A Thrilling Movie About How Fun It Is to Be a Journalist

Rating: 8/10 (27 August 2007)

"All the President's Men" was one of two big releases in 1976 that examined the power of the American media ("Network" being the other). "Network" took a cerebral, arty approach to its subject and created a blistering satire. "All the President's Men" is a much more straightforward thriller, along the lines of this year's "Zodiac." It's perhaps less ambitious than "Network," but having seen Sidney Lumet's film recently I think "President's Men" has aged better.
Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein, the two reporters for the Washington Post who investigated and uncovered the secrets surrounding Watergate. This movie makes the job of a journalist look intolerably exciting, and indeed I've read reports that applications to journalism schools actually spiked after this movie hit theatres. There's not anything really stylistically distinguished about the movie, but it's smashingly entertaining, and director Alan J. Pakula proved once again how good he was at putting urban paranoia on screen (as he had done with "Klute" five years earlier).
An Oscar went to Jason Robards, playing Ben Bradlee, editor of the Post, as a craggy sage, and a nomination went out to Jane Alexander, in a small but effective role as a reluctant informant. Hal Holbrook received the dubious honor (thank you Linda Lovelace) of playing Deep Throat.
Grade: A