Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27573 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-12-08
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
So who exactly was Deep Throat, that all-important source who helped Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein bust open the Watergate scandal? Well, according to this thoroughly funny, keenly smart comedy from director Andrew Fleming (The Craft), it was two sweetly daft teenage girls named Betsy and Arlene. Taking the history and figures from Watergate and running gleefully and sacrilegiously amok, Dick offers up a hilarious what-if scenario that takes the Nixon administration's downfall from grave tragedy to hilarious farce. When Betsy (Kirsten Dunst) and Arlene (Michelle Williams) run into a shady figure in the stairwell of Arlene's Watergate apartment building, little do they know they've stumbled upon G. Gordon Liddy (Harry Shearer) on the night of the Democratic National Headquarters break-in. Later, on a White House field trip, they wind up meeting with Nixon himself (Dan Hedaya) who, to ensure their silence, decides to make them official White House dog walkers and "secret youth advisors".

Of course, Betsy and Arlene soon find out their idol has feet of clay, and ultimately decide to aid "radical muckraking journalists" (and queasy rivals) Woodward (Will Ferrell) and Bernstein (Bruce McCullough) in their investigation. Fleming and co-writer Sheryl Longin's enfolding of the Watergate scandal is extremely clever and inspired, from Arlene's 18-and-a-half-minute declaration of love on Nixon's tape recorder to the Hello Dolly cookies (laced with a certain herbal stimulant) that help bring about the U.S.-Soviet accord. And after all the angsty-serious portraits of Watergate, it's bliss to see the prime players sent up mercilessly; in addition to Shearer, the cast boasts Dave Foley (Erlichman), Jim Breuer (John Dean), Saul Rubinek (Kissinger), and Ana Gasteyer (Rosemary Woods), all in fine form. Hedaya's Nixon, dead-on but never parodic, is an Oscar-worthy comic turn and Dunst and Williams invest their characters with affection and humour; the success of the film lies in the way these talented actresses make us laugh with Betsy and Arlene, never at them. Don't be put off by the teen sheen on this comedy--it's also for all of us who still remember Watergate even after 25 years, and still love dancing on the scandal's grave. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Disappointed
Judging by the reviews included on this website I was expecting this film to be really good but sadly me and my friends were very disappointed by this film. Maybe you just have to find girls screaming randomly funny!

Brilliantly Funny
Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams do a brilliant job of not taking themselves too seriously in this ridicolously funny take on the Watergate Scandal. They play there stupid teenage girls characters fabolously. This film is great fun. Your So Vain playing over Nixon leaving the Whitehouse leaves you singing along into Dancing Queen. You finish watching it with the biggest smile on your face. Truly Great.

The greatest film of the 1990's.
Dick was just too damn subversive for audiences to take to (see the later Josie & The Pussycats also)- ironically rewriting history and subverting the notion of truth around Nixon/Watergate. This is basically an American teen comedy vehicle to showcase the diverse talents of Kirsten Dunst (Virgin Suicides, Crazy/Beautiful) & Michelle Williams (Me Without You, Prozac Nation)- who play stoned 70's chicks stepping into the fabric of US history (not unlike Zelig or, guffaw, Forest F**kin' Gump); a more fun version of Oliver Stone's subversive Nixon (1995) then. A lot more fun...

Both Dunst and Williams demonstrate why they're among the most talented actors working in cinema these days- the latter particularly requires a decent role, having buckets more talent & charisma than non-entitities like Kate Hudson & Gwyneth Paltrow. Imagine also if That 70's Show had not been written by the inept and was fused with a backwards subversion of what we know of Nixon's era...

How did Dan Hedaya (Mulholland Drive, Blood Simple) not win Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his depiction of Nixon here- a brilliant brilliant performance. Nice to see the as great Devon Gummersall (Brian Krackow in classic US-Teen Series My-So Called Life)- why is he not being used by casting directors? Another great facet is the way the film takes the piss out of journalists Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward (All the President's Men) and their "discovery" of the Watergate scandal (this is more amusing in the light of the latter's book length ode to Dubya's regime- a man who was elected without a majority (that'll have been help from Daddy's friends then), unlike Richard Milhous Nixon- who was back in power on a landslide. If Nixon, with all the people behind him (???) was a criminal, what the heck could Dubya be????). Great fun and much better than Alan Pakula's over-rated All the President's Men; and with a denoument to die for ("You Suck, Dick")- this is the best ribbing of Nixon this side of The Simpsons/Futurama.

Dick is a great film, at this price a must and I'll go out on a here and say it's the greatest film of the 1990's (though that doesn't mean I haven;t loved Three Colours: Red, LA Confidential, Insomnia, L'appartment, Last Night, The Ice Storm etc). A cult classic in the waiting; oh Michelle Williams, drool-slobber-etc...