Frost/Nixon (Blu-ray) (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Audio Commentary-Audio commentary by director Ron Howard Deleted Scenes-12 deleted scenes: Over 30 minutes of deleted scenes Featurette-Discovering Secrets: The People and Places Behind the Story Featurette-Making Of-The Making of Frost/Nixon Featurette-The Real Interview Featurette-The Nixon Library Featurette-U-Control: Picture-in-Picture video commentary Featurette-U-Control: The Nixon Chronicles pop-up trivia track Featurette-MyScenes bookmarks
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	121:51 (Case: 123)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Ron Howard
Studio Distributor	Imagine Entertainmnt Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Frank Langella Michael Sheen Sam Rockwell Kevin Bacon Matthew MacFadyen Oliver Platt Rebecca Hall Toby Jones Andy Milder Kate Jennings Grant Gabriel Jarret Jim Meskimen Patty McCormack
Case	Alpha-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Hans Zimmer

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 French dts 5.1 German dts 5.1 Spanish dts 5.1 Spanish dts 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	English French German Spanish Spanish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The first thing one should notice about the cover of the Frost/Nixon is the distinctive black, bold capitilised word 'FROST' in contrast to the red, bold capitilised 'NIXON'. The design of the cover, with inclusive portrait poses of actors Frank Langella and Michael Sheen as their characters respectively, Richard Nixon and David Frost, alludes to a boxing contest. And this is what Frost/Nixon is, a dramatic boxing match between Frost and Nixon, with the supporting characters in each corner being portrayed as 'trainers', preparing each man for their verbal stoush during the interviews.

    Director Ron Howard was initially not interested in doing this film, failing to see how the screenplay could be dramatic enough to pique audience interest. This changed after he viewed the Tony-award winning play, which changed his mind and convinced him that the project would be workable, on the basis that stage actors Frank Langella and Michael Sheen reprise their stage roles for the film. This was a wise move, as film actors would focus more on an impersonated performance for the two main roles, rather than presenting a more documented and real re-enactment of what occurred behind the scenes, which Howard does so well. The documentary feel to the film gives the audience the historical context to the interviews, with a mix of real archived television footage and interviews with the supporting characters from both camps, namely, producer John Birt, (Matthew Macfadyen) Nixon scholar James Reston Jr. (Sam Rockwell) and ABC News producer Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) up against Nixon chief of staff Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon) and journalist Diane Sawyer (Kate Jennings Grant).

    Ron Howard discusses in the extras on the film that real locations were used as much as possible for the shooting of the film, and to add to the authenticity of the scenario, the two main actors stayed "in-character" throughout the shoot. Michael Sheen admits in the extra 'Discovering Secrets' that the story was embellished for dramatic effect, the so-called Nixon confession during the 12th interview was not a result of Frost cornering his opponent, rather it was a tactical choice by Nixon advisors to make Nixon more sympathetic to the American nation for his involvement in the Watergate scandal. The late night phone call by Nixon to Frost, during the film's third act, whereby he purports that the final interview has the stakes of both parties on the line, with Nixon aiming to revitalise his political career at Frost's expense, is an example of where the screenplay differs from the actual events.

    The film also tries to create tension in the backstory of the main characters. At the beginning Frost is shown at a low ebb in his career via his work on Australian television, in contrast to his New York based TV show cancellation, he subsequently puts up the $US600,000 to guarantee the interview and then fails to syndicate the interviews to the major networks. Ultimately, the interviews did generate interest in the US and did generate a profit for both Frost and Nixon. Nixon in contrast spent two years in public exile, he saw Frost as a sympathetic interviewer who would rebuild his reputation with the American people. His determined and forthright personality is exemplified in his battle and recovery from phlebitis which almost cost him his life, but did prevent him from testifying in court regarding the Watergate scandal.

Video

    Unlike Gus Van Sant's similar 1970s biopic, Milk, Frost/Nixon is not presented visually with an overall duller '1970s' look. Archived footage and simulated archival interviews with the supporting characters from the film are intentionally grainy in contrast to the rest of the film.

    The aspect ratio is 2:35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions. The transfer utilises a VC-1 compressed codec.

    The film is detailed and sharp, especially in close-ups during the interviews. Archived and simulated footage is intentionally grainy for dramatic effect.The simulated interviews with the supporting characters of the film are presented in a slightly cropped ratio to distinguish them, about 2:20:1 as 3 to 4 % is cropped from the left and right sides of the image. Television highlights from the period include added microphony to simulate the look of 1970s television.

    Colour is vibrant mainly, especially in scenes with significant external light.

    There are no MPEG or Film artefacts.

    Subtitles are in English, French Canadian, German, Castillian Spanish and L.A. Spanish for the main feature and in English, German and Spanish for the extras.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This is a dialogue-driven film so there is not much activity from the surround channels or subwoofer.

    The main audio track is a DTS-HD master audio 5.1 track, the main feature also has DTS 5.1 overdubs in French Canadian, German, Castillian Spanish and L.A. Spanish.

    Dialogue is clear, concise and synchronised.

    The music score by Hans Zimmer is subtle, supporting the drama in a subtle way and not bring any attention to itself.

    Surround channel usage is mainly confined to the front channels.

    The subwoofer is not really used in the soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Audio Commentary

Deleted Scenes (30:28 in SD)

More Details Prior to Resignation Speech (2:15)

Resignation Speech (2:29)

Frost Over Australia! (1:28)

Nixon Farewell (3:50)

Nixon Farewell – Video Version (3:50)

Frost/Bentley Car Phone (2:38)

Swifty Wants His 10% (0:57)

Extended 1st Cut – Research Montage (4:14)

Mr. and Mrs. Nixon (1:07)

David Schmoozes the Press (1:25)

Nixon Pummels Frost (2:32)

Nixon Piano Solo (1:29)

Featurette-Discovering Secrets: The People and Places Behind the Story (13:19 in HD)

Featurette-Making Of-The Making of Frost/Nixon (22:59 in HD)

Featurette-The Real Interview (7:29 in HD)

Featurette-The Nixon Library (6:22 in HD)

Featurette-U-Control - Picture-in-Picture video commentary

Featurette-U-Control - The Nixon Chronicles pop-up trivia track

Featurette-MyScenes bookmarks

    Frost/Nixon has been released in 'Region All' Blu-ray in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia with the exact same video and audio specifications and the exact same extra features.

    With more extras on Blu-ray than similar Universal releases in 2009 such as Milk and Changeling, Frost/Nixon is a well made biopic with plenty of support reference material for the viewer to learn more about the background of the story and the making of it into a film.

    Frost/Nixon was nominated for five Academy Awards in 2009 and it's a shame that Frank Langella missed out on winning the Best Actor Award to Sean Penn for his performance in Milk. Michael Sheen similarly gives a good and credible performance as David Frost.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall