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| Directed by Andrew Fleming; Starring Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, Dan Hedaya, Will Ferrell, Bruce McCulloch, Teri Garr, Dave Foley, Jim Breuer, Ana Gasteyer, Harry Shearer, Saul Rubinek, Devon Gummersall, Ted McGinley, Ryan Reynolds, and G.D. Spradlin |
I must say that if there is one thing that contains me most in US history it is the presidents. I do not know why, but I have always been a big fan, going as far as memorizing and writing a book on all of them in grade school (the book is about what you would expect from a nine year old). One president that has always interested me is Richard Nixon. Even if he had a corrupt administration and was actually the only president that had a great chance of being removed from office, Nixon has always been one of my favorites (it helps that I’m a stout Republican). I’ve seen the Oliver Stone film Nixon many times and enjoyed it exceedingly even if it is rather anti-Nixon. Despite that I did not think much about seeing Dick. Its teen comedy approach looked thoroughly stupid and left me rather doubtful on how worthwhile it would be. Still I saw it and must admit that I had a good time. Sure it does not sit well and it seemed better in the theatre than it does in post-thought, but its approach actually works. I liked its premise of who the mysterious Deep Throat was that tipped Washington Post writers Woodward and Bernstein on the recordings in the Nixon Oval Office.
It is still questionable exactly who Deep Throat was but the new film Dick is one scenario of who he/she/they might have been. Not only does the film answer who Deep Throat was, it also explains the duct tape on the door at the Watergate Hotel and the 18 and a half minute gap in the recording tape. It seems that all this was caused by two 15 year old girls that were in the Watergate Hotel the night of the robbery. They happen to run into G. Gordon Liddy (Shearer) in the stairwell and later recognize him at a tour of the White House (where they happen to find the CREEP list) followed by a glimpse of him being arrested on the news. This, along with other things found in the Nixon administration (including Nixon’s dislike for Checkers in comparison to Kennedy and Johnson’s dogs and Nixon’s liking towards paper mache), cause them to become highly interesting to the two Washington Post reporters Carl Woodward (Ferrell) and Bob Bernstein (McCulloch) in their trek to find out about the Nixon involvement in the Watergate break-in.
The film is fun to watch, there is no doubting that, the thing is that not all of it is appealing. The ending is rather insipid (though I did like the climax) and the film does run rather long. Still the two leads put forth good tries, especially Dunst. One thing I really liked about the film was in its openness towards Nixon/Watergate jokes that would go right over the heads of the young audience it was advertised towards. The sheer pleasure in seeing what actors they get to play certain figure heads in the whole ordeal is much like the same thing in Nixon (Shearer as Liddy, Breuer as Dean, Foley as Haldeman). I liked the film, but it really did nothing for me. Much like so many other films, it is just entertaining, no great achievement in animation like The Iron Giant or in horror films like The Blair Witch Project, Dick is simply fun.
