By Peanut
This week: Frost/Nixon
Let's get the obvious bit out of the way first: it's hardly a coincidence that Frost/Nixon hit theaters during the year of George W. Bush's exit from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It's wishful thinking on the part of the Bush-haters out there to think we'll ever see Bush's own Frost/Nixon moment. Yet the theme of coming to terms with your past deeds, and acknowledging their consequences, is certainly one that should resonate with all of us.
It's easy to point fingers at others in a crisis, as so many on both sides of the aisle did during the mortgage crisis and its aftermath. In the film, we see how language can divide a country into warring camps. Kevin Bacon's character blames Italian shoe-wearing liberals for America's failings, while Sam Rockwell's puts responsibility squarely on the Abuser in Chief. They are the Dick Cheney/Jon Stewart archetypes of the film. (Of course, Nixon was Cheney long before Cheney was Cheney.) How do we reconcile their polar opposite views of Nixon? How do we as Americans reconcile our polar opposite views of Bush? Of Clinton? Of Reagan?
I don't think we should get hung up on the politics of the film itself (or its title figures). What's important is for people of all stripes to strive for objectivity in evaluating other people's legacies - and our own. Presidents operate on the most public of stages, drawing intense scrutiny during and long after their time in office. None is as bad as his worst offenses or as good as his best successes.
If you turn on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC these days, you'll often see two "experts" painting two oversimplified versions of a person or situation, after which they doggedly debate whose version is correct. Yet to learn from our mistakes -- as individuals, as Americans, as human beings -- we must avoid glossing over the messy details of life. Nothing is so simple that it can be categorized into a neat little box. Nixon was no exception, and Frost/Nixon reminds us that even the most tarnished leader in U.S. history was not just "a crook." 2.5 PB Jars
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