Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Overlooked Movies: Dick

You thought you knew all about the Watergate scandal because you'd seen or read All the President's Men, right?  Well, you were wrong.  The true story is revealed in Dick, and it's a lot wilder than the "official" one.

Let's start with Deep Throat.  Some old guy with inside info?  Nope.  Two teenage girls, Arlene and Betsy, played by Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst (whose performance as the dim but stabby wife in Fargo I'm currently enjoying).  As it turns out, they also save the world from nuclear destruction, just by baking cookies with a secret ingredient.  Not to mention having other amusing and exciting adventures, all because they wanted to mail a fan letter to Bobby Sherman.  (Handy link provided for younger readers.)

Woodward and Bernstein, two top professional reporters?  Nope.  They were pretty much two doofuses (Will Ferrell and Will McCulloch) who don't much like each other and who are a lot more lucky than good.

And that's the way it goes pretty much down the line.  Kissinger, Haldeman, Liddy, and John Dean all come along, and we're shown their true selves.

The exception is Richard Nixon (Dan Heydaya in a superb performance), who turns out to be exactly like you thought he was.  Arlene crushes hard on him until she finds out the truth about him, that he's a potty- mouth and that he isn't a nice man.

Betsy and Arlene find out all this stuff because they're witnesses to the Watergate break-in, and through a series of events they become Nixon's dog walkers, which allows them to witness many other things.

I found this movie hilarious.  Maybe now, 15 or so years later, more and more people won't remember Watergate or Nixon or any of the rest of it, and they might not find the movie as funny as I did.  But I think it's great.

Personal note:  Judy and I saw this in the theater, and the only two other people in the audience were two girls about the age of Betsy and Arlene.  Maybe they'd come because they thought the movie would be another teen comedy.  They obviously didn't get it at all, and about ten minutes before the movie was over, they pulled out their phones and called their friends, maybe to warn them away.  It's one of the very few times I've gotten up and spoken to people in a theater and asked them to be quiet.  They were amazed that I'd be so rude.

Bonus:  Nine things you really never knew about Dick.  

12 comments:

George said...

This sounds like a terrific movie! Good for you in speaking to those chatty teenagers. I've been going to the local AMC theater that has morning showings for $5 but the bonus is younger people are still sleeping!

Jerry House said...

I loved this movie. Thanks for reminding me about it.

Unknown said...

$5 movies are a pretty good deal, especially without the noisy youth.

Todd Mason said...

I liked this one, too...won't write "I like [the title}"...

Two films in theaters I was the only other person in the audiencer...SMOKE with my brother, the even better SO CLOSE with Alice.
Pretty close a few other times...

Jeff Meyerson said...

I loved this too. Dan Hedaya was born to play Nixon. Wasn't there also an explanation of the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap in the Rosemary Woods tape? I'd forgotten Will Ferrell was in it.

Whenever I ask someone to keep it down in the movies I get lip from them.

Jeff Meyerson said...

An aside on movie talkers: we used to go to the Sheepshead Bay multiplex, which was popular with the seniors in the area. (This was before we were seniors ourselves.) You weren't supposed to go from movie to movie without paying but everyone did. The seniors had devised a system where they'd go before the movie started. This often involved leaving the previous film before the end. (As Dave Barry would say, I swear I am not making this up.)

We were watching SISTER ACT and 10 minutes before the end the seniors started gathering their stuff to leave, and began a discussion about what they'd just seen.

"That was a nice movie, a nice movie."

We didn't even bother to shush them.

Unknown said...

There is indeed an explanation of the tape gap, Jeff. I never slip into another movie, myself. One is about all I can take.

Jeff Meyerson said...

In our younger days we would sometimes sit through a movie twice in succession - AMERICAN HOT WAX was one. Sometimes we would see two in succession, either as a duble feature (ask your grandparents, whippersnappers) or on two screens.

But now I can barely sit through one movie.

I miss the old days.

Unknown said...

When Judy and I lived in Austin, we'd go to the movie on Sunday night. There would be the regular feature and a sneak preview. Those were good times. No wonder I miss the old days.

Jeff Meyerson said...

When we were dating ca. 1967-70, they'd have the sneak previews here on Friday nights. I saw a lot of Elvis movies but there was the occasional better one too. (By that stage Elvis movies were not so good.)

I was going to say ROUSTABOUT but that was earlier. it was probably SPINOUT (Shelley Fabares) or SPEEDWAY (Nancy Sinatra). Or maybe both. CLAMBAKE also had Shelley.

We also saw stuff like A FAIR PAIR (yes to Claudia Cardinale, but the movie sucked) and MORE (see Mimsy Farmer shoot up under her tongue!) and CAPRICE (Doris Day; awful) and THE COMEDIANS ("Duvalier is President for life!") and THE INCIDENT.

But we saw good stuff too. The point is, we went regularly, and even though we saw a lot of crap we still had a good time.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Here are some 1968 movies we either paid to see or caught as a free preview:

SOL MADRID (talking about not starting the year off with a bang. Telly Savalas, David McCallum, Stella Stevens sounds good, but it wasn't.)
THE SECRET WAR OF HARRY FRIGG (Paul Newman, as I recall)
NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY
THE PRODUCERS
MADIGAN
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
PLANET OF THE APES
WILL PENNY
YOURS, MINE AND OURS
THE ODD COUPLE
THE SWIMMER
PRUDENCE AND THE PILL (awful sex comedy)
THE DETECTIVE (I also read the book)
WILD IN THE STREETS (a classic of its time)
SPEEDWAY (I told you)
ROSEMARY'S BABY
YELLOW SUBMARINE
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER
RACHEL, RACHEL
FUNNY GIRL
PRETTY POISON
OLIVER!
COOGAN'S BLUFF
I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS (loved it at the time; very dated now)
FINIAN'S RAINBOW (I think we saw this at Radio City Music Hall; weak version)
THE BOSTON STRANGLER
BULLITT
THE LION IN WINTER
THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY's
and the all-time BOMB:

SKIDOO

Unknown said...

More winners than losers, even if you count SKIDOO three or four times.