Dick (1999) on Netflix
Betsy Jobs and Arlene Lorenzo, teenagers in 1972 Washington, D.C., accidentally help uncover the Watergate break-in. President Nixon names them his dog walkers to keep them quiet.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.2/1022,908 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
Betsy Jobs and Arlene Lorenzo are 15-year-old friends in Washington, D.C., in 1972. Arlene lives with her widowed mother in the Watergate building, and Betsy comes from a wealthy Georgetown family. One night the girls slip out of Arlene's apartment to mail a letter entering a contest for a date with teen singer Bobby Sherman. In the parking garage they tape a door latch to get through; a security guard finds the taped door, calls the police, and the burglars are arrested. G. Gordon Liddy sees the girls, who run. On a White House school tour the next day, Liddy recognizes them and tells H. R. Haldeman, who questions them. To keep them silent, President Nixon appoints them official dog walkers, which admits them to the White House again and again.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dick (1999)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Co-writer Sheryl Longin based the film on a real memory: as a child, she and a friend once pelted President Nixon with ice cubes while staying at the same hotel, causing a minor disturbance.
- Filmmakers Andrew Fleming and Sheryl Longin asked Watergate figures Ben Bradlee and John Dean to play themselves in the film, but both turned the offer down.
- Captain and Tennille's 'Love Will Keep Us Together' almost made the soundtrack, but Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille, being politically conservative, refused to license their cover once they saw how irreverent the film was toward Nixon.
- Director Andrew Fleming originally planned to close the film with Led Zeppelin's 'Over the Hills and Far Away,' but swapped it for Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain' when he decided it fit the ending better.
- The soundtrack's songs are all 1970s hits, but two, 'Lady Marmalade' and 'Dancing Queen', were not actually recorded until after the Watergate scandal ended; Sixpence None the Richer's cover of 'Dancing Queen' was the only track recorded specifically for the film.
- During the script's development, people warned Fleming and Longin that several of the film's gags went too far, but Fleming, who felt Nixon had gotten off too easily, insisted the pair fight to keep everything in.
