The trailer for the new Ron Howard film, “Frost/Nixon” is now online (Yahoo! trailers link - HD available). I’ve been looking forward to this. Nixon/Watergate is a topic, which, for some undefinable reason, has always fascinated me, and Opie does good historical movies (”Apollo 13″).
HOWEVER, boy, has the studio (Universal in this case) ruined things for me. WHY does EVERY trailer need to be structured exactly the same way: logos come on the screen, we get some intro snatches of dialogue, we’re introduced to our main character(s), then … fade out … fade in … cue the opening strains of The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” (or David Bowie’s “Fame”, or in this case both), and we’re introduced to the wacky character who’s gonna shake things up (in this case, former president Richard M. Nixon). And why do I have to have things smashed over my head? In the trailer, some guy says, speaking of Frost’s credentials, “I remember yesterday watching you interview The Bee Gees.” We immediately CUT TO a shot of The Bee Gees. Ya, you know what? I got the point when the guy said the words.
The credit block came up at the end and I found that I’d been gritting my teeth through the whole thing. It reminded me of those remixed trailers that were floating around a few years ago (”The Shining” repackaged as a comedy being the best of the bunch). There is no doubt in my mind that “Frost/Nixon” is an utterly different movie to the one packaged in this trailer (if it’s not, then I’m done with Richie Cunningham, that’s for sure). Why does it have to be packaged like “American Pie”? I mean, I’m looking at Frank Langella’s performance as Nixon and it just seems like the music and editing is trying to drown him out to force this new spin the marketing team has put on it.
Aren’t we allowed to have serious movies anymore? Or has the poor box office of serious movies ruined things for everyone? Come on guys, a huge opening weekend of disappointed viewers expecting a zany comedy is only going to damage the film while it tries to find its true audience. Surely I’m not the only person in the world who sees this.
Course I could be completely wrong, maybe it is a zany comedy, and they’re being ironic with the music. Maybe Howard and Universal are trying to beat Oliver Stone to the punch with their own historical presidential comedy.
In the meantime, here are some more trailers, none of these have “Baba O’Reilly” or “Fame” on the soundtrack:
- All the President’s Men
- Three Days of the Condor
- Chinatown
- The Godfather
- Taxi Driver
- Jaws
- Dog Day Afternoon
And a couple trailers as a art:
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Aug 25, 2008, 4:01 am