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Dick
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Andrew Fleming
Written by	Andrew Fleming Sheryl Longin
Produced by	Gale Anne Hurd
Starring	Kirsten Dunst Michelle Williams Will Ferrell Dave Foley Harry Shearer Dan Hedaya
Cinematography	Alexander Gruszynski
Edited by	Mia Goldman
Music by	John Debney
Production companies	Columbia Pictures Phoenix Pictures
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	August 4, 1999 (1999-08-04)
Running time	94 minutes
Countries	Canada United States
Language	English
Budget	$13 million
Box office	$6.3 million (US)

Watergate scandal
The Watergate complex in 2006
Events
List Presidency of Richard Nixon Timeline Nixon White House tapes Operation Sandwedge Operation Gemstone 1972 presidential election "Saturday Night Massacre" Impeachment process against Richard Nixon United States v. Nixon Resignation speech Inauguration of Gerald Ford
People
Watergate burglars Bernard Barker Virgilio Gonzalez Eugenio Martínez James W. McCord Jr. Frank Sturgis
Groups Master list of Nixon's political opponents Nixon's Enemies List Watergate Babies Watergate Seven White House Plumbers
CRP Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP) Fred LaRue Jeb Stuart Magruder Robert Mardian John N. Mitchell Kenneth Parkinson Hugh W. Sloan Jr. Maurice Stans
White House Richard Nixon Alexander Butterfield Charles Colson John Dean John Ehrlichman Gerald Ford H. R. Haldeman E. Howard Hunt Egil Krogh G. Gordon Liddy Gordon C. Strachan Rose Mary Woods
Judiciary Archibald Cox Leon Jaworski John Sirica
Journalists Carl Bernstein Bob Woodward Barry Sussman Harry M. Rosenfeld Howard Simons Ben Bradlee Katharine Graham Lesley Stahl The Washington Post
Intelligence community Mark Felt ("Deep Throat") L. Patrick Gray Richard Helms James R. Schlesinger
Congress Howard Baker Sam Ervin Peter W. Rodino U.S. Senate Watergate Committee Impeachment process
Related Frank Wills (security guard) James F. Neal (prosecutor) All the President's Men (book, film) The Final Days (book, film) Blind Ambition (miniseries) Dick (1999 film) Mark Felt: The Man who Brought Down the White House (2017 film) Watergate (2019 board game) Slow Burn (2020 series) Gaslit (2022 series) White House Plumbers (2023 miniseries)
v t e

Dick is a 1999 comedy film directed by Andrew Fleming from a script he co-wrote with Sheryl Longin. It is a comic reimagining of the Watergate scandal which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon and features several cast members from Saturday Night Live and The Kids in the Hall. Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams star as Betsy and Arlene, 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 (played by Dan Hedaya). At the time of the film's release, the real identity of Deep Throat was not yet known to the public.

Plot

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.

Cast

• Kirsten Dunst as Betsy Jobs
• Michelle Williams as Arlene Lorenzo
• Dan Hedaya as President Richard "Dick" Nixon
• Will Ferrell as Bob Woodward
• Bruce McCulloch as Carl Bernstein
• Teri Garr as Helen Lorenzo
• Dave Foley as H. R. Haldeman
• Jim Breuer as John Dean
• Ana Gasteyer as Rose Mary Woods
• Harry Shearer as G. Gordon Liddy
• Saul Rubinek as Henry Kissinger
• Devon Gummersall as Larry Jobs
• Ted McGinley as Roderick
• Ryan Reynolds as Chip
• G. D. Spradlin as Ben Bradlee
• Karl Pruner as Frank Jobs
• French Stewart as the interviewer

Production

Writers Andrew Fleming and Sheryl Longin attempted to write several different scripts with teenage girls as protagonists. The idea of using the Watergate scandal came from a real-life experience Longin had with Nixon when her family stayed at the same hotel as Nixon. As a child, she and a friend pelted Nixon with ice cubes, causing a minor disturbance. Fleming said that he was surprised at the attempts to rehabilitate Nixon's image, and Longin cited the Watergate scandal as a defining political moment for their generation. She said she channeled the resulting anger and cynicism into the script. Several people told the duo that various gags went too far. Fleming, who believed Nixon got off easily, said they fought to keep everything. They approached Ben Bradlee and John Dean to play themselves, but both declined.

Release

Sony's marketing research indicated teenage girls were the film's biggest demographic, so promotional material focused on Dunst and Williams instead of the political aspects. Dick was released in the United States on August 4, 1999. It grossed $2.2 million in its opening weekend, opening at No. 12 in 1522 theaters. It went on to gross $6.3 million in the US.

Home media

On December 14, 1999, Dick was released on VHS and DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Video. Eighteen years later, on November 6, 2018, it was released on Blu-ray by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Dick holds an approval rating of 72% based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A clever, funny slice of alternate history, Dick farcically re-imagines the Watergate era and largely succeeds, thanks to quirky, winning performances from Michelle Williams, Kirsten Dunst and Will Ferrell." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 65 out of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics.

Leonard Maltin gave the film three stars, calling it a "clever cross of Clueless and All the President’s Men". Todd McCarthy, in his review for Variety, called it an "audacious, imaginative political comedy" that will appeal more to adults than teenagers. Stephen Holden of The New York Times described it as "an uproariously dizzy satire" that was inspired by the Lewinsky scandal. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas said the film "is so sharp and funny it should appeal to all ages". Rita Kempley of The Washington Post described it as "more fun than you ever thought you'd have with Richard Nixon". The film's acting received critical commentary. Thomas positively compared Hedaya's performance to Anthony Hopkins in Nixon, and Kempley called Hedaya "no less adept" than Hopkins. Holden wrote that Hedaya's portrayal of Nixon is "the year's funniest film caricature". Thomas called Dunst and Williams "a constant delight".

Awards

Soundtrack

All sixteen compositions are Top 40 hit songs from the 1970s, but two were not recorded until after the Watergate scandal had ended. They are "Lady Marmalade" and "Dancing Queen", which were released three months and two years later, respectively. Sixpence None the Richer's cover version of the latter song is the album's opening track and the only one recorded for the film.

Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" had been considered for use in the film, but the politically conservative Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille did not appreciate the film's irreverence and denied the rights to their cover. Led Zeppelin's "Over the Hills and Far Away" was originally intended to accompany the closing scene, but Fleming eventually realized Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" was a better fit and used it instead.

Notes

1. Renamed Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment in April 2001, then Sony Pictures Home Entertainment between November 2004 and March 2005.

References

1. ^ "Dick (1999)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
2. ^ "Dick (1999)". The Numbers. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
3. Jacobs, Matthew (August 27, 2014). "9 Things You Really Never Knew About 'Dick'". HuffPost.
4. ^ Waxman, Sharon (August 1, 1999). "Generation X's Tricky 'Dick'". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
5. "Dick (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
6. "What's Hot". Los Angeles Times. December 2, 1999.
7. "Sony Pictures Renames Columbia TriStar". Billboard. November 19, 2004. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
8. "1999 film "Dick" with Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams on Blu-ray November". HighDefDiscNews. October 6, 2018.
9. "Dick Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com.
10. "Dick (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes.
11. "Dick Reviews". Metacritic.
12. Maltin, Leonard, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. New York: Signet Books, 2009. ISBN 1-101-10660-3. p.356
13. McCarthy, Todd (August 2, 1999). "Review: 'Dick – D.C. Follies: Kicky 'Dick' Pic Clicks'". Variety. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
14. ^ Holden, Stephen (August 4, 1999). "FILM REVIEW; That Gap in the Nixon Tapes? Maybe a Teen-Age Cry of Love". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
15. ^ Thomas, Kevin (August 4, 1999). "Teen Girls Change History in 'Dick's' White House". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
16. ^ Kempley, Ria (August 4, 1999). "Tricky 'Dick': A Bungle of Laughs". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
17. Hettrick, Scott. "See Dick Run On and On About the Watergate Era," Los Angeles Times, Friday, December 10, 1999. Retrieved August 5, 2020
18. Jacobs, Matthew. "9 Things You Really Never Knew About Dick," HuffPost, August 27, 2014. Retrieved August 5, 2020

External links

• Dick at IMDb 
• Dick at Rotten Tomatoes

• 1999 films
• 1999 comedy films
• 1990s American films
• 1990s buddy comedy films
• 1990s Canadian films
• 1990s English-language films
• 1990s female buddy films
• 1990s political comedy films
• 1990s political satire films
• 1990s teen comedy films
• American buddy comedy films
• American female buddy films
• American political comedy films
• American political satire films
• American teen comedy films
• Canadian political comedy films
• Canadian political satire films
• Canadian teen comedy films
• Columbia Pictures films
• Cultural depictions of Henry Kissinger
• English-language Canadian films
• Films about Richard Nixon
• Films directed by Andrew Fleming
• Films produced by Gale Anne Hurd
• Films scored by John Debney
• Films set in 1972
• Films set in Washington, D.C.
• Films set in the White House
• Independence Day (United States) films
• Phoenix Pictures films
• Watergate scandal in film
• English-language buddy comedy films
• English-language political comedy films