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August 4, 1999
Dick is a 1999 alternate history comedy film directed by Andrew Fleming, co-written by Fleming and Sheryl Longin, and starring Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, and Dan Hedaya. It portrays a comic reimagining of the Watergate scandal which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon, in which two warm-hearted but unworldly 15-year-old friends, who—through various arbitrary circumstances—become the legendary "Deep Throat" figure who played a key role in bringing down the presidency of Nixon. At the time of the film's release, the real identity of Deep Throat was not yet known to the public.
The film features several cast members from Saturday Night Live and The Kids in the Hall, and includes fictionalized portrayals of U.S. historical and political figures involved in the Watergate scandal, including Henry Kissinger, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, H. R. Haldeman, John Dean, G. Gordon Liddy, and Rose Mary Woods.
Released in the summer of 1999 by Sony Pictures Releasing goes through Columbia Pictures label, Dick was a box-office bomb, grossing $6.3 million against a $13 million budget, though it received largely favorable reviews from film critics. In the years following its release, the film went on to develop a cult following.
Storyline
Betsy Jobs and Arlene Lorenzo are two sweet-natured, ditzy teenagers living in Washington, D.C., in 1972. Betsy comes from a wealthy Georgetown family, while Arlene lives with her widowed mother in an apartment in the Watergate building.
On the night of the Watergate break-in, the girls sneak out of Arlene's home to mail a letter to enter a contest to win a date with teen idol singer Bobby Sherman. They sneak through the parking garage by taping the latch of a door, accidentally causing the break-in to be discovered. Seen by G. Gordon Liddy, they panic and run. The security guard is startled by the taped door and calls the police, who immediately arrest the burglars.
The next day, at the White House on a school tour, they happen across Liddy again. They do not recognize him, but he recognizes them and becomes suspicious. He points them out to H. R. Haldeman, who interrogates them. Their conversation (revealing the girls do not think about the president much) is interrupted by a phone call from his wife, and then by President Nixon himself, who takes Haldeman aside to complain about the bugging operation being fouled up.
The girls are awestruck at being in the same room as Nixon – but more so at being able to play with his dog, which gives him an idea. To keep their silence, he appoints them his official dogwalkers – which means they must be admitted repeatedly to the White House. On these visits they accidentally influence major events such as the Vietnam peace process and the Nixon–Brezhnev accord, by bringing along cookies that they have inadvertently baked marijuana into.
Later, when Betsy's brother, Larry, reveals the cookies' "secret ingredient" and hears the President ate them, he concludes that this explains Nixon's paranoia. The girls become familiar with the Nixon administration's key players, including Henry Kissinger, and accidentally learn the major secrets of the Watergate scandal.
Arlene, previously infatuated with Bobby Sherman, now falls equally hard for the president. Just after reading an 18½-minute message of love into his tape recorder, she plays back another part of the tape, hears his coarse, brutal rantings, and realizes his true nature. When they confront Nixon, he fires and threatens them.
They 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. So they become informants: two 15-year-old girls are the true identity of the famous Deep Throat (Betsy's brother had just been caught watching the film of the same name).
Woodward and Bernstein – portrayed as petty, childish, and incompetent – are naturally skeptical of the two girls. 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, is eaten by Betsy's dog.
Nixon's men realize the girls are a real threat and attempt tactics such as bugging and undercover agents to discover what they know, going so far as to break into Betsy's house and plant an agent as Arlene's mother's boyfriend. Eventually pushed to the limit after being chased by the Watergate "plumbers", they decide to take action.
Sneaking into Haldeman's house, the girls find and take a crucial tape recording. They give a transcription of it to Woodward and Bernstein (keeping the tape as a "souvenir"), thus ending Nixon's political career. Nixon finds Arlene's message on his tape and erases it, reasoning that he would be "crucified" if it was perceived that he had an affair with a 15-year-old girl.
Following his resignation, as his helicopter flies over Betsy's house, the girls hold up a sign with the phrase "You suck, Dick", further angering the now ex-president.
Sound Effects Used
- Hollywoodedge, Fart 4 Very Short High PE139201
- Hollywoodedge, Telephone Rings Bell PE170901
- Hollywoodedge, Telephone Rings Bell PE171501
- Sound Ideas, HORSE - 3 WHINNIES, 3 SNORTS, C.U, ANIMAL