(spoiler alert)
US domestic policy was completely shaken up in the 1970's by what was happening in South-East Asia, and of course by the Watergate-scandal. This TV series is an account of the latter, mainly based on the book "Blind Ambition" of John Wesley Dean III, one of the key figures of that episode. This production also was based on the autobiography "Mo" written by his wife Maureen
After some years in the Justice Department, Dean was asked to join the White House Staff as a counsel to the President while still being in his early thirties. We see his gradual rise on "Macho Mountain" as he called it. Although he is a counsel to the President, he hardly has any direct contact with the "P", until the Watergate Scandal erupted. Then, things radically changed. Dean became a kind of Hans Brinker,putting his fingers in the dike whenever water started to threatened to drown the President. In the end however, there were too many holes for only 10 fingers. When Investigators and the press started to close in on Nixon, Chief of Staff Haldeman and Domestic Affairs Adviser Ehlrichman tried to protect their King by throwing Dean to the wolves, sacrificing him like a pawn. Dean however was far too well acquainted with those kind of political chess board tactics, not to see the danger. His loyalty to the President had its limits: he refused to become a scapegoat. He hired a very expensive but skillful criminal lawyer, and started to fight back against his former employer, the President of the USA.
Watergate was a far more complicated story than the "third rate burglary" White House press attaché Ziegler suggested it was. There also was the break in in the offices of D. Ellsberg's psychiatrist, the childish dirty tricks D. Segretti was inventing to cause confusion and havoc in the Democratic Party, the attempts to tamper with documents to make it look like JFK ordered the murder of Vietnamese president Diem, etc. A story with a bunch of rather colorful figures à la Liddy with his bizarre Gemstone-charts and his Love Boat-project (see below), CIA-man and spy novelist Hunt, shady anti-Castro Cubans, well dressed men carrying attaché cases with tens of thousands of dollars of hush money... You'll meet them all in this interesting TV series. So, I do not really agree with one of the reviewers here, who wrote that watching this TV series makes it unnecessary to read 2O books about Watergate. If you are only moderately interested in politics, and haven't the slightest idea about who Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Ziegler, Colson, Gordon Liddy, Howard E Hunt, Donald Segretti & Co. were, you won't be able to understand the complicated storyline. A storyline that follows the real events, or at least, the story as told by John Dean. But then again, the same is true for other Watergate movies like "All the President's men" and "The final days".
I therefore would recommend the viewer to first read at least one good book on Watergate, or at least some Wikipedia fact sheets. Drawing up a short "Who was who during Watergate" also certainly helps, if you want to enjoy these interesting but complicated movies.
Also, always keep in mind that not all participants in the Watergate Scandal agree with Dean's version of the facts. Gordon Liddy for ex. has a very different recollection of what happened in the early 1970's. He also got into a serious legal battle with Dean, when he started to claim that Maureen Dean had been part of a call girl ring. But then again, Liddy probably never forgave Dean for having made fun of him during his dry and serious exposé of his strange Gemstone plan. Liddy also wanted to hire a boat and to change it into a floating bordello with the intention of blackmailing well known Democrats. When he told his small audience that the broads he had in mind could be well trained for the job, and that he knew "from first hand experience" that they were not stupid, Dean couldn't resist bursting into laughter because of Liddy's unlucky way of expressing what he meant. Liddy pleaded guilty after Watergate, and insisted on staying in prison until the last day of his 55 months sentence to show the world his loyalty. He considered Dean to be disloyal and a traitor.
Also, not all events are explained very well in "Blind ambition". For example, who the heck is the French "madame" Dean is "visiting" while in Paris: how did he know her, and what is her exact role in the Watergate scandal ? She seems to be very well informed and interested about the political events taking place in Washington.
I don't think Sheen did a bad job as an actor in this TV series. However, when you compare his looks with those of the real Dean, you really wonder why he was selected for this role. Sometimes he rather looks like James Dean than like John Wesley Dean in this movie. Why not having given the role of Maureen Dean to let's say Farah Fawcett then, it would have been equally illogical.
Frankly, I also had expected a more hyper-kinetic, mean looking Chief of Staff Haldeman, snapping orders at the speed of a Gatling gun, and picking in everyone's feathers all the time. In stead we got a relatively nice version of "the Brush" as he was known in those days. I also expected a far more cynical Domestic Affairs Assistant Ehrlichman, underlining systematically his dissatisfaction about the bunglers surrounding him by raising one eyebrow as he was known to do. However, the pipe-smoking actor portraying Chief Justice Mitchell really was a cool Doppelgänger !
Except for those little flaws, a very good movie, but only recommended for people interested in political scandals, American history, law students, future journalists etc.
US domestic policy was completely shaken up in the 1970's by what was happening in South-East Asia, and of course by the Watergate-scandal. This TV series is an account of the latter, mainly based on the book "Blind Ambition" of John Wesley Dean III, one of the key figures of that episode. This production also was based on the autobiography "Mo" written by his wife Maureen
After some years in the Justice Department, Dean was asked to join the White House Staff as a counsel to the President while still being in his early thirties. We see his gradual rise on "Macho Mountain" as he called it. Although he is a counsel to the President, he hardly has any direct contact with the "P", until the Watergate Scandal erupted. Then, things radically changed. Dean became a kind of Hans Brinker,putting his fingers in the dike whenever water started to threatened to drown the President. In the end however, there were too many holes for only 10 fingers. When Investigators and the press started to close in on Nixon, Chief of Staff Haldeman and Domestic Affairs Adviser Ehlrichman tried to protect their King by throwing Dean to the wolves, sacrificing him like a pawn. Dean however was far too well acquainted with those kind of political chess board tactics, not to see the danger. His loyalty to the President had its limits: he refused to become a scapegoat. He hired a very expensive but skillful criminal lawyer, and started to fight back against his former employer, the President of the USA.
Watergate was a far more complicated story than the "third rate burglary" White House press attaché Ziegler suggested it was. There also was the break in in the offices of D. Ellsberg's psychiatrist, the childish dirty tricks D. Segretti was inventing to cause confusion and havoc in the Democratic Party, the attempts to tamper with documents to make it look like JFK ordered the murder of Vietnamese president Diem, etc. A story with a bunch of rather colorful figures à la Liddy with his bizarre Gemstone-charts and his Love Boat-project (see below), CIA-man and spy novelist Hunt, shady anti-Castro Cubans, well dressed men carrying attaché cases with tens of thousands of dollars of hush money... You'll meet them all in this interesting TV series. So, I do not really agree with one of the reviewers here, who wrote that watching this TV series makes it unnecessary to read 2O books about Watergate. If you are only moderately interested in politics, and haven't the slightest idea about who Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Ziegler, Colson, Gordon Liddy, Howard E Hunt, Donald Segretti & Co. were, you won't be able to understand the complicated storyline. A storyline that follows the real events, or at least, the story as told by John Dean. But then again, the same is true for other Watergate movies like "All the President's men" and "The final days".
I therefore would recommend the viewer to first read at least one good book on Watergate, or at least some Wikipedia fact sheets. Drawing up a short "Who was who during Watergate" also certainly helps, if you want to enjoy these interesting but complicated movies.
Also, always keep in mind that not all participants in the Watergate Scandal agree with Dean's version of the facts. Gordon Liddy for ex. has a very different recollection of what happened in the early 1970's. He also got into a serious legal battle with Dean, when he started to claim that Maureen Dean had been part of a call girl ring. But then again, Liddy probably never forgave Dean for having made fun of him during his dry and serious exposé of his strange Gemstone plan. Liddy also wanted to hire a boat and to change it into a floating bordello with the intention of blackmailing well known Democrats. When he told his small audience that the broads he had in mind could be well trained for the job, and that he knew "from first hand experience" that they were not stupid, Dean couldn't resist bursting into laughter because of Liddy's unlucky way of expressing what he meant. Liddy pleaded guilty after Watergate, and insisted on staying in prison until the last day of his 55 months sentence to show the world his loyalty. He considered Dean to be disloyal and a traitor.
Also, not all events are explained very well in "Blind ambition". For example, who the heck is the French "madame" Dean is "visiting" while in Paris: how did he know her, and what is her exact role in the Watergate scandal ? She seems to be very well informed and interested about the political events taking place in Washington.
I don't think Sheen did a bad job as an actor in this TV series. However, when you compare his looks with those of the real Dean, you really wonder why he was selected for this role. Sometimes he rather looks like James Dean than like John Wesley Dean in this movie. Why not having given the role of Maureen Dean to let's say Farah Fawcett then, it would have been equally illogical.
Frankly, I also had expected a more hyper-kinetic, mean looking Chief of Staff Haldeman, snapping orders at the speed of a Gatling gun, and picking in everyone's feathers all the time. In stead we got a relatively nice version of "the Brush" as he was known in those days. I also expected a far more cynical Domestic Affairs Assistant Ehrlichman, underlining systematically his dissatisfaction about the bunglers surrounding him by raising one eyebrow as he was known to do. However, the pipe-smoking actor portraying Chief Justice Mitchell really was a cool Doppelgänger !
Except for those little flaws, a very good movie, but only recommended for people interested in political scandals, American history, law students, future journalists etc.