An engaging political drama that delivers in a slow, wordy film

Rating: Null/10 (13 March 2004)

When the police are called to a suspected break in at the headquarters of the Democratic party, they arrest 5 burglars. At the court hearing, one of the men states his occupation as security consultant with past links to the CIA, sparking the interest of journalist Bob Woodward. When he later learns that two of the men had `Howard Hunt at W. House' in their address books, he begins to dig. As the story opens up with secret sources and leads, the paper puts Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the story full time but continue to hold back from printing things lacking proof. However as they investigate they find the story spreading wider and higher than they could have imagined.
I have tried to watch this film several times in the past few years, but it has always been on late at night and my lack of vhs meant I fell asleep both times trying to watch it. With it on this week I was now able to video it and watch it at a reasonable hour. The film has always intrigued me as it is a part of history I know very little about other than the basics - not only was it just before my lifetime, but I was born into a country where my own politics were more important. I am, however, aware enough not to treat every word of this film as the truth without questions - so when watching it I tried to focus on the bigger facts and assume that the detail in the film was either fictionalised to make it flow better or characters were combined for the sake of clarity. These assumptions were not a real problem for me as I wasn't really looking to this film for a history lesson.
What I was after was a solid political thriller, and that is what I got. The film starts simply and builds up to reveal an entire web of conspiracy; it does it well and I never got lost in the sea of names and links - it's running time is generous but it is well filled, never feeling over simplified or rushed. The film may well bore audiences, but not if they are able to follow along with it's telling. I found it gripping even though I knew where their trail would lead them and what the repercussions would be. This is a real credit to the film - we all know roughly what happened and who was involved yet it is still thrilling.
Director Pakula does well to condition the audience into right/wrong mindsets. The newspaper offices are bastions of light and space - the place where truth is everything and there are no secrets. On the flipside of this, the corridors of power are shady and claustrophobic; informants are met in dark car parks where light barely reaches - the truth has little place and just enough comes out to illuminate the scene. It gives the film a little bit of an over simplified view of the situation but it is effective.
The cast is very deep and roundly good. It is hard to imagine the impact of two massive stars in the lead of this film - watching it now it is easy to accept Newman and Hoffman in the leads but they were a hot casting then and really still would be now! Newman is given the lion's share of the material as he is easily the more photogenic; Hoffman is still given plenty to do but he seems to have the less glamorous side of things and is portrayed as less heroic - I'm not sure if that was deliberate casting choices or just the way the script played out. The support cast is deep in famous names - I don't know how many were famous then but certainly a surprising amount of them are still well known faces. Warden, Holbrook, Beatty, Robards and a small role for Abraham are the better roles but everyone plays their parts and I honestly couldn't remember a weak link in the chain.
Overall this film manages to be a solid political thriller even though we all know the outcome - but it is less about where it ends than how it gets there (the final revelations are told quickly via typewriter). As a journey it works really well and is involving and gripping. Stands up after all these years.