Wait a sec, says Wallace
Nowadays, if you make a political film, the conversation will inevitably touch on the present and President George W. Bush, specifically…like it or not.
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That was certainly the case Monday night at National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium, where the new Nixon-era film — “Frost / Nixon” — was screened before an A-List crowd, including Watergate-alumni Ben Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Richard Ben-Veniste and Dan Schorr (who boasted of “the honor of being #14” on Nixon’s enemies list). The screening was followed by a panel discussion with director Ron Howard, screenwriter Peter Morgan, historian Robert Dallek and author James Reston, Jr. (“The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews”).
“Frost / Nixon” is a loose dramatization of the televised interviews in 1977 between British journalist David Frost and President Richard Nixon, interviews that became notable thanks to Nixon’s rare admission of guilt during the Watergate scandal.
Thanks to that scandal, Nixon walked away from the White House over 34 years ago, but panelists and audience members couldn’t help but declare: Bush is the new Nixon.
Howard recalled watching Frost’s interview of Nixon back in 1977 and remembered thinking that the take away message from the Nixon years was that “we’ll never allow this to happen again.”
“That led to some frustration that I’ve felt in the past few years,” said Howard, to applause.
Dallek said that the Nixon administration’s themes of “anguish and an imperial presidency” is “what makes this film so timely.”
Others wondered who would be the David Frost of the Bush years, i.e., who would conduct a probing, apology-inducing interview of the 43rd president after he leaves office.
“I don’t think we’ll get it,” said Morgan. “I don’t get a sense that he’ll be as haunted [as Nixon] by a need to leave a legacy.”
There to stop the Bush bashing, however, was Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who, from his seat in the audience, objected to the Bush / Nixon comparison.
“Whatever George W. Bush did was after the attacks of Sept. 11,” Wallace directed towards the panel. “Richard Nixon’s crimes were committed purely in the interest of his own political gain. … To compare what Nixon did … to George W. Bush trying to protect this country … is both a gross misreading of history both then and now.” Wallace went on to single out Dallek: “You make a supposition without any facts whatsoever!”
All of which led Morgan to sigh…
“This movie is not a Bush metaphor,” he said. “I always wanted it not to become a springboard for talking about George Bush.”
