Director Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” is a gripping film version of the play by screenwriter Peter Morgan, and yet another historical episode captured with profound artistry by Howard and a magnificent cast.

The film is a tight-knit tale of psychological cat-and-mouse and verbal one-upmanship between the disgraced ex-President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) and the foxy, narcissistic pseudo-intellectual “chat show” host David Frost (Michael Sheen).

Together, they will mount the greatest interview smackdown of its era, a no-holds-barred duel of wits and animal cunning.
Frost’s chief aim is to get the Ford-pardoned ex-denier-in-chief to admit against his will that he has done wrong.

On Nixon’s side are - retired Marine Col. Jack Brennan (a steely Kevin Bacon); a young, ambitious Diane Sawyer (Kate Jennings Grant); and the gangsterish troll-cum-Hollywood agent Swifty Lazar (Toby Jones).

Meanwhile, Frost’s crack team comprises – Journalist and editor Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt); Hotspur-like historian James Reston Jr. (Sam Rockwell) and Frost’s stunning girlfriend of the time Caroline Cushing (Rebecca Hall).

With one topical segment of the pre-arranged tête-à-tête format following another - and Frost the interviewer being reduced to Frost the Nixon straight man – Frost’s team starts doubting whether their guy can pull off the cathartic, guilt-ridden unburdening by Nixon.

Much of the setup, leading to the actual interviews, concerns how the taping sessions were agreed upon and the motivations of the opposing parties, even as one wonders why Nixon even considered agreeing to the interview in the first place.

With “Frost/Nixon”, Howard has fashioned a historical drama of semi-Shakespearean proportions. He has wonderfully used existing news footage, combined genuine players like Sen. Sam Irvine and TV anchor Walter Cronkite, and has actors playing fictionalized real people, in a political ‘Clash of Titans’.