Dick (1999)
April 20, 2016 9:28 PM - Subscribe
The Internet Movie Database has the movie described as follows: "Story of two girls who wander away from a White House tour and meet President Nixon." Ah, but it's so much more.
It's part affectionate homage, part withering satire of "All the President's Men" (with an opening that mirrors its source) and all things Nixon (including Watergate minutia and mysteries since solved and, in one case, never solved). And then "Dick" is a teen movie, a "Clueless" set in an earlier time, only with H.R Haldeman and Nixon's Plumbers on hand. (Dan Hedaya, the attorney father from the latter, plays and looks much like Nixon.) A young Kirsten Dunst and a Michelle Williams are ditzy teens Besty and Arlene, a joint Deep Throat, who take down Tricky Dick, but not before Arlene gets an epic, intensely comic crush on the soon-to-be former president.
One of the finest, if silliness, political satires of the past quarter century in America (at least in my opinion!) and likely the best of what U.S. filmmakers and studios delivered in the 1990s. Even so, it largely failed to find an audience--not surprising, really, since as a teen movie/Nixon satire hybrid it had to have been a film marketing specialist's nightmare. Still, "Dick" was critically well-received/ Today, "Dick" has the rep of being something of a cult classic.
It's part affectionate homage, part withering satire of "All the President's Men" (with an opening that mirrors its source) and all things Nixon (including Watergate minutia and mysteries since solved and, in one case, never solved). And then "Dick" is a teen movie, a "Clueless" set in an earlier time, only with H.R Haldeman and Nixon's Plumbers on hand. (Dan Hedaya, the attorney father from the latter, plays and looks much like Nixon.) A young Kirsten Dunst and a Michelle Williams are ditzy teens Besty and Arlene, a joint Deep Throat, who take down Tricky Dick, but not before Arlene gets an epic, intensely comic crush on the soon-to-be former president.
One of the finest, if silliness, political satires of the past quarter century in America (at least in my opinion!) and likely the best of what U.S. filmmakers and studios delivered in the 1990s. Even so, it largely failed to find an audience--not surprising, really, since as a teen movie/Nixon satire hybrid it had to have been a film marketing specialist's nightmare. Still, "Dick" was critically well-received/ Today, "Dick" has the rep of being something of a cult classic.
Today, "Dick" has the rep of being something of a cult classic.
I did not know this and I am very happy to learn this, because this movie is really great and fun. Even if Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams had done nothing else that I loved since (they have!), I would love them both just for this movie.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:35 AM on April 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
I did not know this and I am very happy to learn this, because this movie is really great and fun. Even if Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams had done nothing else that I loved since (they have!), I would love them both just for this movie.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:35 AM on April 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
I love this movie.
One of my favorite scenes is on the school bus after the White House tour:
"Every lie is another brick in the pathway to hell." And the "Popcorn" song starts.
posted by BooneTheCowboyToy at 9:56 AM on April 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
One of my favorite scenes is on the school bus after the White House tour:
"Every lie is another brick in the pathway to hell." And the "Popcorn" song starts.
posted by BooneTheCowboyToy at 9:56 AM on April 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Looking forward to watching this. I just saw Drop Dead Gorgeous for the first time (despite being a lifelong Kirsten Dunst fan!) Seems she has a bit of a streak with "cult" movies.
posted by 2ht at 10:19 AM on April 21, 2016
posted by 2ht at 10:19 AM on April 21, 2016
Michelle Williams is so goddamn funny in this that I don't know why she isn't in every funny movie ever made.
posted by maxsparber at 12:04 PM on April 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by maxsparber at 12:04 PM on April 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
Looking forward to watching this. I just saw Drop Dead Gorgeous for the first time (despite being a lifelong Kirsten Dunst fan!) Seems she has a bit of a streak with "cult" movies.
Yeah, she can really Bring It On.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:01 AM on April 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, she can really Bring It On.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:01 AM on April 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'll never forget the sight of Hedaya, as Nixon, riding along the beach on a white horse towards Williams.
"What about Pat?"
"She understands."
posted by Zonker at 12:22 PM on April 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
"What about Pat?"
"She understands."
posted by Zonker at 12:22 PM on April 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
One of the highlights of my showbiz career (Ok, I was a clerk at Blockbuster. But I did have my own fan club.) involves this film.
Customer comes up to the checkout with three tapes in hand: Dick, Pecker, and The Wood. Now, working retail, you get a sense of if someone's trying to pull a stunt purchase joke or not, and the way the color drained from this woman's face when I read the titles out loud per the policy, if she was trying to yank my chain with the transaction, she did so with some masterful acting.
posted by radwolf76 at 3:54 PM on April 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
Customer comes up to the checkout with three tapes in hand: Dick, Pecker, and The Wood. Now, working retail, you get a sense of if someone's trying to pull a stunt purchase joke or not, and the way the color drained from this woman's face when I read the titles out loud per the policy, if she was trying to yank my chain with the transaction, she did so with some masterful acting.
posted by radwolf76 at 3:54 PM on April 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
Dick has my favorite soundtrack of all time. Of course, I was in high school during Watergate too.
posted by rfs at 6:23 PM on April 23, 2016
posted by rfs at 6:23 PM on April 23, 2016
This was surprisingly good! I had heard of the cult-iness...or at least heard the title mentioned not-mockingly, and I used to see it ALL the time at my video store (must have been eye-level on the wall). Bruce McCulloch can really nail a tiny part, and the rest of the cast is pretty amazing and right up my alley. Plus Hedaya does a good Nixon!
Huh, though he mostly does TV now, the director also did the In-Laws remake.
posted by rhizome at 8:44 PM on December 2, 2018
Huh, though he mostly does TV now, the director also did the In-Laws remake.
posted by rhizome at 8:44 PM on December 2, 2018
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posted by Chrysostom at 9:42 PM on April 20, 2016 [2 favorites]