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The Watergate Caper: Richard Nixon and the Death of the American Dream

The Watergate Caper: Richard Nixon and the Death of the American Dream

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Summary

The Watergate Caper is an archival documentary, narrated by Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap), tracing the rise and fall of Nixon from the presidential primaries of 1968 through the Watergate break-in of June 1972 to his resignation two years later, killing trust in the political process and the American presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War. The film draws on hundreds of hours of TV news taped off-air by the Nixon White House to tell the untold story of the Watergate burglars. How did tapping the wrong phone with a bug that didn't work lead to their arrests and Nixon's resignation? It also explores representations of the Nixon years in popular culture, using the music, commercials, and cinema of the era to evoke a fevered political landscape of culture wars, dirty tricks, paranoia and assassination.

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Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Terry Staunton

The controversy that brought down a presidency has inspired numerous films, but this documentary trains much of its focus on the mindset and motives of the man behind the desk in the Oval Office. Richard Nixon was guilty of a form of "psychic suicide", one contributor suggests. "It's as if he's needed enemies from the beginning, to give him his own identity and to feel who he is." Director Shane O'Sullivan offers viewers both a historical chronicle and a psychological study of a politician with his finger hovering over the self-destruct button. Harry Shearer's authoritative narration adds an air of gravitas, while the archive footage helps bring an often complicated story to life. O'Sullivan also examines Nixon's subsequent place in a broader, post-Watergate cultural landscape, and looks at how events that shocked a nation led to the use of the "gate" suffix as shorthand to define future scandals. Lively and engrossing, the film homes in on the human drama prevalent in corridors of power.

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7.6/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameSelfAngelo Lano

Crew

rolenameDirectorShane O'SullivanWriterShane O'SullivanProducerShane O'SullivanEditorShane O'Sullivan

Details

Theatrical distributor

E2 Films

Released on

2026-09-18

Languages

English

Formats

Colour

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