All the President's Crooked Men At Watergate

Rating: 10/10 (8 December 2011)

All the President's Men is a political thriller film based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. The film featured Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively together with Jason Robards,Jack Warden,Hal Holbrook,Jane Alexander and Martin Balsam. It was written by William Goldman, and directed by Alan J. Pakula.
In the story,while researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex, green Washington Post reporters/rivals Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein stumble on a possible connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. With the circumspect approval of executive editor Ben Bradlee, the pair digs deeper. Aided by a guilt-ridden turncoat bookkeeper and the vital if cryptic guidance of Woodward's mystery source, Deep Throat ,Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" all the way to the top of the Nixon administration. Despite Deep Throat's warnings that their lives are in danger, and the reluctance of older Post editors, Woodward and Bernstein are determined to get out the story of the crime and its presidential cover-up. Once Bradlee is convinced, the final teletype impassively taps out the historically explosive results.
This Redford-Hoffman collaboration is one of the best political thrillers ever made.It could even be classic for many others.It was a taut, solidly acted according to the benefits of a free press and the dangers of unchecked power, made all the more effective by its origins in real-life events.Pakula's superb direction makes the film remarkably intelligent, working both as an effective thriller and as a virtually abstract charting of the dark corridors of corruption and power.Aside from that,the cast had a brilliant performance,no matter show short,for every line of characters.Finally,it is a finer political film you will not find. It should be declared a national treasure.