Watergate

This the BBC series documenting the Watergate affair. Yet again it is a pity BBC have not issued it on DVD as it is a fascinating record with contributions by several of those involved, despite the gaps mentioned by other reviewers - the odd omission of the role of Woodward and Bernstein in exposing the connection between the burglary of the national Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washinton and the White House. I recorded it on a DVD recorder and I count 5 episodes, although the VHS tape version seems to spread over 6. I don't know why this web site says the minimum number of lines for a review is 10, since there are ones that are shorter!

50 years on, Watergate remains the definitive political scandal, the one that brought down the President of the United States. In the age of Trump, it seems quite mild in perspective; although this documentary series doesn't mention the fact that an underlying motive for the burgulary ordered by Nixon may have been that he feared his opponents had evidence of his treason, derailing peace negotiations that the government was trying to arrange with the North Vietnamese. Norma Percy's programme was made 30 years ago, i.e, 20 years after the event: most of the participants were still alive then, and most willing to talk. Nixon did not participate but had already given his story in a previous interview with David Frost. The series is very business-like in its presentation: everyone says what they did, and apparently with little spin: we thus get a definitive account of what happened, but without much commentary on why it was done or bad, to what degree it was unprecedented, and so on. It's hard to feel sorry for Nixon, a malicious schemer, but it's hard not to feel nostalgic for a time when the rule of law was ultimately made to count.

A fascinating, detailed history of the Watergate affair - 5 segments of about 50 minutes (as shown on the UK History satellite channel in 2003). A couple of things are missing: there is barely a mention of the investigative work of journalists Woodward and Bernstein, while there is no mention at all of the role played by honest, upright people such as Hugh Sloan.

The political crime of the century in America is covered in details in this special documentary made by BBC, divided in 5 parts, going from the planning of Watergate's break-in up to the final act that led to president Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. 20 years later of the latter, people who were involved in this affair, in one way or another, whether being part of the invasion or close to it or investigating the case, they all share their personal stories about one of the most notorious political scandals of all time.

It's a fantastic source of research, with plenty of information about everything involving Watergate and its aftermath, with some (at the time) exclusive presentation of facts - such as Nixon's conversations tapes. Praise must be made to the makers of this project (which should be viewed along with Oliver Stone's masterpiece "Nixon", since some events were suppressed or given little importance - the Saturday Night Massacre, rapidly presented but never mentioned by its name given by the media); however, it's not much of an engaging one. Whenever each part is running towards its final moments it gets weary, infatuated with some unimportant facts and very, very prejudicial omissions (Woodward and Bernstein's coverage of the case barely gets mentioned).

If you want facts, has a huge curiosity on the subject, this is a must-see. There's plenty of interesting interviews with John Dean, Gordon Liddy, John Ehrlichman, H.R. Haldeman, Robert Bork, they're all there and even Nixon's interview with David Frost, that later became the basis of movie and play "Frost/Nixon". It presents loads of facts but doesn't play an intrusive part while presenting and analyzing them. It leaves that to the viewers. Documentaries can be good when they do this, without trivializing things or taking a side of the issue. 8/10

A magnificent, detailed and utterly compelling documentary split into 5x50 minute parts. It builds from the origins of the burglary on the Watergate and the reasons for it... into the final moments of Nixon's presidency when the net finally closes on him. Despite the complexity and huge amount of information delivered, the programme never loses the plot and does a great job of putting across the excitement as Nixon is brought down.

This is a must see for anyone with the slightest interest in this fascinating period of history.