Released to coincide with the much-acclaimed dramatic recreation of the Frost/Nixon interview stand-off, this DVD (released in late 2008) focuses on the riveting actual Watergate interview session between Frost and Nixon.

It's the real thing.

An online viewer lavishes praise on the gripping nature of the encounter, a duel of sorts:

In this interview Nixon has handed Frost a razor and stuck out his neck from the word go. Frost doesn't even have to work very hard and just reads Nixon's own words back to him. When this happens it becomes as plain as day that Nixon suddenly realizes he is over his eyeballs in it. He is about to be destroyed beyond mending and is choking for answers. He tries to say that he was involved in a cover-up, but that it is the political fallout he was covering up and not the crime of arranging a break in, bugging the opposition and trying to get everybody off the hook by using the CIA to quash the investigation.

Frost just underlines that Nixon has just admitted to a cover-up and then reads out where Nixon is talking about hush money to pay off Hunt and Nixon replies that he was saying this in a way that meant Hunt could never be bought off. Nixon then claims that Hunt wanted clemency but he never granted it and so he shouldn't be charged with committing a crime.

The problem is that Nixon is saying over and over again to pay Hunt a million dollars in the transcripts so Frost then asks why Nixon didn't go to the cops and Nixon at this stage is exsanguinated. He can't get out of it so he turns to his days with Truman and holding back the tears avoids the question. Frost doesn't even do much to point that out because he realizes that what is left before him is a stark naked ex-President swinging in the breeze and so tells Nixon why not just come clean and say what people want him to say. Nixon asks Frost what he should say. It's a defining moment because Frost wasn't ready for it and had to put his script aside to come up with the framework for an apology that involves admitting wrong-doing and putting the American people through hell.

Nixon slowly admits that what he did was wrong, says he did a lot of good things for the people, won't say he committed a crime but then just when you think he wouldn't go any further eventually gives in and just says he has let everyone down including the American people in a teary finish. Nixon is now completely ruined, tries to keep smiling, tries to put forward some quick one-liners to salvage some dignity but is seeing stars. Frost seems to sympathize but ultimately he came in hoping to get a good interview with some more meat than most but leaves with a full head on a platter. It is the interview that every journalist can only dream of doing but Frost actually did it.

So see this fascinating Watergate segment of the Frost/Nixon interview series before you see the dramatic recreation directed by Ron Howard.