At recent discussions of Frost/Nixon, which opens in theaters this Friday, a specter has haunted director Ron Howard. But it is not just Tricky Dick that has been weighing on his mind.
Although he insists that his movie has no political ax to grind, given the timing, questions about its contemporary relevance can hardly be avoided. During one interview on Monday, he observed, "The only thing that is kind of quaint about the story at all is the fact that the Nixon crimes pale by comparison with, you know, what we have been reading about and hearing about in the last few years." And then at an A-list panel discussion and advance screening later in the day, he really got into it, noting that despite all the talk about "never again" after Nixon, Bush happened. Most panelists concurred, but it did provoke quite an animated response from Fox News anchor Chris Wallace who, as one commentator put it, "threw a fair-and-balanced apple of discord into the middle of the festivities" with his defense of Bush's record.