1 of 1

Write now Article Tools

"Dick" is a comedy with an unusual premise. While President Richard Nixon struggles with a growing Watergate scandal, his troubles are exacerbated by the antics of two teenaged girls. The giggly teenagers are oblivious to the president's sinister political schemes. But they still manage to intersect every one of the scandal's most famous moments.

The movie sets up its premise quickly. The teenagers stay up late to write a fan letter to Bobby Sherman. They just happen to mail it at the Watergate hotel on June 17, 1972 - where they bump into a very suspicious man who tells them "I'm not even here." Later they recognize the man - co-conspirator G. Gordon Liddy - while on a school tour of the White House. Nixon offers them a job as "presidential dog walkers" in the hopes that it will keep them quiet. Soon the girls have stumbled across a tape recorder which the president keeps in the Oval Office...

The girls may be clueless, but it's hard to miss the suspicious behavior of the president's men. (At one point, Henry Kissinger walks by with a list of the Watergate burglars stuck to his shoe, along with the amounts of the "hush money" they'd receive.) After being dismissed from the White House, they're followed by an ominous van labeled "The Plumbers". And of course, even they have to realize Nixon is less than presidential when they hear his infamous profanity-laced rants on the Watergate tapes.

The scriptwriters found a clever way to highlight the real cultural significance of the scandal. Whatever crimes were committed by Nixon's men, many Americans felt a larger betrayal of trust. In "Dick" the two teenaged girls are confronted by a president who's paranoid and vindictive, revealing that he's had his men research their personal backgrounds. Arlene has never known her father, so this invasion is surprisingly personal. When Nixon sneers that Arlene's father was "a nobody. He never amounted to anything," she reaches desperately for a comeback, and magically, finds it.

"At least he wasn't a liar."

A lot of actors in this 1999 movie went on to become famous. Arlene was played by Michelle Williams, who would later win an Oscar for her work in "Brokeback Mountain." Kirsten Dunst went on to play the love interest in the Spider-Man movies, one of the most successful film franchises of all time. Will Ferrell plays Bob Woodward as a reporter who's helplessly lost without his teenaged sources. Harry Shearer appears as Gordon Liddy, and Teri Garr plays Arlene's mom.

The director never found the right tone, since the teenagers' adolescent angst is a little too convincing, but the film is a fascinating exercise in re-visiting the Watergate scandal. In real life John Dean was the first to testify against the White House, but in the movie he's inspired by a comment of one of the teenaged girls. The film even includes Rosemary Woods, the president's doting lifelong secretary. The movie ultimately invents its own explanation for the mysterious 18-minute gap on the Watergate tape. And when Nixon flies to San Clemente after resigning his presidency, it's not shown as the final culmination of hundreds of complicated pieces.

It's a victory for two teenaged girls.

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Movie reviews: Dick?
We want to hear your view. Write now!