Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (1982) (TV)

Director:

Robert Lieberman

Writers:

Frank Abatemarco (writer)
G. Gordon Liddy (book)

Release Date:

10 January 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Based on the autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy who spent 54 months in prison following the Watergate scandal. |

Plot Keywords:

Watergate | Prison | Based On Autobiography | Nixon | 1970s

Cast

Robert Conrad	...	George Gordon Battle Liddy (G. Gordon Liddy)
Katherine Cannon	...	Fran Liddy
Gary Bayer	...	Jeb Magruder
Peter Ratray	...	John Dean
James Rebhorn	...	Peter Maroulis
Red West	...	Kaworski
Maurice Woods	...	Copperhead
Danny Lloyd	...	Young Liddy
Shane Conrad
Joe Maross	...	FBI Instructor
James Deuter
Deanna Dunagan
Fran Stone
James Andelin
Brooks Rogers

Runtime:

120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

DeKalb, Illinois, USA

Company:

A. Shane Company

Trivia:

Danny Lloyd's last acting job. He later became a school teacher.

Where There's a Will...There's a Way

(Very Minor Spoilers) Even though G.Gordon Liddy, Robert Conrad, is mostly known for his involvement in the Watergate break in on the evening of June 16/17, 1972 the movie "Will:G Gordon Liddy" concentrates more on his steadfastness and loyalty to those whom he was working, and in agreement. That bull-bullheadedness like loyalty in the end put him in a number of brutal federal prisons for almost five years,longer then the US was involved in WWII as Liddy always likes to say.

To it's and Liddy's credit, who's book the movie is based on,the film does in no way make any excuses for Liddy's actions during the Watergate scandal as well as his actions before that when he was an FBI man and Nixon campaign worker. It does, and somewhat rightfully so, complain of the severe sentence handed down to Liddy and his fellow Watergate conspirator who received between 20 to 40 years behind bars for a crime where nothing of any monetary value was taken or anybody was hurt.

In prison Liddy is shown to take his punishment, from prisoners and guards alike, without any complaints and the only time he loses it is when he wife Fran, Katherine Cannon, is made to feel that he's having an affair, through the mail,with another woman by the prison officials. This is underhanded tactic done to brake him down psychologically and make him talk against his fellow Watergate conspirators.

Liddy earns the grudging respect of both prisoners and prison officials alike who at first had nothing but disdain and revulsion for him. Allying himself with his fellow prisoners most of them being black and Hispanic, whom he had no use for before he entered prison, Liddy's skills as a lawyer won them their rights and privileges that the corrupt Prison Warden took away from them. Toward the end of the film we see his fellow prisoners cheering and applauding Liddy as he's driven around the prison yard on a lift giving them, what seem to me to be, the Fascist Salute.

Liddy's strength seemed to come from his German background and his fascination with German 19th century writer and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and historic German militarism that dated back to the Germanic tribes who defeated the Roman Legions in the first century A.D. Even at the end of the film we hear Liddy as his being released from prison answer the reporters, who are asking him questions, in German.

Again the film "Will:G. Gordon Liddy" doesn't excuse his actions during the Watergate era it only tries to show us a history lesson about that interesting man and those turbulent times that he lived and participated in.