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

Narrated by Harry Shearer of This is Spinal Tap fame, The Watergate Caper is an archival documentary that chronicles Richard Nixon's political trajectory—from his 1968 presidential primary campaigns to the infamous Watergate break-in of June 1972 and his ultimate resignation two years later. The scandal shattered public faith in both the American presidency and the political system itself, coming on the heels of the Vietnam War. Using hundreds of hours of television news footage recorded off-air by the Nixon White House, the film reveals the little-known saga of the Watergate burglars. How did wiretapping the wrong phone with a malfunctioning bug trigger their capture and ultimately force Nixon from office? The documentary also examines how the Nixon era has been portrayed in popular culture, weaving together the music, advertisements, and films of the period to capture a turbulent political atmosphere defined by culture wars, sabotage, suspicion, and assassination.