28/2009 10:26:19 AM PST by EveningStar
HH: If you’ve listened to this program, you know that I worked for Richard Nixon from 1978-1980, and then again from ’89-’91. I knew him pretty well, I knew him very well in those years. So when Frost/Nixon came out, I sort of was going to be skeptical. What would they do with Jack Brennan? What would they do with the old man? And I loved it. Joining me now to discuss it, Ron Howard, the director/producer of it. Ron, welcome back, good to talk to you.
RH: Thank you, good to talk to you, Hugh.
HH: Congratulations on the movie. What did you learn about Nixon that you didn’t know when you started?
(Excerpt) Read more at hughhewitt.townhall.com ...
read
So let me ask you about the controversial part, which is the conversation between Nixon and Frost which the Nixon people say does not happen, didn’t happen in real life.RH: Right.
HH: Why use that device?
RH: Well, we said, of course, we say it didn’t happen. I mean, it’s an example of creative license, but creative license born out of research and a desire to offer a more comprehensive sense of both of these characters.And of course, the president was known for some of these rambling, late night phone calls, and not that he was any kind of a heavy drinker, but by all accounts, very light-headed. And you know, I mean if he had a couple of drinks, and if he was taking any sleep medication or anything like that, which he was also, would sometimes do, these calls, he wouldn’t always remember them the next day. And so when Peter Morgan bumped into that in the research, he was looking for a way to have a really personal confrontation between he and Frost off the record that would allow him as the writer, and us as the audience, to really understand that as different as these guys were in personality and outward appearances, they had so much in common.
A bit stilted "plot device". "he was drunk and called him and used expressions that showed he was uncomfortable..."
Eisenhower -- dumb and boring
Kennedy -- god-like
Johnson -- Good man, overwhelmed by Vietnam, sad story, let's forget about him.
Nixon -- can't call him dumb, so let's call him evil.
Ford -- Dumb.
Carter -- Brilliant.
Reagan -- Dumb
Bush I -- Dumb.
Clinton -- Brilliant.
Bush II -- Dumb.
Obama -- Brilliant.
All the Democrats are brilliant. All the Republicans are dumb -- the only exception is Nixon. They couldn't call him dumb, so they called him evil and hated him all the more.
Ronnie’s a good Goebbels propagandist (he was during the election.)
I would amend your description. Bush II - dumbest man ever born (until the next republican is elected).
I try to cut Ron a bit of slack because he directed Apollo 13, one of my favorite movies.
I agree. I thought about making a very similar point by listing Carter, Clinton and Obama each as “The most brilliant man ever elected president”. The portrayal of these people by the press is just cartoony. It still staggers me that a guy with a degree from Yale, an MBA from Harvard, a man who can fly a jet, with a successful track record in state-level politics and in business, who runs two successful campaigns for president, can be portrayed as the dumbest man ever born. But there it is.
Somehow, using their dented liberal brains, it made perfect sense that he could be both at the same time.
He and his daddy andy are both red commies.
LLS
I NO LONGER give slack....these people are helping this nation march toward socialism/communism....they are to be SCORNED...if not worse.
I heard the interview yesterday. Hugh is good at drawing people out.
Sadly, most people who see this movie will believe every word of it.
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OTOH, nobody will see this pos who doesn't already believe every word of it.
Interesting to read that Ron Howard claims to have voted for Nixon (only he knows for sure and such a claim could be used to brush off his critics), that he knows that Nixon put a number of socially “progressive” programs (and judicial nomination) into place, and yet still decries his politics (claiming that Frank Langella was politically opposite, does that mean that he OPPOSED the socially progressive issues Nixon supported?).
I guess it’s just the “Republican half” of Nixon that was evil.
Perhaps he should do a film investigating LBJ’s own corruption and abuse of power.
Mine too...but if you listen to the dialog very carefully, Howard does have a couple of throw away lines that are jabs at what he perceives as conservative positions.
I watched the Nixon/Frost interviews on TV. The movie is BS. Pretty much nobody cared at the time and nothing interesting came out of them.
Jimmy Carter ALSO pronounced the word nuclear as “nukular” and he served on a nuclear submarine.
“The portrayal of these people by the press is just cartoony.”
So true. Unfortunately, those “brilliant” liberals buy it. I had a conversation with a hopelessly liberal person this week (a person with an advanced degree, thus uber-brilliant). When discussing moving Gitmo’s finest to Supermax, I argued that with the porous southern border, it would be very easy for terrorists to come up to CO, and take an elementary school hostage to try to extort the release of their buddies. This person said that if that happened it was still worth the loss so that we live up to our Constitutional principles (from a lawyer, no less). I’m still speechless.
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