Dick (film)
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| Dick | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Andrew Fleming |
| Produced by | Gale Anne Hurd |
| Written by | Andrew Fleming Sheryl Longin |
| Starring | Michelle Williams Kirsten Dunst Dan Hedaya |
| Music by | John Debney |
| Cinematography | Alexander Gruszynski |
| Editing by | Mia Goldman |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 23 July 1999 (premiere) |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Dick is a 1999 American comedy movie directed by Andrew Fleming from the script he co-wrote with Sheryl Longin. It is a parody retelling the events of the Watergate scandal which lead to the resignation of U.S. president Richard Nixon, and features several cast members from Saturday Night Live and The Kids in the Hall.
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[edit] Plot summary
Betsy Jobs and Arlene Lorenzo are two sweet but somewhat ditzy teenage girls living in Washington, D.C. in the early 1970s. Betsy comes from a middle class family in the Georgetown area, while Arlene lives with her widowed mother in an apartment in the Watergate building. One night, the two girls, on a quest to mail a letter to enter a contest to win a date with Bobby Sherman, sneak out of Arlene's home at the same time as the Watergate break-in. They manage to enter and leave through the parking garage by taping the latch of a firewall door. They accidentally cause the break-in to be discovered when they are seen by G. Gordon Liddy, who they believe to be committing a jewel robbery; they panic and run away. The security guard, startled by the taped door, then calls the police who immediately arrest the burglars. The next day while at the White House on a school tour, they accidentally happen across Liddy again, who recognizes them (although they do not recognize him) and instantly becomes suspicious. He points them out to H. R. Haldeman, who proceeds to interrogate them; their conversation (in which it is revealed that the girls don't actually think about the President that much) is interrupted firstly by a phone call from Haldeman's wife, and secondly by the President himself, Richard Nixon, who takes Haldeman aside to complain about the bugging operation being so messed up.
The girls are naturally awestruck at being in the same room as Nixon — but not as awestruck as they are at the idea of being able to play with his dog, which gives Nixon an idea; in order to keep their silence, he appoints them his official dog-walkers and they begin (supervised) outings with Checkers, the President's dog. On these visits, they accidentally influence major events in various ways, such as the Vietnam peace process and the Nixon-Brezhnev accord, by bringing along cookies that they have accidentally baked marijuana into. They also become familiar with the key figures of Nixon's administration, including the long-suffering, frequently ignored Henry Kissinger, and inadvertently learn the major secrets of the Watergate scandal without realizing what they know. The girls are convinced they are responsible for stopping the Vietnam war because, after Betsy's brother Larry gets drafted, the girls speak with Nixon since Betsy feels sorry for him. Soon after that, Nixon begins recalling troops from the war.
Arlene, previously infatuated with teen idol singer Bobby Sherman, now falls equally hard for "Dick", the president. Just after reading an 18½-minute message of love into his tape recorder, she plays back another part of the tape and, hearing his coarse, brutal rantings, quickly realizes his true nature. When they confront Nixon with this ("You kicked Checkers, you're prejudiced and you have a potty mouth!"), he fires and threatens them ("You don't mess with the big boys!").
The girls now reevaluate what they have learned and decide to reveal everything to the "radical muckraking bastards" (Nixon's words) at The Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein; two 15-year-old girls are the true identity of the famous Deep Throat. (The name is taken from the porn movie that Betsy's brother was discovered watching by their dad.) Woodward and Bernstein, who are depicted as two petty, bickering, childish near-incompetents who are small-mindedly competitive with each other, are naturally skeptical of the teenage girls. And to make matters worse, their only piece of physical evidence, a list of names of those involved from the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), is eaten by Betsy's dog.
Nixon's men now realize that the girls are a threat and attempt tactics such as bugging to find out what they know, eventually going so far as breaking into Betsy's house and planting an undercover agent as Arlene's mother's boyfriend. Pushed to the limit after being chased by the Watergate "plumbers", the girls take drastic action - they sneak into Haldeman's house and manage to find and steal a crucial tape recording. They keep the tape as a souvenir and give a written copy to Woodward and Bernstein, thus ending Nixon's political career.
After Nixon resigns and is being flown by Marine One out of Washington, the girls dress using the flag colors and display a banner that reads "You suck, Dick! Love, Deep Throat", that Nixon, dumbfounded, sees from the helicopter.
[edit] Cast
- Kirsten Dunst as Betsy Jobs
- Michelle Williams as Arlene Lorenzo
- Dan Hedaya as Richard Nixon
- Dave Foley as H.R. Haldeman
- Saul Rubinek as Henry Kissinger
- Harry Shearer as G. Gordon Liddy
- Jim Breuer as John Dean
- Ana Gasteyer as Rose Mary Woods
- Will Ferrell as Bob Woodward
- Bruce McCulloch as Carl Bernstein
- Teri Garr as Arlene's mother
[edit] Trivia
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- Most of the clothes used on the film are original polyester clothes from the 70s. They were bought brand new from a warehouse.
- The film title in Brazil is Todas as Garotas do Presidente ("All the President's Girls"), spoofing the All the President's Men film title.
- Although the dog is repeatedly referred to as Checkers, Nixon's dog while in the White House was named King Timahoe. During a scene early in the movie, John Dean suggests Nixon call the dog King Timahoe in order for it to be more affectionate. The gag is a riff on Nixon's detachment, as is a gag where he has difficulty recalling the name of one of his daughters.
- Deep Throat's true identity, FBI Assistant Director W. Mark Felt, was not revealed until May 2005. At the time of the film's release, the informant's identity was still a mystery.
- Somewhat ironically, Carly Simon, who wrote & performed the song You're So Vain which plays during the film's closing credits, joked in an interview given shortly after Felt's identity was revealed that he was the elusive subject of the song.
- This was the final film for G. D. Spradlin, the American character actor. He retired from the movie business upon completion of filming.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Dick at the Internet Movie Database
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