Nixon Resigned 50 Years Ago — These TV Shows and Movies Tell All Sides of the Watergate Story

The Final Days (1989)

The Nixon: Lane Smith

The premise: Based on the 1976 book of the same name by Woodward and Bernstein, this Emmy-nominated TV movie follows the rapid downward spiral of the Nixon administration after the Watergate scandal broke. Lane Smith portrays the president as a paranoid and pathetic man, whose world is crumbling around him: Aide Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the White House taping system, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns, Nixon turns over the tapes and then holds his infamous “I’m not a crook” press conference from his home in Florida, all in the span of a few short months.

Watch it: The Final Days on Apple TV, Prime Video

Frost/Nixon (2008)

The Nixon: Frank Langella

The premise: Langella, 86, earned a best actor Oscar nomination for this Ron Howard–directed drama about the real-life 1977 conversations between former president Nixon and British journalist David Frost, played by Michael Sheen, 55. Though the story takes place three years after his resignation, the Watergate scandal still looms large over the TV-interviews-turned-play-turned-film, especially when Nixon admits to unethical misdeeds by saying, “When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.”

Watch it: Frost/Nixon on Apple TV, Prime Video

Gaslit (2022)

The Nixon: Danny Winn

The premise: Based on the podcast Slow Burn, this star-studded Starz series shines a light on lesser-told stories from the Watergate scandal. It somehow remained under the radar, despite featuring Oscar winners Sean Penn, 63, as Attorney General John N. Mitchell and Julia Roberts, 56, as his wife, Martha. While Martha Mitchell may not be a household name, she was a pivotal figure in the unraveling Watergate debacle. Nicknamed “the Mouth of the South,” she’s credited as the first person to publicly accuse Nixon of being connected to the break-in, and the fallout was dramatic and shocking — we won’t spoil it for you!

Watch it: Gaslit on Hulu, Prime Video, Starz

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017)

The Nixon: Archival footage

The premise: Liam Neeson, 72, stars as FBI agent Mark Felt, who revealed in 2005, at the age of 91, that he had been “Deep Throat” — the anonymous source who provided crucial information to Woodward and Bernstein. Costarring Diane Lane, 59, as Felt’s wife, Audrey, the film offers a whole new perspective on the scandal, and director Peter Landesman, a former investigative journalist and war correspondent, said of his subject: “When Mark Felt outed himself, you could feel anticlimax in the air, almost a disappointment. Felt wasn’t sexy. He wasn’t a celebrity. A lifelong FBI man, the infantry of law enforcement. I’d never even heard of him, but I knew one thing for sure: The seeming banality of the true identity of Deep Throat was going to end up being precisely why Felt was one of the great stories of our time.”

Watch it: Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House on Apple TV, Prime Video

Nixon (1995)

The Nixon: Anthony Hopkins

The premise: At 3 hours, 12 minutes, this historic epic from director Oliver Stone, 77, covers some 60 years in the life of the president, played brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins, 86, who earned one of the film’s four Oscar nominations. The Welsh actor doesn’t give a perfect impersonation, but his performance is nonetheless impressive, almost Shakespearean in its scope, with Roger Ebert writing, “Thoughts of Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear come to mind; here, again, is a ruler destroyed by his fatal flaws.” It’s a sprawling, messy, nonlinear portrait, with Joan Allen, 67, providing the moral center as First Lady Pat Nixon (the most strictly historically accurate role in the film).

Watch it: Nixon on Apple TV, Prime Video

Philip Baker Hall as Richard Nixon in "Secret Honor."

Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo

Secret Honor (1984)

The Nixon: Philip Baker Hall

The premise: Philip Baker Hall goes it alone in this tour de force solo performance, which Ebert called “one of the most scathing, lacerating and brilliant movies of 1984.” Directed by Robert Altman, the film sees Nixon ranting and pacing around his office, speaking his stream-of-consciousness thoughts into a tape recorder, surrounded by closed-circuit TVs, a loaded pistol, a bottle of Scotch and portraits of Lincoln, Kissinger, Eisenhower and his mother. In a long and rambling monologue, he reminisces about his Quaker roots, rails against his political enemies (and frenemies) and reveals his true feelings about the Watergate scandal. (Did we mention it’s all totally made up?)

Watch it: Secret Honor on Apple TV, Prime Video

White House Plumbers (2023)

The Nixon: Not seen

The premise: Veep showrunner David Mandel helmed this satirical HBO miniseries which focuses not on Nixon himself but the masterminds behind the Watergate break-in, ex-CIA officer E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson, 63) and ex-FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux, 52). They were nicknamed the “White House Plumbers” because they were tasked with stopping leaks and classified information in the wake of the Pentagon Papers scandal, and though their bumbling hijinks often elicit chuckles, executive producer Frank Rich called the series a “slapstick tragedy.” While Nixon himself doesn’t appear in the show, you won’t miss him, thanks to a sprawling ensemble that includes Lena Headey, 50, and Judy Greer as the Plumbers’ wives and Domnhall Gleeson as White House Counsel John Dean.

Watch it: White House Plumbers on Hulu, Max, Prime Video