My mother sent me movie passes as part of my Christmas package. Today, my girl­friend and I used those passes to see “Frost/Nixon.” It was all new and inter­esting for me because the events of the movie happen before I was old enough to remember (in some cases, before I was born). Add to that the fact that I know very little about the his­tory of the Nixon pres­i­dency. Most of what I do know comes from jokes and what is con­sid­ered “common knowl­edge” but may be apocryphal.

Aside from the great acting, the movie is a very inter­esting por­trait of a pow­erful person faced with the con­se­quences of having reached too far, become too com­fort­able with that power. It is also the por­trait of a man who is dealing with the twi­light of his life and the lack of rel­e­vance that comes with it. It didn’t demo­nize Nixon, which I was thankful for. Despite the per­cep­tions of Nixon expressed by the movie’s char­ac­ters, the tone of the movie is one of a doc­u­men­tary. In a way it is, at least in part. I don’t know how much of the movie is true; there are cer­tain moments which do appear to be added or edited to sat­isfy the point or the feel of the movie itself rather than the accu­rate telling of his­tor­ical events. But it was fas­ci­nating if not com­pletely edu­ca­tional. The makers of the movie cer­tainly grabbed onto a com­pelling bit of his­tory upon which to make their film. And given the pending exit of George Bush from the White House, it seems rel­e­vant to tell this story now. I felt as thought the movie was not shy in making an analogy between Bush and Nixon.