The movie for all journalists and would-be journalists.

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2005)

The true story of how two minor journalists opened up a can of worms that led to the downfall of the President of the United States. A story almost too strange for fiction.
The fact that the outcome is known to everybody watching doesn't seem to matter - it is a how-done-it rather than a who-done-it.The only thing I think is bad about the film is that is exposes some of the tricks of the journalists' trade!
Hoffman and Redford (Carl Bernstien and Edward Woodward) don't give showy performances and they are not fleshed out off-the-job. Woodward wasn't a natural writer and despite having the scoop of anyone's lifetime hasn't really gone on to do anything other than write a trust-breaking biography of John Belushi.
Despite the overall achievement what they printed wasn't entirely right. But that is a history book judgement and not one that we should dwell on. What they did get right is the fact that the other papers seems frightened of the story. They hung back until they were told it was safe to go in the water. Now the internet is one with the bravery!
I also find it hard to fathom out Redford (Woodward) who is a Republican (so he says) and yet doesn't question that what he is doing to his own side. Who could have predicated what might have happened at the end of this story - rioting on the streets, the breakdown of law and order? Stranger things have happened.
Jason Robards is perfect as the editor Ben Bradlee. There is a gravitas about him that doesn't need lines or dialogue. He is what they call in France "the king actor" there is something about him that suggests that he is the main man without doing anything much to actually justify it. You either have it or you haven't.
The expensive sets are brilliant too. The third part of a platonic love triangle. Just a big room with desks and people really. People hammering away. People laughing and joking. TV sets play to nobody or everybody. The lens stays sharp from front to back so as to get it all in. Newspaper offices are a place of constant distraction the writer has to block them out to in order to hammer out the story. This is the day of the typewriter so the noise must have been louder than it appears on film.
The jigsaw doesn't come together quickly. Indeed they don't have a box cover to see what they are constructing. The Washington Post doesn't take them off the story as it gets bigger and bigger. Did others help? Surely they must have. Equally the lawyers (of both sides) must have been circling in real life. They are taking on government itself and that is something that everyone should be weary of.
The end is a masterpiece. Probably the best ending in the entire history of cinema. It totally takes you off guard and runs against everything that you have been built up to expect. However the greatest ideas are often the simple ones.