The downfall of President Richard Nixon began with the arrest, on the night of June 17, 1972, of five men who broke into the offices of the Democratic Party at the Watergate building complex in Washington. The miniseries White House Plumbers recounts with great tragicomic gusto who these little cogs in a big shenanigans machine were.
It is therefore the reverse of President’s Men, film inspired by the story of the two journalists who led the Watergate investigation, reputed to be the biggest scoop in the history of journalism. The film’s stars are barely mentioned in the new group portrait. It still took a certain audacity to choose this subject explored by other productions, including a TV series by Gaslit last year, with Julia Roberts in the role of the whistleblower of this incredible adventure.
The finesse of the screenplay, the accuracy of the reconstruction, the quality of the acting as well as the quirky and ironic treatment perfectly justify the new great fictional coup. The perspective focuses on the duo formed by G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux, always disturbing) and E. Howard Hunt (impeachable Woody Harrelson), two ex-intelligence agents who voluntarily become the executors of the dirty works of the committee for re-election presidential villain. These plumbers aren’t afraid to stick their hands in shit.
Justin Theroux sports a mustache as provided as a toupee and is always ready to do more than the very powerful client in demand. He never feels doubt or remorse. He’s constantly coming up with new bogus plans. His immoderate passion for the Nazis makes him even more destabilizing.
Woody Harrelson embodies a more sensible, but also more tragic character with a family situation that is complicated to say the least. He becomes both pathetic and sympathetic.
The two inept spies come together in a complete detestation of leftists and pacifists (the Vietnam War is raging) with a well-assumed aggressiveness against Hollywood stars, from Paul Newman to Jane Fonda. References are made to Hunt’s actual roles in several CIA actions, including the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the assassination of Che Guevara.
The warning placed at the beginning of each episode says it well: the names and characters of this story about history have not been changed since, in any case, almost everyone in this motley ensemble has been recognized guilty. The president himself is also not embodied by an actor: Nixon appears in scraps of archives as if to better remind us that behind this wacky entertainment at will hides a real real sad story.
The account of the operations prior to the arrest constantly leads one to wonder how the most powerful power on the planet could trust such amateurs. The incompetent hire others, and the beautiful plans inevitably end up screwing up. The pair resort to a trio of little Cuban-American mobsters so goofy they look like they’ve come out of a Coen Brothers movie. The very first scene shows the second attempt of the improbable and improvised team to enter the premises of the Watergate Democratic Party. It will take two more attempts to get there and mark the century involuntarily.
This delicious production was concocted by the showrunner David Mandel, to whom we owe Veep. He worked with screenwriters Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck, who were also at the center of the political comedy offering an almost cartoonish portrait of the American vice-presidency. This entirely imaginary series allowed much more audacity, right down to comical caricatures. The production The White House plumbers must still respect certain real frameworks while inserting imaginary elements, if only the dialogues.
All of this leaves the impression that the great American democracy has been slipping for a very long time. The policies and practices of discrimination and racism have perverted this republic since its foundation (in 1776 or in 1619, as one will wish). Empire’s lies have recently justified wars that have aggravated socio-political problems in the Middle East. Donald Trump’s presidency ended in the assault on the Capitol even makes the attempted robbery at Watergate 51 years ago look like childishness.
In short, leaders in general and the Republican Party in particular continue to sink deeper and deeper into the sewers of history. This goofy series on a serious subject somehow shows the origins of decade-by-decade amplified drama from a behind-the-scenes look. We laugh a lot, but ultimately there is nothing funny.