superb adaptation of an awesome book

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2008)

In 1972 the A-team broke out of a maximum security stockade in television history. In reality 4 people broke into the national democratic headquarters with wire-tapping equipment in the Watergate building in Washington and what started out as a small time robbery wound up escalating rapidly as a world of deception, infiltration and downright deceit was unravelled in the ensuing investigation by two Washington Post journalists whose contrasting styles are brought to life with gifted aplomb by two Hollywood heavyweights, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
Through their eyes we see an underground world where winning by any means necessary is acceptable, where slander, libel and racist slurs are perfectly acceptable tools to beat your opponent, and that the very people that are sworn to protect us are sometimes those that we should be protected from.
That this is all based on a true story is all the more terrifying and yet when watching the film you can't take your eyes off it. The script is one of the finest that there's ever been and is a perfect adaptation of the Pulitzer prize winning book. The film moves like a detective thriller and if you don't know the full story I will refrain from telling you the end, even though most people already know what happened.
However, unlike many on here I can steer them right to why it was pipped to best film by "Rocky" at the academy awards. As a true story that America was visibly hurt and recovering from it was a film that people needed to see to recognise how the dream of democracy had fallen away, but they needed "Rocky" to win to remind themselves of the dream that America should try to be.
Nuff said Em