A heartbreaker for the patriots among us

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2006)

I can't even guess how many times I've seen Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men. It never gets old, it never wears thin. This quintessential cautionary tale of political corruption just may be the best American movie ever made about a leader destroying himself with paranoia and felony.
Now, whether or not it is completely historically accurate can be debated until the next milennium, but the basic story of ordinary (and less than nice) reporters stumbling on a story bigger than they can imagine and running it (and the President of the United States) to ground is inherently fascinating, the way courtroom dramas are almost unavoidably watchable. There is no gunplay here, no heaving bosoms or car chases, but the story of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, lucking onto a bit of Nixonian chicanery here and there until it becomes apparent that their (and our) president is trying to cook the books with illegal contributions and political "rat-screwing" is flat-out riveting. If you've seen it (or you haven't and you hold an above-room-temperature-IQ), you'll find this story and its storytelling more compelling than a hundred, a thousand shootemups.
Above all, it's a heartbreaking movie because, thirty-plus years later, Nixon has lost his reputation of being a monster (unless you're a raging, Moveon.org moonbat). Read enough of Nixon (especially the book about his friendship and his competition with President Kennedy by Chris Matthews) and Tricky Dick reverts back to just big ol' jowly Nixon, a human being again, and a damaged and damned one at that.
Although some Democrats loved seeing Nixon brought down and some Republicans would have excused anything he did, average Americans simply looked at the president and said to themselves, "Typical politician--a crook." Nixon's personal failings did a tremendous injury to the nation and All the President's Men shows, masterfully, the reporter's pen, the surgeon's scalpel, if you will, cutting out the cancer Nixon created in the West Wing.
When ATPM came out, two years after Nixon's resignation, the interest in seeing Nixon destroyed on screen was keen, very hateful and sadly un-American (in that, we are generally a forgiving and gentle people). Now, a third of a century after Nixon destroyed himself, viewers might not understand how angry, how deeply betrayed the American people felt. Alan Pakula has created a lasting testament to the necessity of a free press and the misery caused by a corrupted leader.
Regardless of your politics, All the President's Men is a gut-wrenching must-see.