How can two opposing parties like the democrats and republicans engage in constructive public debate? The Nixon era offered some answers, not so much because of anything political but because TV was at an interesting time: it was willing to take risk, it was packed with intellectuals and, most importantly, it was trusted.
The best movie on this era probably Best of Enemies (on Hulu & Kanopy), about the excellent debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley. But Frost / Nixon, new this week on Netflix, is a close second.
Frost/Nixon
Added yesterday to Netflix.
Richard Nixon stepped away from the public eye after Watergate, and was counting on a series of interviews three years later to redeem himself. His team assigned an unlikely reporter to sit in front of him, a British reality TV host named David Frost.
Both of them had everything to gain from this interview: Frost was trying to get a confession of wrongdoing in Watergate that would put him in the history books and was trying to manipulate America. Who will win? The master manipulator or the up-and-coming journalist?
Alternatives you might like
I Am Not Your Negro on Amazon Prime is about the life of James Baldwin, an intellectual who gave some of the most eloquent and important TV interviews during the civil rights movement.
Struggle: The Life And Lost Art Of Szukalski is a documentary on Netflix produced by Leonardo DiCaprio with his dad, about a lost genius who lived anonymously in a California suburb. It’s a series of interviews with him.
Talk on Friday,
Bilal