journal features

movie review - Dick

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Vancouver, 2002.08.20

I saw this on TV, but I thought I'd comment anyway because I liked it.

"Dick" is a comedy about the fall of the Nixon administration. It features two 15-year-old girls, one of whom lives with her single mother in the Watergate. When the girls sneak out of the hotel to deliver some fan mail to a singer, they leave a door jam taped-over so they can sneak in. While making their re-entry, the door slams, and the hotel's guards call the cops.

It is this kind of sequence that occurs time and again throughout the movie. The girls are responsible for the detente with the Russians. The girls' influence is a factor in the US withdrawal from Vietname. A prank by the girls leads to Woodward and Bernstein getting their biggest tips.

Portrayals of the actual administration staff are quite well done, especially with Harry Shearer as G. Gordon Liddy and Saul Rubinek as Henry Kissinger.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

—Hermann Goering