Deborah Lipp

All the President’s Men (1976) 10/10
Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) investigate the Watergate break-in and discover connections to the White House.

We live in a moment when we must be reminded of the importance of speaking truth to power. Further, we live in a time when the media (including Bob Woodward) behaves like the lap dog of the White House. In such a time, All the President’s Men is a powerful wake-up call.

But hey, it’s also a kickass good movie.

Director Alan Pakula had to figure out how to make a confusing story fascinating, and, when everyone knew how it turned out, he had to figure out how to make it exciting.

In 1976, when the film was made, everyone knew about Watergate, but the details were hazy. The Nixon White House had done so much, the scandal was so convoluted, there were so many names…Liddy, Magruder, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Dean…you couldn’t tell the players without a score card. And the crimes? The Watergate break-in, the Ellsberg break-in, the Muskie smear, the Plumbers, the “rat-fucking,” the dirty tricks, the wiretapping, the Saturday Night Massacre. A maze of events and responses to events that spiralled in on itself, leading to the first and only presidential resignation in U.S. history.

The book by Woodward & Bernstein was the template. Make the confusion part of the narrative. By having reporters discover the truth, bit by bit, the audience is kept in on the game; we are discovering the who-what-where together.

There’s the thrill of the chase, in hunting down leads, being thwarted by dead-ends that are themselves enticing (so many people refusing to talk…surely someone is applying pressure…but who?), and overcoming greater and greater obstacles. The Washington Post isn’t sure it wants to publish this story. Managing editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) is a stickler for accuracy, demanding that his reporters have multiple sources for every fact (oh, for the likes of him in journalism today!). So, “Woodstein” have to work harder and harder.

Then there’s the inherent excitement of Deep Throat; the late night meetings, the dark garage, the paranoia; all thrilling stuff.

What Pakula does is avoid the window dressing. He lets the newroom be chaotic, he lets the people be relaxed. The excellent cast don’t look like movie stars; no one is too pretty for their role (except for co-producer Redford, but what can you do?). He doesn’t make anything easier in order to make it cinematic. He allows the tedium of journalistic footwork to become part of the drama. In the feeling of honesty and directness (and in the bitchen 70s hairstyles), I am reminded very much of one of my favorite movies, Dog Day Afternoon.

All the President’s Men trusts its story. It doesn’t pause for some needless romance or car chase. It makes its dressed-down quality a virtue, and audiences respond.

Thing is, if you saw this movie in the 70s, it’s time to see it again.