It was probably not a coincidence that Donald Trump’s first presidency coincided with the release of several new movies and drama series about Richard Nixon and his downfall.
On the cusp of Trump’s return to power, relive the paranoid times of early 1970s America as we browse through the best documentaries, movies and television series about the Watergate scandal.
Nixon
Although not about Watergate per se, Nixon (1995) is a good place to start to get to know the man whose presidency was brought down by it.
Director Oliver Stone is prone to melodrama, and like most of his films this one contains several historical inaccuracies which it justifies as “an attempt to understand the truth.” But, also like most of Stone’s films, it succeeds at telling a powerful story, which — to borrow a phrase — should not be taken too literally, but can be taken seriously. From what we know from later documentaries and testimonials, his and Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Richard Nixon as a man driven by a deep insecurity and desire to prove himself worthy of love is at least close to the truth.
All the President’s Men
The 1976 classic, based on the book by the men who brought the Watergate scandal to light in The Washington Post: Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, played here by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford.
The movie has a similar vibe to Three Days of the Condor, also starring Redford, and The Parallax View, also directed by Alan Jay Pakula. That is not a coincidence: Watergate, coming on the heels of the release of the so-called Pentagon Papers, which revealed the American government had for years lied about the war in Vietnam, shook Americans’ confidence in their government and institutions to a degree that no conspiracy theory seemed too outlandish anymore. Sound familiar?
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House
Liam Neeson has largely turned his career toward starring in uncomplicated action movies, but his role as FBI associate director Mark Felt, AKA Deep Throat, in this underappreciated 2017 thriller may be a late highlight of his career. Judging by historical footage, Neeson gets the man Felt quite right, and the movie tells a part of the story that — for obvious reasons — went unknown for a long time.
Other reviews are lukewarm, and to be fair the movie isn’t a cinematic masterpiece. There are distracting side plots. Sometimes the dialogue feels unnatural and meant to give lesser-informed viewers the information they need to follow along. But if you’re a Watergate or 1970s American history buff, this is certainly worth a watch.
Watergate: High Crimes in the White House
In 2022, CBS released what may be the definitive Watergate documentary. Leveraging the latest insights and historiography, and incorporating a wealth of footage from the CBS News archives, this hour-and-a-half tells you the complete story and may, in the process, nuance your view of Nixon as a villain. (Or perhaps it’s because his “crimes and misdemeanors” seem paltry in comparison to what the United States has seen more recently?)
In addition to the inevitable Bob Woodward, the documentary hears from his less frequently interviewed collaborator Carl Bernstein, Nixon’s appointments secretary Dwight Chapin, the treasurer and bookkeeper of his reelection campaign, FBI investigator Angelo Lano, and former prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste.
To top it off, you can watch the whole thing for free on cbsnews.com!
Gaslit
It’s hard to beat Julia Roberts. Especially when she gets to play the loudmouthed wife of Attorney General John Mitchell, who, unlike all other men around Nixon, refused to cover up for the president. For her honesty, Martha Mitchell was called a drunk by the White House and shunned by Republicans. In other words, she was gaslit.
The 2022 series, consisting of eight episodes, shows the Watergate conspiracy in a very different light from All the President’s Men. Far from an ingenious plot orchestrated at the heart of government, it drives home how clumsily organized the breakup and how clumsily improvised the subsequent coverup more accurately were.
In addition to Roberts, the series boasts impressive performances by Dan Stevens, of Downton Abbey fame, as the slippery John Dean and Shea Whigham, of Boardwalk Empire and more recently Perry Mason, as the half-psychopathic Gordon Liddy.
Special mention must go to Sean Penn as John Mitchell. He is so immersed in the role (thanks in no small part to outstanding makeup) that I didn’t realize it was Penn until I read the credits! My full review here.
White House Plumbers
Released one year after Gaslit, White House Plumbers picks up two of its threads — the amateurism of Watergate and the madness of Liddy — and blows them up to such proportions that you may be forgiven for mistaking this miniseries for a farce. With the exception of Justin Theroux’ and Woody Harrelson’s perhaps slightly exaggerated portrayal of respectively Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, though, White House Plumbers is probably as accurate an historical drama — at least about Watergate — that you can find.
Indeed, now one of the criticisms from reviewers was that its adherence to real history was unnecessarily slowing the series down!
White House Plumbers was based in part on the memoirs of Egil Krogh, the man who set up the “Special Investigation Unit”, AKA Plumbers, in the White House, originally to find out who leaked the Pentagon Papers. With Liddy and Hunt in charge, that operation quickly spiraled out of control.
History vs. Hollywood lists various of the incredible scenes and revelations in the series which, at least according to the people who were there and have written or spoken about it, happened (almost) exactly that way in real life.
