Friday, October 18, 2013

Washington: Behind Closed Doors



Sleaze Crime Sex Power; `Good Morning Mr. President'
It's 1977 but relevant as ever 35 years later. Astonishingly so! Pay phones-NO cells; no deleted expletives; VHS tape surveillance technology; and the film look of the late 70s--early 80s but its datedness is quickly forgotten THEN seen as a period political series with set-costume historic perfection. I lived the Nixon years (actually voted for him, OUCH!) This is powerful. Made me mad all over again, but also expect a compelling drive all the way to the 3 DVDs' end.
SUBTITLES for all 6 feature-length episodes.

One dialogue quote sums it up: "It's just so vicious. There's so much back-biting and insincerity." Perhaps too true in an election year. You may opt to stay away from the voter booth in favor of another viewing for this adaptation of Ehrlichman's book. Everyone knows the book and this series was about Nixon and Watergate. Author Ehrlichman was part of it. Like Haldeman, portrayed perfectly by Robert Vaughn under the fiction name of Flaherty, they did 18 months...

Nothing changes, does it?
I first watched this mini-series on British TV some years ago, and found it riveting. Having since enjoyed the film "The American President" and the entire West Wing series, I think Washington Behind Closed Doors was the first of these political dramas, showing the behind the scenes jockeying for position, power and privilege. But it was shown at a time just before most of us in the West began to doubt and mistrust most of our political "leaders", so it was in some ways quite shocking at the time. But it was also funny, sometimes hilariously so. Nicholas Pryor springs immediately to mind as a young man desperate to climb the greasy political pole, but a man also greatly lacking in confidence, someone who would behave as though he were a lord of creation when things were going well for him, but who disintegrated into a wimpish, snivelling, sweating wreck when he saw his golden future disappearing in front of his eyes. It is a truly great performance. Robert Vaughn,in full...

Washington Behind Closed Doors
I saw this series on TV many years ago and absolutely loved it. I haven't had time to watch it all at this stage but am very satisfied with what I have watched

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