All The President's Men

Year Released: 1976

Runtime: 138 minutes

Directed: Alan Pakula

Produced: Walter Coblenz, Robert Redford,

Starring: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Warden, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards, Jane Alexander

Oscars: Won: Best Supporting Actor (Robards), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Set Decoration, Best Sound Nominated: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Alexander), Best Director, Best Editing

IMDb Plot Summary: The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate Scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon’s resignation as President.

Context, Context, Context: What Created All the President’s Men, and Why it’s Still Relevant

Recent History. In 1976, the events and discoveries portrayed in this film needed no explanation; the audience was going to know the names Haldeman, Porter, Mitchell, Hunt, Colson, and McCord. They had watched the Congressional hearings in the summer of 1973, where increasingly senior officials told of the sprawling and sinister operations of Nixon and his bid to win re-election. They watched John Dean dramatically turn against the President under oath and directly implicate him in the cover-up of the Watergate break-in, and that he was the master of all the schemes. They then watched as Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox (an equivalent of Robert Mueller) tried to subpoena Nixon’s secret tapes, only to be fired by Nixon. They grew concerned as the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General resigned, the FBI stormed the Special Prosecutor’s offices, a new Special Prosecutor successfully subpoenas the tapes, and then in August of 1974, Nixon resigned. Two years and a lifetime of drama later, the humble beginnings of the ultimate true conspiracy story were a quaint detail to Americans. That’s why, upon release in 1974, Woodward and Bernstein’s book about how they stumbled into this story was a hit, and a film adaptation was inevitable – what’s most impressive is the talent involved.

William Goldman is one of the most famous screenwriters to have worked in “the business”, and he already had an Oscar for 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Robert Redford, who had been turned into an absolute star as the Sundance Kid and had been following the Watergate story and talking to Bob Woodward, hired Goldman to adapt the book. Goldman made the excellent decision not to include the second half of the book which covered the Senate hearings and the reveal of Nixon’s taping system. Instead, the film focuses squarely on the beginnings of the story and Woodward and Bernstein’s struggle to get the facts right. Redford essentially cast himself to play Woodward, and Dustin Hoffman was cast as Bernstein. Alan Pakula, who had just directed the political thrillers The Parallax View and Klute, was hired to bring the same type of vision to a retelling of real-life events.

The legacy of ATPM. The film won for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, and Best Set Design, but failed to win for Best Picture or Director. Those awards went not to Taxi Driver, or to Network, but to Rocky. The other three top films (ATPM, Taxi Driver, Network), dove into the darkness of humanity, with ATPM recounting recent events the country was forced to live through – in addition, the previous films to win Best Picture were The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather Part 2, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I think the Academy was through with profound films about people operating outside the law, which is a shame. This film made plenty of money while receiving rave reviews, and its legacy is undeniably solidified. It has become the ultimate “journalism” movie and continues to resonate even with viewers who have no familiarity with the story. It’s a timeless underdog story that encapsulates the power of fact-based journalism and is still insanely watchable nearly 45 years later. Its witty dialogue, strong acting, sense of paranoia, slow-burn pacing, inventive filmmaking, and profound statement about the First Amendment ensure its status as a classic and fantastic American film will not be compromised – even (and perhaps especially) in the era of “fake news”.

The Story and its Characters

Truth is stranger than fiction. An awful lot of what we see on screen actually happened – beyond the usual slight rearranging of events or facts in any “based on a true story” film, only one scene is completely fabricated: watching Bernstein sneak into a Miami County clerk’s office by tricking a secretary. The shadowy, increasingly paranoid meetings with “Deep Throat” in a garage in Rosslyn happened. The bizarre accidental phone calls in which Nixon’s men accidentally let slip vital pieces of information happened. The late mistake in the film, running a story detailing how Sloan had implicated Haldeman and the resulting feeling of panic happened. The reporters were followed by government agents. Goldman, when adapting this script, had an awful lot of real and compelling material to work with, and he smartly paced the telling of this story to highlight the interludes between the key pieces of information or memorable confrontations. He also smartly included the resistance to “Woodstein” by their bosses, and Jason Robards’ Ben Bradlee continuing to support them when he felt they had the facts right works as a proxy for the suspicious audience finally coming to terms with an uncomfortable truth, while also providing the soul of an otherwise quiet thriller. The film also works as a great example of a forced partnership story, where the two men are initially reluctant to work together but ultimately come to depend on each other and adopt each other’s differences in order to get the story written. Another crucial element to this film’s story – and the reason why it works so well – is that we stay with the reporters the whole time after the break-in. There are no scenes with Nixon or CREEP employees working to cover up their operations, and we never see their reactions to the stories breaking except through news footage. Nixon, likewise, is only shown in news footage as his re-election campaign continues, and this footage is mostly kept in the background. Goldman’s flair for dialogue and the creation of both singular scenes and extended sequences keep this film watchable to this day, and it remains one of the best screenwriters' best screenplays.

The performances. This film’s structure allows for our main two reporters to encounter a wide variety of characters, so I’ll count off a few of my favorites. Jason Robards darn near steals the show, and rightfully won an Oscar, for his portrayal of Bradlee. If I worked for this guy, I would absolutely be afraid of his rejection while soaking in his charisma and wanting time with him. He delivers a hell of a closing monologue, and he does it with just the right amount of reserved emotion. Hal Holbrook is perfect as shadowy “Deep Throat”, and since he’s almost entirely in darkness he has to be in perfect control of his voice; he delivers. I’m also a big fan of Robert Walden as creepy former lawyer-turned CREEP henchman Donald Segretti, and of Stephen Collins as young, remorseful, broken Hugh Sloan. Jane Alexander was nominated for playing the Bookkeeper, and she brings it in both of her scenes. In a two-handed film built around two talented actors in two interesting roles, it’s very hard to pick between the two when they both deliver. Hoffman is well-utilized as Bernstein, who is energetic and paranoid from the start, and knows how to cut the right corners at the right time. Redford is also well-used as a handsome, likable version of Woodward with a lot of drive. When I think of this movie, most of the scenes I think of star Redford (even though Hoffman may be giving the better performance), so I guess I’m picking him. Reluctantly.

Technicalities

Authentic yet cinematic. Pakula and the entire production team had to walk a fine line – with retelling such recent history, the audience would bring certain expectations for the authenticity of the filmmaking, yet they still had to craft an exciting film. After the Washington Post refused them to film in the offices, the production team took photos, ordered the same desks from the same company as the Post, and re-created the offices at the same scale. This allowed them to be very dynamic with the camera by breaking down and re-building the set whenever they wanted; the illusion created in the office is seamless. Cinematographer Gordon Willis captures not just these scenes, but does some of the best work of his career capturing the darkness of the late-night ‘Deep Throat” meetings, meetings with key sources, zoom-out shots of the reporters’ car making its way through the maze of the city, and brilliant slow push-ins that allow the actors to shine. Pakula uses all these elements and applies his expertise at creating an increasingly paranoid mood that reaches its fever pitch in the final 30-40 minutes of the film. However, Pakula knows that the preceding hour and a half is crucial to establishing the stakes of the film. He and the editing team pace those sections beautifully, with each new piece of information balanced with some character development and reflection of what the implications of each new revelation are; this approach keeps this film relevant in a day when not all the facts are known to the audience because it captures the process of fact-finding.

John’s Highlight Reel

· Break In. Following an extended introduction of news footage of Nixon giving the State of the Union address in January of 1972, and immediately cuts to a recreation of the June Watergate break-in. This scene (another example of Willis’ penchant for capturing darkness) has become the de facto image of what this moment in history looks like for most Americans, and is the perfect way to start this film without introducing any of our main characters yet.

· Woodward and Bernstein. As the two of them begin to interact, the film becomes even more dynamic. The scene where Bernstein wrestles his way onto the story by “helping” Woodward with his writing is an example of the visual storytelling this movie does very well, and the initial friction between the two gives way into a mutual reliance as they take their investigation into the Library of Congress – a scene that concludes with a brilliant overhead pull-out shot of our two reporters sorting through hundreds of library cards.

· Shoeleather. These sequences are deliberately scattered throughout the film, but I put them all into one category as they convey a similar effect. I’m talking about the sequences where Woodward and Bernstein are travelling around the city, getting doors slammed in their faces, calling a succession of people, generally doing the “reporter things” that this film does so well. These extended scenes help the film maintain its deliberate pace, and in addition to contributing to scope of the conspiracy our leads have stumbled into, hammer home the fact that every gain comes slowly and sometimes by accident – another reason why this film endures.

· Dahlberg and McGregor. In an all-time acting showcase by Redford, he juggles multiple phone calls and increasingly strange information as the camera slowly pushes in during a 6-minute long take; it’s simply terrific.

· Garage Meetings. Another catch-all category, I love the dialogue and voice work by Hal Holbrook in these darkly lit meetings as much as anything in this movie. They also become increasingly paranoid as Woodward begins to believe he is being followed, and the information “Deep Throat” provides him becomes increasingly dangerous. Entertaining stuff then and now.

· Bookkeeper. The film’s anonymous CREEP bookkeeper, played by Jane Alexander, provides two excellent conversation scenes in a film built on excellent conversations. Her testimony to Woodward and Bernstein mixes heartfelt emotional conflict with genuine fear of government surveillance, and the film completely shifts in tone following this time with her; our characters have their big break, but now they are definitely being watched.

· Paranoia. Following the revelations from the bookkeeper, the paranoia is fully on in the style of other contemporary 70’s thrillers. The score has been sparsely used throughout the film up to this point, but we hear it much more often now that we are firmly in the land of the bizarre.

· Wrong Story. This actually happened, so it’s worth including in the film, but the fact that the reporters get something wrong (more a case of being early than being factually wrong by implicating Haldeman) so late in the movie is a terrific late plot wrinkle.

· “The latest Gallup Poll.” Jason Robards’ charismatic turn as Ben Bradlee has been stealing almost every scene that he has been in until this point, and with this scene he nearly steals the movie. He mixes humor with weighty statements about the importance of what “Woodstein” is doing. His monologue to them is still rousing today and provides the closest thing to a happy ending that this film gets.

· Final shots. Leaving the door open for the rest of the Watergate experience, the film concludes with Woodward and Bernstein back at their typewriters, the facts now confirmed by “Deep Throat”, ready to publish their most consequential story before the true Congressional hearings begin. Pakula frames this perfectly using a composite shot showing Nixon in newsreel footage (the only way he shows him) being sworn in for his second term on one half of the screen, and on the other half a zoom in on Woodward and Bernstein. Their relative size grows; they are now a legitimate threat to Nixon, and we all know how that battle ends.

Came for _____, Stayed for ______

A history lesson. I had heard a little about this film, and after moving to Washington D.C. knowing nothing about Watergate, I decided to check it out. While this film limits its focus to the reporters for the first year and a half, I learned a lot and developed a new interest in this piece of American history. There is also a ton of talent doing some of their best work in front of and behind the camera, so I was eager to check it out.

An absorbing and relevant experience. The more I’ve learned about the Watergate era, the more the comparisons to our current political climate stack up. Journalism today is far different, as we are constantly bombarded with political headlines, rather than slowly absorbing large stories like this. However, Robards’ closing monologue has aged like a fine wine, as the protection of fact-based journalism is one of the most important checks to structural power in our society; that’s why it’s in the First Amendment. The media’s constant indictment of our President is a natural function of their necessary existence. All preaching aside, this film’s pace, dialogue and mood keep it an utterly absorbing watch even as some of the finer points of the Watergate-related conspiracy have been lost to time.