All the President’s Men isn’t fifty yet but today marks 50 years since Richard Nixon resigned in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.

To say that All the President’s Men is a thriller would not be an understatement. It’s just unfortunate that a former president decided to defile the highest office in the land in such a manner. Then-Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) picked up a local courthouse story of minor importance, only to later learn that it went all the way up to the White House. Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) would join Woodward in reporting shortly thereafter. At one point, Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) encouraged them to investigate, despite not having reliable sources. All of their reporting on Watergate and its White House ties would lead then-President Richard Nixon to resign on August 9, 1974. However, the film doesn’t take us all the way to 1974. It stretches from the June 1972 Watergate break-in all the way through Nixon’s 1973 inauguration.

As we all know, Woodward and Burnstein connect the Watergate burglars to White House counsel Charles Colson. They later connect Watergate to Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP or CREEP), CREEP treasurer Hugh W. Sloan Jr., White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, and Attorney General John N. Mitchell. Ultimately, their investigation shows how Nixon’s campaign had been behind an effort to sabotage his potential Democratic opponents.

Redford and Hoffman certainly put in the work in displaying the chemistry on screen–hard to imagine a universe where Al Pacino portrays Bernstein. However, it is Robards who shines as Bradlee. He’d even win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Art directors George Jenkins and George Gaines–more on them in a moment–and the sound team (Arthur Piantadosi, James E. Webb, Les Fresholtz, and Dick Alexander) also took home Oscar wins. All the President’s Men was also nominated for Best Picture (Walter Coblenz, producer), Director (Alan J. Pakula), Supporting Actress (Jane Alexander), and Film Editing (Robert L. Wolfe). If one were to redo the 49th Academy Awards, the Best Picture vote would go to All the President’s Men over the likes of Network and Rocky.

The introduction of Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) would seem like a cinematic invention if didn’t happen in real life. Deep Throat’s identity would be a mystery up until the news about Mark Felt was announced in 2005. But before the truth came out, the portrayal in the film adds a mysterious element to the whole narrative–look at how Gordon Willis uses shadows in the cinematography. Would Felt have leaked the information if J. Edgar Hoover didn’t do the same when he was running the place? It’s hard to say but interestingly enough, the Watergate break-in didn’t start until after Hoover’s death.

“This was a criminal presidency without regard for the Constitution of the United States and the criminality of the Nixon presidency was pervasive,” Bernstein said in a bonus feature on Deep Throat.

Felt guided them in the right direction without giving them files. Part of it could have come from not replacing Hoover than just doing the right thing. But even without bitterness potentially playing a role, there’s still the need to get the truth out. In theory, he could have gone to his boss at the FBI or even the White House but didn’t. Perhaps he knew that the investigation was corrupt in and of itself–the former Attorney General was tied to the investigation–with files being turned over to the Nixon administration?

The free press has always been important in America. In an era prior to radio, TV, internet, or social media, journalism played the biggest role in providing the news. The rise of TV certainly had an impact on covering the news. But no matter the venue, covering the truth is still important at the end of the day. As we look back on the last fifty years, it’s quite possible that the government might suppress their work in different circumstances. Don’t forget, reporters have been sent to jail for not revealing their sources–most notably, Judith Miller for her involvement in the Plame Affair. If you need a reminder, Valerie Plame is a former CIA agent. Miller’s source? Scooter Libby, working at the time as Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff. But I digress.

While the film is important, they didn’t get to film within the confines of the Post offices themselves. The filmmakers went through the thankless task of having to recreate the offices for the big screen. They certainly could have fooled me! What is important though is that there is accuracy at every step of the away. And again, they took home a well-deserved Oscar for Art Direction.

“We’re all in the position that we didn’t have any choice about this movie — it would be made regardless — and I could see that,” executive editor Ben Bradlee once remarked. “Lacking that choice, it seemed to make more sense to try to influence it factually than to just stick our heads in the sand.”

It really shows the depths of how far investigative journalism can go. We’ve seen it more recently in documentaries such as The Grab. Spotlight before that. Such journalism is key to American democracy. If journalists cannot do their jobs, it would be a stain on American democracy. We’ve seen ourselves how a certain someone has attacked the media as an enemy of the state. It speaks more to their own insecurities than anything else. Despite what the Supreme Court may have said, nobody is above the law, not even the President of the United States. If a president commits a crime, they should not have immunity for their actions.

The film does take some creative liberties in bringing the biggest political thriller of its time to the screen. “Follow the money” is a phrase appears to come from screenwriter William Goldman because it is not in the original book or other Watergate documentation.

All the President’s Men speaks to the importance of having a free press and investigative journalists–even if it means uncovering crimes at the White House–and remains one of the most important films in cinematic history.

DIRECTOR: Alan J. Pakula
SCREENWRITER: William Goldman
CAST: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, and Jason Robards

Warner Bros. released All the President’s Men in theaters on April 9, 1976. Grade: 5/5

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