FIRST MOVIE REVIEW

I am tying in a bit of my politics into my first movie review. Since this whole blog thing was mainly started because of my politics lecture, I decided to tie in entertainment with it. So...I am doing my first movie review on the highly-acclaimed Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard, and adapted from the Broadway play of the same name.

Frank Langella stars as Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen stars as David Frost, both whom played these characters on the Broadway show. Now, for the people who are unaware of the plot, Frost/Nixon is the story of Nixon's post resignation of the presidency. Many media outlets kept trying to get him to do interviews but Nixon would not, unless for the right price. David Frost was a "talk show host", who decided he wanted to snag this interview with Nixon to shape his career, because he felt he could get what America wanted out of Nixon: a public apology.

I will not give any spoilers out here of any of the major plot lines, but know that I will go into details about what went on during the movie. But before I really explain all of that, I just wanted to give this movie a rating out of, let's say, 10 million stars; and I give this movie a 10 million star rating.

You do not have to be interested in politics to enjoy this movie. I am confused as where to begin. I know if I talk about everything, this post will be way too extensive so I am just going to talk about what I loved best and the ONE thing I disliked about this picture.

1. Frank Langella is flawless
He is honestly a magical gem. I can not understand as to why Frank Langella has just recently gotten famous. He has been acting for YEARS and it is so hard for me to fathom how he has not gotten acclaim sooner. This, for certain, will snag Langella an Oscar nod. To me, Langella looked NOTHING LIKE Richard Nixon. Of course, it is not expected to find someone who looks incredibly similar but that is sometimes what I dislike about casting for movies. Sometimes in biopics and what not, they cast these characters that look nothing like the role and yet, also do not capture the personality. Well, Langella certainly compensated. There was never one moment in which I doubted Langella. I actually believed him to be Richard Nixon. I did not doubt any type of sincerity for one second. I caught myself getting so caught up in this movie, forgetting that these situations were not ACTUALLY happening right in front of my face. He captured more than just the essence of former president Nixon, but was former President Nixon. I can not say enough that Langella moved me, in ways I felt I was incapable of being moved.

2. I got to see a different depiction of Nixon
I felt the movie broadened my horizons. All I ever really knew of Nixon, being only almost 20 years old, was that he was scandalous, did bad things and screwed over America. Of course I researched on him thoroughly and in my conclusion, Nixon was someone I never ever thought of looking up to. But in this movie, I found myself tearing up in two of the most pivotal scenes, thanks to Langella, of course. I felt incredibly sorry for Nixon. This huge amount of sympathy created inside of me, and it caught me off guard. A lot more came out of this movie than I expected. I expected flat out rage and sole attacks towards Nixon, but this movie definitely created mass sympathy towards him and the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal. You get to see Nixon in his most vulnerable, and it shocks you to see his guards down. It takes me a lot to cry in any movie but I felt this movie to be so genuine, that I found myself tearing up TWICE during scene with Langella playing this "vulnerable and sad" Nixon character.

and 3. I did not like how they depicted Frost
They depicted Frost to be this "wacky talk show host" type who just deals with comedy and they do mention he did a few political interviews, but they definitely make him out to be the under dog. I understand that dramatizing the fact that Frost was "unprofessional" adds a sense of redemption of his part, seeing as he is the one interviewing Nixon, but I feel regardless of whether Frost was an under dog or NOT, the interviews happened the way they happened. I understand that he was undermined as a journalist, but at same time I wish they would have just kept to the facts more about that, seeing as Frost was a professional person.

Honestly, even though I did find ONE FLAW, that compares to nothing. I think any single person should see this movie and experience what I have. I am a huge fan of the Oscars and always make my pics for who should win....it is too early to tell who will even get NOMINATED, but for me its Langella hands down for the "Best Actor" category...and also hands down for the win. This movie is my favorite film of this year BY FAR and can not wait to see this movie continuously get more and more critical fame. All I can say is, every single actor, actress, producer, director and everyone involved with this production is a GENIUS and you all need to combine together somehow and create another daring masterpiece in film.

SHUT UP (Maybe...)

Even though seeing him on TV can 99% of the time DESPISE me, I am here to suck up my damn pride and express some things about the man to my left.

I admit, I pretty much find him a smart ass that knows nothing about the foundation of America and what "traditional" values really mean, but I can admit he is smart and knows his stuff.

In my Politics class, we are currently learning about the media and the media's influences on us. I decided to take things I've learned in POL 101 and truly apply it to my own life, deciding to expose myself more to the mainstream political media outlets.

One of the main reasons why Keith Olbermann is a favorite of mine, is because he usually names Bill O'Reilly as his "Worst Person". Any liberal can't help but cheer or hold back a few giggles whenever Keith pronounces Bill as his "Worst Person", but I realized something after watching several shows through online streaming, especially one show in paticular "The Daily Show". See for yourself (there are two parts):

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=210190

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=210191

I WAS UTTERLY SHOCKED! DID YOU NOT WANT TO REPLY THOSE VIDEOS OVER AND OVER TO MAKE SURE YOU HEAR CORRECTLY?!DID BILL O'REILLY SAY SOMETHING GOOD AND PROUD ABOUT BARACK OBAMA?!!

I'll admit I became overklempt and had to take a breather after watching those videos. I had no idea O'Reilly had a soul! I thought he was just the same as every Republican media extremist (smart ass, pompous, arrogant, inconsiderate, the list goes on and on!) but he had actual soulful things to say about Obama and the Democratic party!!!

I'll also admit that he could have just been putting on an act, too. Since Jon Stewart is somewhat of a celebrity, it would be a bad move on O'Reilly's part to attack such an esteemed Democratic figure, especially since it was not O'Reilly's very own program. Even so, I really have to take back some of the things I say about Bill, and give him some major props!

Of course I want to rub it into O'Reilly's face that the people spoke and he lost this election BIG TIME, but I do believe that he could have taken the disgusting route he normally takes and constantly complain and be a plain ass towards Obama. It seems to me O'Reilly actually functions like any normal human being, and just wants to make the best out of the situation he has! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT COMING OUT OF BILL O'REILLY'S MOUTH?!! I STILL CAN NOT!!!

So as the words of Bill O'Reilly go, will I "SHUT UP" and be a little more lenient on little ol' Billy? Eh, MAYBE! I still think he has a warped view on the world, but I can definitely say that little ol' Billy definitely made me shut my mouth for the time being, especially about him not having a soul. I apologize to Bill O'Reilly about saying he does not have a soul. Yes Bill, you do have a soul...but you are still a jack ass! ;)

"Fair and Balanced" My Ass

I was always the type of person to voice my opinion of the word "hate". I feel "hate" to be an incredibly intense word, full of much emotion and aggression. I never felt it was really worthy to "hate" anyone. I like the alternative term of "seriously disliking" people/things.

There is one person, whom I have never met nor spoken to personally, out of anyone in the entire universe that truly intensifies my emotions so much. I owe this person much gratitude to being so incredibly obnoxious and ridiculous about every aspect of life, that they can bring me the closest I have ever felt to feeling hate for someone. I know this person wants to bring this emotion out of me too! This person wants attention for their outlandish claims and beliefs, especially since this person hates everything I believe in/strive for/represent.

This person considers me "the enemy" for not believing in the "traditional way of life" in accordance to the Bible. This person believes they are always right, and anyone who goes against their thoughts is wrong, no exception. This person believes (or in their case "knows") I have no patriotism for my country, accusing me of laughing at "dumb Americans" for loving it. This person generalizes all liberals, having no consideration of an open mind to discuss and debate policies, oh no! She does not discuss or debate with "my kind". She threatens, patronizes and "intimidates" with words.

Now, up to this point I consider my hints towards who this person is are clear. I think you can obviously tell this person is a Republican, a woman, and that I have extreme disrespect and disgust for her. Can you guess who it is? Oh yes, my friends. It's the lovely, beautiful and talented Ann Coulter.

The point of my comments is to not generalize Republicans whatsoever! I feel I should express my feelings towards that. I respect the Republican point of view and love how diverse our political system is. I like that people challenge my view point, making me research more and dive into it further to prove them wrong! I respect the Republican, Independent and so on POVs. I may think you are wrong, but I understand we have completely different minds and went through completely different experiences. I have extreme tolerance for people who completely go against everything I go for....except when they make generalizations of all of "my kind" (aka. Liberals) and can not have a proper, civilized debate with any of "us".

In my Politics class, we discussed the media's effects on its audience. We went through many news programs, from FOX news, to MSNBC, to CNN and from what I watch, it does seem to be the case that the news media I am exposed to tends to be Liberal. Of course, I am not complaining about that, but I realized the only true Republican exposure I get is FOX news. And some of the people who are representing FOX, to me, do not exactly give the best first impressions.

I talked to several of my Republican friends and a majority of them said they do watch FOX news because it is more towars the right, but also because of constant outlandish claims from Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. Yes, my two favorite people are on FOX news! FOX news claims to be "fair and balanced" but I believe they should change that slogan to "conservative and proud". Cut the crap! I think we all can see you are not "mainstream" and "fair" to all people.

I decided to dive a bit further about these Conservative commentators, prodominantly with Ann Coulter since she seems to be one of the few most spoken about. And what I found about her made me just dislike her more.

I was reading a transcript from a conference, in which Coulter was a part of as a commentator and the words Ann chose to describe her beliefs just astounded me:

A late January 2002 quote from Coulter's address to CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference).

"When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors."

Um, what? Now, I believe Ann Coulter to be an incredibly smart woman, for her extremist viewpoint. She knows her stuff and is always very much full of ideas, never being to able stop that running mouth of hers. But I was very uh, "surprised" as to how she phrased her opinions.

1. College Liberals=Traitors: Oh, okay I am a traitor. Because one dumb ass college student decided to go against the United States and work with the Taliban, I am a huge fucking tratior for wanting to get an abortion in case I get raped by a family member! I am just a huge fat traitor for not agreeing with you, Ann. I get it now!

2. She wants us to be intimidated? Okay, uh cool? Since she wants us to realize that we can basically be killed for thinking the way we do. Since you know, Liberals deserve to die for being traitors of having diverse viewpoints. The last I heard, you got executed for action and not for opinion...

I can not agree with Fox News in their "fair and balanced" ways. I believe that having someone on like Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly really takes the spirit of that slogan away from all of us. Now, I do not discount that CNN is obviously Liberal, but I am speaking of extremeties here. Ann Coulter believes us to be the enemy and enemy enough to be executed for our thoughts/lifestyle choices. Bill O'Reilly does not even believe in "debates", he believes in yelling and getting his own point across, not caring to hear what the other side has to rebuttle nor say in general. He should not even have a talk show if he can't have a civilized conversation with someone who disagrees with his viewpoints.

I just can not believe that FOX news is balanced towards their entire audience, if these are the people who prodominantly represent their network. You want it to be fair and balanced? Bring in some extremist Liberals to kick their asses, maybe then it will truly be considered balanced. And I think the exact same thing with CNN, who should bring in people often that can rebuttle their own points, too. As much as I love CNN, you can not rely on them all the time either. If you want the REAL facts, go to factcheck.org.

Unfortunately, it is rare in the media nowadays to get the facts 100% out there and legitamite. It is hard to solely rely on one program for all of your information. I say "broaden your horizons" and learn about all viewpoints, to truly decide what you agree upon. Do not be like the "Ann Coulter's" and "Bill O'Reilly's" of this society. Have an open mind and heart towards everyone! This is supposed to be America after all, isn't it?