The Watergate Caper is an archival documentary, narrated by Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap), tracing the rise and fall of Nixon from the presidential primaries of 1968 through the Watergate break-in of June 1972 to his resignation two years later, killing trust in the political process and the American presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War. The film draws on hundreds of hours of TV news taped off-air by the Nixon White House to tell the untold story of the Watergate burglars. How did tapping the wrong phone with a bug that didn't work lead to their arrests and Nixon's resignation? It also explores representations of the Nixon years in popular culture, using the music, commercials, and cinema of the era to evoke a fevered political landscape of culture wars, dirty tricks, paranoia and assassination.

The Watergate Caper: Richard Nixon and the Death of the American Dream (2026)

"Others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself" - President Richard Nixon

September 18, 2026 105 min

CrimeDocumentaryHistory

Director: Shane O'Sullivan  ·  Writer: Shane O'Sullivan

The Watergate Caper is an archival documentary, narrated by Harry Shearer (This is Spinal Tap), tracing the rise and fall of Nixon from the presidential primaries of 1968 through the Watergate break-in of June 1972 to his resignation two years later, killing trust in the political process and the American presidency in the wake of the Vietnam War. The film draws on hundreds of hours of TV news taped off-air by the Nixon White House to tell the untold story of the Watergate burglars. How did tapping the wrong phone with a bug that didn't work lead to their arrests and Nixon's resignation? It also explores representations of the Nixon years in popular culture, using the music, commercials, and cinema of the era to evoke a fevered political landscape of culture wars, dirty tricks, paranoia and assassination.

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Trailer

Director

Shane O'Sullivan

Cast

Richard Nixon (archive footage) Daniel Ellsberg (archive footage) Richard Helms (archive footage) Harry Shearer (voice) G. Gordon Liddy (archive footage) E. Howard Hunt (archive footage) Robert Redford (archive footage) Warren Beatty (archive footage) Earl J. Silbert (archive footage) Rolando Martinez James McCord Angelo Lano Self