Political Scandal of the 20th Century that is Better than Fiction

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2007)

A break-in and bugging at the headquarters of a major political party gone awry. Two green reporters assigned to cover the story. A nameless informant willing only to meet in a parking garage and goes by the code name "Deep Throat". A hot-headed but fair editor of a major newspaper. And in the background looms the President of the United States. It's hard to believe that this is not the plot and characters of a fiction bestseller by the likes of John Grisham or James Patterson. Instead, this is the true story of one of the strangest moments in American political theater that almost reads like the latest suspense novel.
President Nixon consented to give his merry band of political operatives, aka Bob Haldeman, John Mitchell, John Erlichman, and Charles Colson, the go-ahead to engage in a systematic endeavor to either discredit and/or destroy not only the political futures of rivals but also any adversaries who propagated a point of view contrary to the president. Certainly there were previous moments in presidential history where this had occurred, such as FDR's confiscation of IRS records to cripple opponents. But the operatives, at first called "the plumbers" to plug leaks to the press, created a conspiratorial and secret infrastructure where campaign money financed preconceived tactics that included such diverse ploys as spreading false rumors about political candidates, stealing medical records, and blowing up an office building. Ironically, part of the operation became known as C.R.E.E.P. (the Committee for the Reelection of the President).
And it almost worked, until the conspirators became too arrogant and decided to break into and plant bugging devices in the National Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Office complex in Washington DC. The five men hired for the crime were caught by undercover agents before they could make their escape. The blunder of the five men at the Watergate headquarters was the first glimpse into the politically-motivated operations that garnered attention from the press and would later prove to be the so-called "tip of the iceberg".
"All the President's Men" chronicles how two relatively green Washington Post reporters, Carl Bernstien (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) covered the Watergate break-in story and began to uncover strange bits and pieces about the much larger conspiracy. A White House attorney is sent to the courthouse during the arraignment of the five burglars. The burglars appear to have had in their possession at the time of the break-in large sums of money that lead to campaign contributions in other states. And when Woodward confronts his secret informant code named "Deep Throat" he realizes he is onto something much larger than the break-in when the informant tells him to "Follow the money." which has become one of the most famous or infamous lines in political history.
The film is an absolute masterpiece of movie-making with top-notch performances by all, particularly with Jason Robards as the chief editor of the Post Ben Bradley and Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat. The pacing is right on the money, so-to-speak, with all the twists and turns you might find from the latest political thriller on the bestseller list. And yet you have to keep reminding yourself that this is not a fiction; this film chronicles the eventual exposure of shameful and appalling acts that took place upon our political landscape. These acts benefited absolutely no one and brought down a president.