"Taxi Driver"'s gripping realism, "Network"'s audacious intelligence and "Rocky"'s inspirational message, combined in one film ...

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2011)

Is it me, or do I feel like I need to watch "All The President's Men" again before reviewing it? I don't know if I should feel enthusiastic about the gripping thriller that captivated me during more than one hour and half, or angry towards this intricate script whose intelligence exceeded the limits of my understanding. Well, I had enough trouble to try to remember 'who was who' in this cinematic puzzle, so I prefer to spare myself a sterile dilemma  and let me just say that I probably didn't get 85% of the film, but overall, for what it was, I really enjoyed it.
I know I'm a bit harsh, but it's not meant as an attempt to diminish the pedagogic and entertaining value of Alan J. Pakula's film: I've learned more about journalistic techniques of investigation thanks to this movie than any other. Besides, this film has the merit not to fall into clichés we would expect in a drama involving one of the most featured professions in the big screen. No, we don't need to get immersed in the private lives of Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), to know if they're womanizers or not, or to get a whole introspection into their personal motives. The movie's premise won't be praised enough for its simplicity; it's about two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal, feeling this could lead to an even bigger political earthquake that may shake the countries' bigger instances. FBI, CIA, White House, you name it. It's about that, and no other subplot, romantic or not, will deviate this film from this clear trajectory.
But a clear trajectory is not exempted from many wrong tracks, dead ends, long pauses and so on and so forth. The tightness of the script combined with the fast-paced editing and the acting so natural, you totally forget you're watching Hoffman and Redford, all these factors create the feeling of an exhausting road movie where the quest is the truth, and the way to get it is paved of many questions, meetings, informers, phone calls, and other journalistic tricks to deliver parcels of knowledge from the mouths of people.
This quest provides some of the most memorable scenes of the film, including the meetings with Hal Holbrook, as the enigmatic Deep Throat, a character so fascinating, it's like reality has been even more creative than fiction, I'm sure he inspired the Cigarette Smoking Man from "X-Files". The whole movie is filled with many moments rooted in Pop-Culture, it made my enjoyment bigger because I watched a Simpson's parody before it. "All The President's Men" features many encounters with supporting characters, it has probably inspired Oliver Stone's JFK, informers as so many pieces of a giant puzzle until it gets to something. This is the thrilling element of the film, and kudos to Alan J. Pakula who made such a tense and gripping film with absolutely no death, and considering the fact we all know how it will end, the movie's climax rewards our expectations quite well.
Pakula's direction is so confident it didn't embarrass itself with an ending made of laughs and cheers, the victory is written in bold letters by a cold typewriter. And for some reason, the mention of what happened this day of August 9, 1974, after the climactic typing sequence is so satisfying that we do cheer inside ourselves as the quest has come to an end, and that Truth, Justice, and Civil Rights have won. The whole movie is full of these detached moments featuring Bernstein and Woodward as the tools Truth used to compromise Nixon. In the iconic library scene, the famous zoom out is a way to show our two men drown in an ocean of interrogations, with providence as only life-belt. In fact, let's admit it, "Woodstein" had also a lot of luck in their investigation but that may be a proof that there was a kind of divine justice, almost poetic, that lead them to victory. Maybe they deserve, after all, their spot as #27 in AFI's Top 50 heroes, as they're true models of self-confidence, moral determination and perseverance guided by both a journalistic and unknowingly humanistic instinct. Pakula's direction is flawless in the film as it managed to create so much empathy to these characters, combined with a growing paranoid feeling indicating that they're starting to swim into troubled waters. If I wasn't so biased towards "Rocky", I would probably have given the Oscar to the late director.
1976 was indeed an incredible cinematic year, where four classics had to compete for the supreme honor. Yet, "Rocky" won, and I guess, I'm in the minority satisfied with this result, for I had a small critic for each of "Taxi Driver", too dark, "Network", a script that was the real star and a too abrupt ending, and "All the President's Men" which sinned by trying to be too intelligent. Yes, as I stated before, I felt like Pakula overestimated our ability to memorize so many names in one film. Sometimes, I just had to get the satisfaction from the feeling they were on something, more than the way they did. I didn't feel stupid but a bit frustrated, and when this sensation gets repetitive, it doesn't help. But for the directing, the editing, and the great performances, with a honorable mention to Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee, his Oscar-winning role, "All The President's Men" deserves a place among the greatest political thrillers of the 70's, and the best death-less thrillers ... like "12 Angry Men", which also features Martin Balsam, an actor I have a real fondness for.
A gripping realism à la "Taxi Driver", a Lumet-ian directing a la "Network" and an inspirational message à la "Rocky", I wonder, if after all, I didn't judge the movie too severely and if "All The President's Men" doesn't make the perfect combination of "All the 1976 Great Films"