Order Dick Now! That's not a request, that's an order. If you really want to get in the mood, we recommend the soundtrack.

A Review of Dick by Hadley [Comments by Hannah]

In many ways, Dick is a classic coming of age story. Set in 1972, it chronicles the mishaps of two 15 year old girls who discover the Watergate break-in and bring down the President. While mailing a letter to a win a date with Bobby Sherman contest, Betsy Jobs and Arlene Lorenzo stumble upon five men in suits breaking into the Watergate complex where Arlene lives. [Watergate buff moment: the tape? Not placed there by James McCord, but by Arlene, so her mom doesn't find her sneaking out of the house] A few days later, on a field trip to the White House, they recognise one of the burglers, G Gordon Liddy, who has them called in for questioning. To find out how much they know, the President appoints them "official White House dogwalkers" and "Secret Youth Advisors".

From this rather inauspicious premise emerges a film that is nothing short of comic brilliance. [Hadley really didn't want to see this film on principle. She was wrong and I was right. As usual.] Aside from a few too many "Dick" jokes, the humor is fresh and unpredictable. Contrary to my preconceived notions, there is plenty here for the Watergate afficianado. Our favorite standbys- Dean, Haldeman, Liddy and Kissinger- are represented as caricatures who show up periodically to make weakly encoded references to tapes or shredding. [Like Haldeman did more in real life... I like how Kissinger is all lascivious to Betsy and Arlene] I have to say that I laughed my ass off at the "the gemstone is gleaming" Watergate walky talky exchange. Overall, the historical details of this movie are painstakingly accurate. [Some people get all nitpicky about how Checkers was dead by the time Nixon got to the White House. The filmmakers cover this by having Dean point out that Nixon should call his dog by his proper name, King Timahoe, but Nixon blows him off. Somewhere it must be documented that Nixon really hated dogs and vice versa. I just want to know where.]

The 70's also never quit, as perhaps best exemplified in the clothes (I would run over my grandmother for Betsy's wardrobe!)[Honest. She would.] and the recurring fun with pot laced brownies. [Cookies, Hadley. They were called Hello Dollies, which leads to a hilarious scene with Henry Kissinger singing.] As the girls become closer to the President, Arlene develops a crush and spends several scenes immersed in daydreams before the girls discover the secret taping system in Dick's office. Upon discovering the President's criminal and cruel nature, they become disillusioned and turn against Nixon. The remainder of the film details the challenges they face as they stand their ground against the leader of the free world and a vanload of Plumbers. It also features genuinely hillarious appearances by Woodward and Bernstein who finally come off as more hapless than Betsy and Arlene. In the end, the girls prevail and the film comes to a patriotic and triumphant close as Dick is forced from the White House.

Clearly, the story of Betsy and Arlene is a metaphor for the coming of age crisis that Watergate represented for America. In the guise of a teen comedy, the film-makers have tapped something significant and very relevant in the American psyche. Following the spirit of youth and idealism that represented the 60's, Watergate brought us face to face with the ugliness beneath the surface of American politics. At a simplistic level, Richard Nixon took on the Constitution, and the Constitution dealt a crushing blow to corruption and tyrrany. [He fought the law and... the law won.] Nixon's resignation was an American triumph and a relief, leaving us all with a twinge of the hope represented by Betsy's optimistic sentiment, "They'll never lie to us again". At another level, Watergate only opened our eyes, and we all lost something we may never recover.

[Also, Kirsten Dunst rules my universe.]

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