When Robert Redford pitched "All the President's Men," studios were skeptical. A film about journalists chipping away at President Richard Nixon's reputation through phone calls and legwork didn't sound like a box-office smash, especially when compared with a concept like a bum boxer getting a shot at the heavyweight title.
But "President's Men" ended up as the fifth-biggest box office hit of 1976. And while "Rocky," also released that year, went on to win the best picture Oscar, Redford's pet project would pick up four awards of its own and become a cinematic classic.
Hollywood is still churning out stories about Watergate, but often with a more comic eye than Redford could have foreseen.
"White House Plumbers," which debuts at 8 p.m. Monday on HBO, is the latest. The five-part miniseries offers a proper history lesson for the uninitiated, but its main goal is to expose the conspirators as clowns.
The plumpest targets are E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), Nixon loyalists thrown together to lead a behind-the-scenes campaign to embarrass George McGovern. The two have a bromance but they occasionally get on each other's nerves. Liddy likes to entertain dinner guests with Adolf Hitler speeches. Hunt wants to be accepted by the country club elite. But the two have one thing in common: a misguided belief that each of them is James Bond.
"Veep" veteran David Mandel directs the break-in scenes like he's making "Ocean's Eleven" with the Three Stooges.
Harrelson's Hunt has anger management issues. Imagine W.C. Fields after a toddler has knocked over his tumbler of whiskey. Theroux fills Liddy with hot air. He routinely shows off his ability to keep his hand over a candle flame but freaks out when he accidentally spills coffee on himself.
The most telling scene may be when the two playfully wrestle for a flight attendant's phone number; they're little boys who want nothing more than to be king of the hill.
