Fine Dramatized Biography of Honest Reporters Who Brought Down a President

Rating: 7/10 (5 July 2007)

"All the President's Men" (1976) I suggest set a tone for many films whose makers have since copied aspects of its full-color, cinema verite low-key style. Written for the screen by William Golding from the book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the story is a "dramatized biography" that unfolds step-by-step the two young Washington Post reporters' investigation of a mysterious break-in at the Watergate Hotel. As directed by Alan J, Pakula, the film is low-intensity in its lighting, often all-but colorless and yet surprisingly varied in its scenes; the director eschews flashy moments and chooses instead to allow what the two reporters are doing to speak for itself. From the time the reporters, working independently on the same story, bridge their differences and start working together effectively, the viewer learns the scope, import and risks of what they are doing and discovering along with their superiors and along with the two young newsmen turned sleuths. The film's producers, Jon Boorstin, Michael Britton and Walter Coblenz deserve credit for the same restraint that David L. Shire I assert is to be praised for in his understated but effective music composed for the piece. Gordon Willis and George Jenkins manage as cinematographer and production designer to achieve a compelling, sometimes grainy yet convincing look from the film's beginning to its rousing end. George Gaines's set decorations and the dress in the film is without blemish, by my standards; even where the result is not wholly admirable it is always perhaps believable enough. The film mixes in real footage of the Nixon presidency and TV clips; and this touch of realism also contributes to the overall effort. As is true of most good dramatized biographies, the acting of the work is all-important to the film's overall effect. There is one shortcoming the film has, I claim: Actors of the stature of Jason Robards Jr., Martin Balsam, Jane Alexander, Ned Beatty, Allyn Ann McLerie, John Randolph, Gene Dynarski, Hal Holbrook, Penny Fuller, Stephen Collins, Lindsay Crouse, Meredith Baxter, John McMartin, Nate Esformes, Polly Holliday and many more deserved much more to do than they were allowed. Jack Warden lacks the speech pattern for his central role as the young reporters' supervisor, but is strong and tough-minded. Almost uniformly, all the actors do whatever is asked of them well-enough not to impede the plot's progress. The scene where Woodward, played by Robert Redford in professionally-controlled style, playing off Dustin Hoffman's more emotional Nernstein characterization, thinks he is being stalked in an underground garage as he meets with his secret source "Deep Throat" (Hal Holbrook), is very charged and memorable. The film achieves a true power and a very strong climax I argue, but the greatest accomplishment its makers can boast of is perhaps having made a devastating indictment of a president who misused his constitutional position to seek power--a point as timely today, a hundred years ago, and 300,000 years from now as it is in this ethical and absorbing film.