Irving Rapper's Born Again (1978) is a biopic of Chuck Colson, Watergate conspirator-turned-evangelical Christian. Intended as an uplifting religious drama, Born Again is both disingenuous PR for a political hatchet man, and a dull B picture.Chuck Colson (Dean Jones) becomes Richard Nixon's (Dean Spillman) White House counsel, labeled "Chuck the Knife" for his ruthlessness. He organizes the Plumbers to stop leaks and smear antiwar activist Daniel Ellsberg; however, he's surprised by the Watergate scandal. Colson resigns after Nixon's reelection but grows ensnared by Watergate anyway. Colson embraces Christianity shortly before his imprisonment; in jail he organizes a prayer group and struggles to maintain his faith.
Based on Colson's memoir, Born Again whitewashes its hero. Colson's depicted as peripherally involved in Watergate, when he managed tricks from smearing Ellsberg to paying off Hard Hat rioters and plotting to bomb the Brookings Institution. This was the man who had "Grab them by their balls and hearts and minds will follow" inscribed on a plaque, who boasted that he'd run over his grandmother to win reelection. Hardly the meek bureaucrat depicted here.
It's just as well, for the White House scenes verge on parody. Dean Spillman's Nixon sounds eerily like Billy West on Futurama; Robert Broyles, as John Ehrlichman, has a hilarious helium voice. Irving Rapper once directed classics like Now, Voyager, but Born Again resembles a TV movie with wooden dialogue, phony sets and an overall amateur feel. Rapper manages a dozen scruffy extras for a protest scene but otherwise it's cheap, talky and dull.
Born Again hinges on Colson's conversion. His Christianity was sincere; he founded Prison Fellowship Ministries, campaigned for prison reform and became an evangelical leader. But Rapper only explores his faith through interactions with enemies. Mean reporters and surly liberals mock him; a judge (George Brent) gives him a harsh sentence; prisoners threaten his life. Bullies even harass Colson's son at school! Like many religious films, Born Again serves faith with dollops of self-pity.
Dean Jones (The Love Bug) plays Colson as an improbable straight arrow, acting like a poor man's James Stewart. Washed-up stars Dana Andrews, Anne Francis and George Brent play support. Three performers fare reasonably well: Raymond St. Jacques plays a tough prisoner who befriends Colson; Jay Robinson provides some humor as Colson's law partner. The best actor is Senator Harold Hughes, playing himself; warm and authoritative, he sells his unlikely friendship with Colson.
Watergate memoirs inspired an endless stream of films and TV specials, from John Dean's Blind Ambition to G. Gordon Liddy's Will. Born Again at least has a hook beyond "unrepentant criminal tells all;" unfortunately, it's so amateurish it doesn't land on any level.
