All The President's Men (1975) starring Robert Redford is interesting but not wonderful

Rating: 7/10 (16 November 2010)

All The President's Men (1975 Warner Brothers) starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman is a monument to Hollywood movie making at it's most skillful, an extremely well crafted movie. Nonetheless, it says nothing at all of importance about a monumentally important event and subject, the fall of the Richard Nixon presidency in 1974.
The movie pretends to be serious and intelligent, but it is neither. It doesn't deserve the honor of being selected to the American Film Institute (AFI) Best 100 Films List.
Anti-Nixon Hollywood people of great fame and technical talent made a very successful movie about the 1972 Watergate burglary news coverage from the Washington Post newspaper, and about newspaper articles written by Post newspaper reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein from 1972-74 while the two reporters were still junior staffers on the Washington Post in the early 1970's.
The movie, directed by Alan Pakula, is very, very well made and especially well acted.
Main stars Redford and Hoffman were and still are riveting to watch from start to stop, and so are the superstar supporting actors, including but not limited to Jason Robards, Martin Balsom, Jack Warden, Ned Beatty, Stephen Collins, Meredith Baxter (aka Baxter-Bernie), and Jane Alexander. Superb acting by heavyweight actors who deliver the goods at all times.
So what's the problem?
No story at all. That's the problem.
Well....a USA government was toppled and a USA President ended his tenure in office in disgrace, and many of his top assistants went to jail, of course.
But those things and others of importance were not what All The President's Men (1975 Warner Bros.) was about.
The movie was about two ambitious and energetic newspaper reporters covering the "story."
The big highlight of the "thriller" movie comes when "Deep Throat," the tattletale contact Woodward (Redford) meets in building garages, always seen in half shadows (played well by Hal Holbrook), tells Woodward (Redford) the bad guys Woodward is trying to expose may try to kill the investigator reporters.
In other words, the movie claims Nixon's people were trying to kill young staffers from the Washington Post newspaper covering the Watergate "story."
Is that true?
Well....true or false, it's dramatic, and makes a good thriller movie plot.
The movie accuses the Republicans who faced the Washington Post reporting and articles written by Woodward and Bernstein of plotting murder.
The movie's intent of defaming and demonizing the then (1975) recently fallen Nixon administration is made clear and symbolized by this claim (never proved or substantiated...ever).
The many scenes of Robert Redford (playing Bob Woodward, who is much less handsome than Redford) looking over his shoulder for possible murderers are chilling, and intended to be. Hollywood thriller/chiller movie making at it's best, one has to admit.
The "Redford looking over his shoulder into the darkness" scenes makes for a tense, nervous, "thrilling" atmosphere dear to the hearts of movie goers.
All The President's Men (1975 Warner Bros.) starring Robert Redford is a movie made by well paid Hollywood heavyweights who were paid to make a high quality political propaganda movie. They took the money of the people who paid them off, delivered a well made movie, and ran.
It's a "take the money and run" movie. Not noble, but not unusual either, sadly.
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Written by Tex Allen, SAG Actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Com and choose "Tex Allen" "resume" for contact information, movie credits, and biographical information about Tex Allen.
He has reviewed more than 42 movies posted on WWW.IMDb.Com (the world's largest movie information database, owned by Amazon.Com) as of January 2011.
These include: 1. Alfie (1966) 29 July 2009 2. Alien (1979) 24 July 2009 3. All the Loving Couples (1969) 17 January 2011 4. All the President's Men (1976) 16 November 2010 5. American Graffiti (1973) 22 November 2010 6. Animal House (1978) 16 August 2009 7. Bullitt (1968) 23 July 2009 8. Captain Kidd (1945) 28 July 2009 9. Child Bride (1938) 24 September 2009 10. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) 22 September 2010 11. Destination Moon (1950) 17 January 2011 12. Detour (1945) 19 November 2010 13. Die Hard 2 (1990) 23 December 2010 14. The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993) 19 November 2010 15. Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) 26 July 2009 16. King Solomon's Mines (1950) 1 December 2010 17. Knute Rockne All American (1940) 2 November 2010 18. Claire's Knee (1970) 15 August 2009 19. Melody Ranch (1940) 10 November 2010 20. Morning Glory (1933) 19 November 2010 21. Mush and Milk (1933) 17 January 2011 22. New Moon (1940) 3 November 2010 23. Pinocchio (1940) 6 November 2010 24. R2PC: Road to Park City (2000) 19 November 2010 25. Salt (2010) 24 August 2010 26. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) 21 January 2011 27. Sunset Blvd. (1950) 1 December 2010
A full list of Tex Allen's movie reviews appearing on WWW.IMDb.Com with links to full texts of reviews is accessible via: http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments
Tex Allen's email address is TexAllen@Yahoo.Com.
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