A Single Truth?

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2001)

Spoilers herein.
I grieve for a world that gets its history from films, and most especially films like this.
What happened was the President and much of the intelligence and justice establishment were turned against US citizens. Dogged work on the part of Democrats and a few honest FBI unraveled the conspiracy. The Post actually made matters worse by publishing accusations (mostly correct) which they couldn't prove. Nixon was booted out but not before the Presidency was permanently damaged and that constant fringe of conspiracy theorists were given fresh meat. This haunts us today.
But the press writes history, and here we have the story as if it were a Julia Roberts movie against a powerful corporation. Here we have a noble Ben Bradlee. Here we are told the big breaks came through Woodstein. Because the only part of the story that could be stretched to include the Post is the early stuff, its importance is overblown.
So what we end up with is a simple story about the good guys (always acting honorably) against the evil Goliath. They win. How sad for us all. Redford should be ashamed.
How different is it for Nixon to simplify the truth to an essential (but incorrect) story because that's what the public is capable of understanding -- and for the Post/Warner Bros to do the same?
So just on that basis, this film should be avoided, reviled. But it is also not a good film. Hoffman can be good, but here he struggles to find a character and never centers. Redford looks pensive, but that's pretty thin stuff compared to what his old buddy Newman was doing. Robards is good, clipped, but probably the least historically accurate. (Well, probably the Deep Throat stuff is.) The scared women were the best. The writing must have been rushed: how could that bit from Lawrence of Arabia slipped through? The bit about `not minding' the candle burns.
Let me give you an example: the two approach a female officemate and ask her to use an old flame for information. She is taken aback. Watch how little dramatic effect is squeezed from this. Watch how poor is the collaborative timing. Someone didn't care enough to get this simple effect right.