Michelle SweeneyDick – Movie Review
June 15th 2008 03:37
The 1999 comedy directed by Andrew Fleming (The Craft) and stars Kristen Dunst (Marie Antoinette, Virgin Suicides), Michelle Williams (Dawsons Creek, Brokeback Mountain), Dan Hedaya (Clueless), Ana Gasteyer (Saturday Night Live), Will Ferrell (Saturday Night Live), Bruce McCulloch (The Kids in the Hall).
Dunst and Williams play naïve, ditzy 15 year old teenagers, Besty Jobs and Arlene Lorenzo living in Washington Dc in the early 1970s. On a quest to mail a letter to win a date with teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman, the girls run into G. Gordon Liddy (Chief Operative for the White House Plumbers Unit, Special investigations unit) during the Watergate break-in, mistaking him for a jewel thief. On a school tour of the White House, the girls are introduced to H.R Haldeman (White House Chief of Staff) and President Nixon with his dog Checkers, to keep the girls silent, much to their complete aloofness, offers to make them official White House dog walkers.
After coming across a tape recorder Arlene confesses her love for Dick (Nixon, obviously), to make sure her ranting was recorded they check the tape only to hear Nixons true nature.
They then contact Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with information about the president, calling themselves ‘Deep Throat’. After a crucial piece of evidence is eaten by their dog, they decide to sneak into Haldeman’s home and steal a crucial tape recording, which is then published by Woodward and Bernstein.
Dick is a hilarious parody retelling the events of the Watergate Scandal, which lead to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon. Both Dunst and Williams were fabulous as clueless best friends Besty and Arlene (described by Haldeman (Dave Foley) as having met yams with more going on upstairs than those two). Dan Hedaya was equally as impressive as President Nixon (Dick) with an acute likeness to the real Nixon. And Saturday Night Live favourites Ana Gasteyer and Will Ferrell shined in their roles as the Presidents prim and proper secretary and reporter Bob Woodward.
The cinematography sets, costumes, hairstyles were all terrifically well-done; everything was true to the time. Above all was the exceptional soundtrack featuring classic 60’s and 70’s music such as; ‘ABC’ by Jackson 5, ‘Rock Your Baby’ by George McCrae, ‘Lady Marmalade’ by Labelle, ‘Mr Big Stuff’ by Jean Knight ‘Rock On’ by David Essex ‘You’re So Vain’ by Carly Simon and many many more great songs.
Extremely entertaining 3 and a half /5
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic