Will: G. Gordon Liddy | |
---|---|
Genre | Biography Drama |
Written by | Frank Abatemarco |
Directed by | Robert Lieberman |
Starring | Robert Conrad John Mahoney Danny Lloyd |
Music by | Mike Post Pete Carpenter |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producer | Joan Conrad |
Producer | John Ashley |
Production location | DeKalb, Illinois |
Cinematography | Paul Vom Brack |
Editor | Howard S. Deane |
Running time | 100 min. |
Production company | A. Shane Company |
Budget | $2 million [1] |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | January 10, 1982 |
Will: G. Gordon Liddy is an American television film which first aired on NBC on January 10, 1982. The film depicts the rise and fall of Watergate co-conspirator G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy was portrayed by two actors: American actor Robert Conrad played Liddy as an adult and child actor Danny Lloyd portrayed him in his youth. Other figures associated with the Watergate scandal and portrayed in this film include Jeb Magruder and John Dean. The movie was directed by Robert Lieberman and was based on Liddy's 1980 autobiography.
The film follows the rise and fall of convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy. Robert Conrad is cast as the adult Liddy, who is sentenced to 20 years in prison. The film follows the convicted felon through the four and half years he spent behind bars. While in prison, the film portrays Liddy as capable and able to match up to any man in the prison. The film includes several famous details from Liddy's 1980 autobiography including the legendary "hand held over the burning flame," and Liddy's oath, "I will kill for you, Mr. President." [2]
The film was based on Liddy's 1980 bestselling autobiography, Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy, and directed by Robert Lieberman. [2] [3] Courtroom scenes for the movie were shot in Illinois, at the 1905 DeKalb County Courthouse. [4]
It was produced by John Ashley, a former actor who was a friend of Conrad's. [5] Ashley recalls adapting the book being very difficult, not because of censorship but because it was hard to know what to leave out. [6]
The made-for-television film debuted in the United States on NBC on January 10, 1982. [7] Copies of the film are held in the Nixon Presidential Materials collection of the U.S. National Archives. [8]
Will was the subject of a review by John O'Connor of The New York Times . While O'Connor praised Lieberman, screenwriter Frank Abatemarco and Conrad, he questioned the overall purpose of the film. He rebuked Liddy, stating, "What purpose is ultimately served? The basic criterion seems to be that it sells, enabling various companies and individuals, including Mr. Liddy, to make some money" and comparing it with Helter Skelter , a CBS television movie about Charles Manson and the Manson Family murders. Noting that the source for the film was an autobiography, he went on to pan the producers as "ambivalent" toward the film's subject. O'Connor concluded his review by noting the film's attempt to gloss over the darker parts of Liddy's history: "After a while, it gets increasingly difficult to remember that this law-and-order fanatic is not beyond putting himself above the law, that he seems to exist in a world of absurd macho fantasy (his book refers to 'my best Effrem Zimbalist Jr. (sic) manner' or 'I gave him Broderick Crawford in Highway Patrol'), and that his basic social and political instincts are fascistic." [7]
Comedy sketch show SCTV spoofed Will, depicting Liddy as a rat-eating sociopath who repeatedly suggests to Nixon that they kill their political opponents with piano wire. Canadian actor Dave Thomas played Liddy in the spoof. [9]
In the September/October 2004 issue of Washington Free Press Dr. John Ruhland included the film on a list of "Rad Videos" summarized as "Dirty Politics in the United States." He called the film a "campy and terribly acted account of the Watergate break-in." He noted the film's value as a tool for giving a view into the workings of the United States government. [10]
The Watergate scandal was a major political controversy in the United States during the presidency of Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974, ultimately resulting in Nixon's resignation. The name originated from attempts by the Nixon administration to conceal its involvement in the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
All the President's Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building and the resultant political scandal for The Washington Post. The book chronicles the investigative reporting of Woodward and Bernstein from Woodward's initial report on the Watergate break-in through the resignations of Nixon Administration officials H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman in April 1973, and the revelation of the Oval Office Watergate tapes by Alexander Butterfield three months later. It relates the events behind the major stories the duo wrote for the Post, naming some sources who had previously refused to be identified for their initial articles, notably Hugh Sloan. It also gives detailed accounts of Woodward's secret meetings with his source Deep Throat, whose identity was kept hidden for over 30 years. Gene Roberts, the former executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and former managing editor of The New York Times, has called the work of Woodward and Bernstein "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time."
George Gordon Battle Liddy was an American lawyer and FBI agent who was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping for his role in the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration.
The Committee for the Re-election of the President was, officially, a fundraising organization of United States President Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign during the Watergate scandal. In addition to fundraising, the organization also engaged in political sabotage against Nixon's opponents, the various Democratic politicians running in the election.
Jeb Stuart Magruder was an American businessman and high-level political operative in the Republican Party who served time in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal.
John Wesley Dean III is a disbarred American attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal and his subsequent testimony to Congress as a witness. His guilty plea to a single felony in exchange for becoming a key witness for the prosecution ultimately resulted in a reduced sentence, which he served at Fort Holabird outside Baltimore, Maryland. After his plea, he was disbarred.
Bernard Leon Barker was a Watergate burglar and undercover operative in CIA-directed plots to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Richard Gordon Kleindienst was an American lawyer, politician, and U.S. Attorney General during the early stages of Watergate political scandal.
Herbert L. "Bart" Porter is an American man who served as a campaign aide to Richard Nixon. He became involved in the Watergate scandal after the FBI questioned him about a money transfer he had made; Porter later testified before the Senate Watergate Committee and admitted that he had lied to the FBI during that questioning. Porter was convicted of making false statements in 1974 and served 30 days in prison.
The Watergate Seven has come to refer to two different groups of people, both of them in the context of the Watergate scandal. Firstly, it can refer to the five men caught on June 17, 1972, burglarizing the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate complex, along with their two handlers, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, who were Nixon campaign aides. All seven were tried before Judge John Sirica in January 1973.
Robert Charles Mardian was a United States Republican party official who served in the administration of Richard Nixon, and was embroiled in the Watergate scandal as one of the Watergate Seven who were indicted by a grand jury for campaign violations. His conviction for conspiracy was overturned because of procedural unfairness and he was not subsequently retried.
Robert C. Odle, Jr. was a public official in the Nixon Administration and Reagan Administration and an American lawyer, based in Washington, D.C.
The Polo Lounge is located inside the Beverly Hills Hotel at 9641 Sunset Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California.
Operation Sandwedge was a proposed clandestine intelligence-gathering operation against the political enemies of U.S. President Richard Nixon's administration. The proposals were put together by Nixon's Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman, domestic affairs assistant John Ehrlichman and staffer Jack Caulfield in 1971. Caulfield, a former police officer, created a plan to target the Democratic Party and the anti-Vietnam War movement, inspired by what he believed to be the Democratic Party's employment of a private investigation firm.
Dick is a 1999 comedy film directed by Andrew Fleming from a script he co-wrote with Sheryl Longin. It is a comic reimagining of the Watergate scandal which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon and features several cast members from Saturday Night Live and The Kids in the Hall. Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams star as Betsy and Arlene, two warm-hearted but unworldly 15-year-old friends, who – through various arbitrary circumstances – become the legendary "Deep Throat" figure who played a key role in bringing down the presidency of Nixon. At the time of the film's release, the real identity of Deep Throat was not yet known to the public.
Blind Ambition is a four-part American miniseries that aired on CBS from May 20, 1979 to May 23, 1979 focusing on the 1972–74 Watergate scandal and based on the memoirs of former White House counsel John Dean and his wife Maureen.
In the context of the Watergate scandal, Operation Gemstone was a proposed series of clandestine or illegal acts, first outlined by G. Gordon Liddy in two separate meetings with three other individuals: then-Attorney General of the United States, John N. Mitchell, then-White House Counsel John Dean, and Jeb Magruder, an ally and former aide to H.R. Haldeman, as well as the temporary head of the Committee to Re-elect the President, pending Mitchell's resignation as Attorney General.
Washington: Behind Closed Doors is a 1977 American television miniseries produced by Paramount Television, that was broadcast in six parts, airing across six consecutive nights on ABC, between September 6 to September 11, 1977.
Judith Hoback Miller is a person who acted as an investigative source in the Watergate scandal in 1972 during the presidency of Richard Nixon. She served as the bookkeeper for the Committee for the Re-Election of the President.
White House Plumbers is an American satirical political drama television miniseries created and written by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck and directed by David Mandel, based on the 2007 book Integrity by Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh. The series stars Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Domhnall Gleeson, Kiernan Shipka, and Lena Headey and it premiered on HBO on May 1, 2023.