Frost/Nixon: Phone Call

I watched Frost/Nixon yesterday, and followed it with some light research on the film’s historical accuracy. As suspected, quite a bit was invented, rearranged and reinterpreted.

There is one particular topic which jumps out over and over again in the general discussion of the film’s relationship with historical reality: Nixon’s late night phone call to Frost. The question repeatedly asked is whether this phone call really took place. The answer, unsurprisingly, is “no” (see for instance here, here and here).

Now, my research hasn’t been that extensive, but I am surprised that I haven’t seen anyone asking whether the phone call actually took place in the film’s own reality. And I would suggest that it in fact didn’t.

The call is preceded by Caroline about to go down to the hotel’s restaurant to get Frost and herself something to eat. She asks Frost whether he would like fish or a steak, but Frost being in a highly emotional state, she decides that she’ll call him from the restaurant instead.

When the phone finally rings, Frost has made up his mind: it will be neither fish nor steak, but cheeseburgers, and this is what he says into the receiver. However, instead of hearing Caroline’s voice, he gets a rambling Nixon.

After the Nixon call is over, Caroline enters the hotel room bringing cheeseburgers. There are two things to note here. One is that we have not actually been shown Frost telling Caroline that he wants cheeseburgers and not steak or fish, yet she somehow knows that it is cheeseburgers that Frost wants. Even more interestingly, Caroline does not mention that the phone line was busy when she tried to call from the restaurant, which should have been the case had the Nixon call actually taken place.

The way I therefore see it is that it was actually Caroline who called, and Frost due to his exhaustion or desperation or whatever imagined the whole Nixon thing. This also explains why Nixon cannot remember the phone call — it didn’t take place.

This would also make sense considering the way the scene is set up, with Caroline’s coming and going, and the careful references to steaks, fish and cheeseburgers. Her trip to the restaurant would otherwise seem narratively unnecessary, but now it has a clear function. It also explains why at the very end we as the audience are reminded about not only the phone call and the fact that Nixon cannot remember it, but also specifically about the cheeseburgers.

If you interpret the scene in this way, and I don’t say that you absolutely have to, you can perhaps take it as a reference to subjective interpretation of history, and as such see it as the film’s commentary on itself.