All the President’s Men

Starring Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, and Jason Robards
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Year: 1976
IMDB / Wikipedia

It’s hard to get into a movie like this unless you are either a political scientist or a journalist. I watched this film for no less than three of my J-school classes and I’m here to tell you that, even for an aspiring journalist, the film is a bit tedious.

But such is the life of a journalist. A Denver Post writer (I cannot recall a name right now) came and spoke to a class and said he gets excited going through boxes of files and notes looking for clues and sources. He went on to emphasize that, as a reporter, that’s mostly what journalism is: digging through pounds of garbage to find an ounce of truth. I should have walked from the class to the registrar’s office and changed my major. Instead, it’s a learning experience and something firmly in my past.

No matter how glamorous or how dangerous All the President’s Men made the lives of Woodward and Bernstein (and even the occupation of investigative journalist) it’s pretty much a farce. It’s true the two of them received death threats as a result of the pieces they wrote, and their tactics of obtaining sources and confirming facts could be considered quite dubious, but the fact remains that drama was added to their story to make a great movie (see also: The Insider).

Even more than that, this is a piece of American history. The Watergate Scandal ruined countless lives, revealed the election process as nothing more than a mummer’s farce, and deposed a seated president all thanks to the work of two reporters who saw that things weren’t adding up. On paper, the film should be a dramatic masterpiece (and is considered such by many film aficionados) but I cannot get past the over-dramatization of the occupation.

Redford and Hoffman deliver good (and quite accurate) portrayals as the two sleuthy scribes in their hunt for the truth behind the break-in at the Democratic party offices at the Watergate Hotel. Their search forces them to get facts and quotes and confirmations from a myriad of sources that had little idea of what was truly going on. In this day-and-age, this never would have worked. Because of the real-life efforts of Woodward and Bernstein scandals such as these are mostly buried before they ever have a chance to see the daylight, which makes this film more dated than it should be.

In the end, it’s a good story but it’s boring to those without the background and knowledge that is pretty essential to establishing the drama in the film.

Most Valuable Actor: Jason Robards as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, the authoritative voice that champions the story that the two reporters are chasing when he could have easily swept it under the rug. The role called for someone who had the look of a person who had spent his life wrist-deep in the political shit that Washington doles out on a daily basis. I can imagine the editors that have come since have a similar look to them.

Trailer: