A Brilliant Piece of Investigative Journalism Shown In This Movie

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2008)

The story regarding the mysterious "Deep Throat" had been in the news ever since the Watergate scandal in 1972. Many had said a lot of things about the character, including the theory that this was the writer's imagination. But,I, myself, who first saw the film when it was released in 1976, before reading the book on which this is based, had said to a lot of my friends who were studying journalism with me that this character had existed and did not want to be revealed and hence the rumours. We were asked to read the book and understand it in the appropriate manner as well as learn and understand the techniques used by Bernstein and Woodward. We also had a debate whether the character existed or not. The rumours persisted until 2005 when it was finally revealed as to who "Deep Throat" was  FBI's the then second men, W. Mark Felt, in a Vanity Fair Magazine.
In the early hours of 17 June 1972, Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward is woken up to be informed that there had been a burglary at the opulent Watergate building in down town Washington. Soon another reporter from the same company, Carl Bernstein joins in and the two gradually begin to uncover a scandal that would rock the whole Political system and may be also the first constitution of the United States of America and leads to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Starring Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Martin Balsam, Jason Robards, Ned Beatty, Hal Holbrook and Jack Warden, the movie is based on the Pulitzer winning book by the same title by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and is directed by Alan J. Pakula.
A movie that is definitely worthwhile watching and more so if one is aiming to become an investigative journalist. In many parts of the world, Journalists today make up some story or another so that they are able to assist the sales of the newspapers. But this is not the case here  this is real hard hitting investigative journalism at its best.
Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are very convincing as the two investigative journalists working for the Washington Post, Woodward and Bernstein.
Conclusion: I, myself have done a bit of investigative journalism and I can say that this movie is worthwhile watching and something from which today's aspiring and potential investigative journalists can learn from.