Frost/Nixon (2008)

Sam Rockwell: James Reston, Jr.

Photos 

Quotes 

• James Reston, Jr. : [Referring to Nixon]  His most lasting legacy is that today any political wrongdoing is immediately given the suffix "-gate".

• James Reston, Jr. : You know the first and greatest sin or deception of television is that it simplifies; it diminishes great, complex ideas, tranches of time; whole careers become reduced to a single snapshot. At first I couldn't understand why Bob Zelnick was quite as euphoric as he was after the interviews, or why John Birt felt moved to strip naked and rush into the ocean to celebrate. But that was before I really understood the reductive power of the close-up, because David had succeeded on that final day, in getting for a fleeting moment what no investigative journalist, no state prosecutor, no judiciary committee or political enemy had managed to get; Richard Nixon's face swollen and ravaged by loneliness, self-loathing and defeat. The rest of the project and its failings would not only be forgotten, they would totally cease to exist.

• Bob Zelnick : [Zelnick and Reston are preparing to meet Nixon]  Gonna shake his hand?

  James Reston, Jr. : Am I gonna shake - are you kidding me? After everything that prick's done to this country? I'm not gonna shake his hand!

  David Frost : Ah, gentlemen! May I present Bob Zelnick, my executive editor.

  Richard Nixon : How d'you do?

  Bob Zelnick : Pleasure, Mr. President.

  David Frost : And Jim Reston, one of my researchers.

  Richard Nixon : Ah. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Reston.

  [Offers Reston his hand] 

  James Reston, Jr. : [after a pause, he shakily extends his own hand]  Mr. President...

  Jack Brennan : Excuse me, sir, got a room for you right here.

  Bob Zelnick : [after Nixon leaves]  Wow. That was devastating. Withering. I mean, I don't think he's ever going to get over that.

  James Reston, Jr. : Fuck off.

• [reading from a newspaper] 

  Caroline Cushing : "Frost has hired three crack investigators..."

  James Reston, Jr. : Can I be Crack #1?

  Bob Zelnick : Can I be Deep Crack?

• James Reston, Jr. : I want to give Richard Nixon the trial he never had!

• James Reston, Jr. : You have to set up that he has an anti-democratic personality. There's a reason they call him Tricky Dick.

• Bob Zelnick : What about wiretapping?

  John Birt : How many people has he wiretapped?

  James Reston, Jr. : This guy wiretapped 17 people.

  John Birt : 17?

  Bob Zelnick : Including his own brother. But you know what? We can't ask him about his brother, 'cause frankly, if Donald Nixon was my brother, I'd wiretap him too.