All the President's Men

This ramains one of the most thrilling movies ever. The pace is slow and the journalism is detailed and exhausting in a good way. It may be too slow for some, but it just keeps my attention during every second. This movie has one of my favorite scenes of all time. That scene with Robert Redford on the telephone. You know, the one that's like a five minute long uncut close-up of him talking. Yeah, that's one of the best movie scenes ever filmed, and the fact that he messes up a line and they kept it in makes it even better. I love this movie.

In the beginning, Redford and Pakula said, “let us make the journalistic thriller in our image, in our likeness, so that it may rule over all the theater screens across the country and all the shelves at the Best Buy 'classics' rack, over every wannabe Spielberg pre(?)-make and over every lowly serf that thinks you absolutely need explosions or killings in your movie for it to be any good.” "All The President's Men" is just plain ol' cracker-jack storytelling. Though, yes, it most certainly helps that the story in play is already fascinating enough -- and true, to boot -- it also doesn't hurt to have one of the world's greatest screenwriters staging your scene dynamics, drafting up your dialogue, and structuring your overall narrative. Aside from William Goldman's expertly constructed screenplay, this also just so happens to represent Alan J. Pakula putting on an absolute clinic in how to make a seemingly dry movie look incredible. From the dank, expressive corners of a darkened parking structure, to the blindingly bright interiors of the Washington Post's office floor, it all feels expertly staged and shot. Oh, and Redford and Hoffman are pretty damned good as well. Not that that needed clearing up or anything. In the end, "All The President's Men" is an engrossing, beautifully realized story of power, journalistic integrity, and the importance of getting/making things right.

Although a slow-burn, Alan J Pakula's gripping exploration into the Watergate scandal as seen through the eyes of two journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward played by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford. Every character from Ben Bradley (Jason Robards we love you) and Hal Holbrook (does that guy ever put a foot wrong)as Deep Throat to bookkeeper Jane Alexander is drawn with nuance and played with subtlety as the enormity of the exercise closes around them. Pakula shoots fabulous wide shots of Government buildings that dwarf the players, accentuating their ant-like existance within the towers of Babel they hope to pull down. The library scene where a shaky camera moves up into the ceiling slowly reveals the two journalists caught in the spider's web of deceit which they must unravel before the spider gets to them first. And still there is time for fun. Like when Hoffman lights up a cigarette in the elevator, as the doors close on them Redford asks "Is there anywhere you don't smoke?" A brilliant and detailed exploration of what now seem like innocent times and a nostalgic love story of journalism, that once proud and dignified profession.

All the President's Men is one of the key films in its genre, and it does not dissapoint. Marvellously written and with a tremendous ensemble, it's immersive and makes you wanna know more about the subject. It doesn't beat around the bush and plays all its cards to its script, serious and with no frills or unnecessary dramatisation. Alan J. Pakula undoubtedly made a great choice.

It could have come from the pen of John Grisham, except that it really happened. The story is told straight, and it really does work as an entertaining piece of cinema. The plot never meanders from the cat and mouse game between The Washington Post's Woodward and Bernstein, and a secretive and well financed dirty tricks campaign working within Nixon's re-election committee. There is a lot of great detail about journalistic ethics and practice, and the tension between protecting anonymous sources, and getting it "on the record". Also a short standout scene featuring Robert Walden as Donald Segretti, as one of the campaign's gonzo operatives.