All the President's Men
All the President's Men
"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
vangh1 reviewedSeptember 21, 2025
"All these neat little houses and all these nice little streets. It's hard to believe something is wrong in some of those little houses.
No it isn't."
I'm never not blown away by how deep and nuanced and lived in so many of the cinematic worlds of 70's cinema feel. And a major part of that in this movie is the sound design. There's so many instances of tangential noise from the news room, or from radios and TVs that really give a sense of the world moving beyond just Woodward and Bernstein. And thematically its significant as well, as the whole point is that nobody notices or cares to the same degree as these guys. Nobody is half as sure as they are. While they're toiling away on the phone and at their typewriter, their co-workers are merry making and Nixon is celebrating a party nomination.
I've never felt so sucker punched by end credits in my life. I genuinely thought we'd just left the second act. I don't think I've ever more embodied the definition of flabbergasted. I was SHOUTING at the screen, literally. Upon reading, and in light of the fact that this released in 1976 and the events depicted in the movie were still very much on top of cultural mind it made a little more sense that this movie acted as more of a prequel to what had just happened and so I calmed down a little bit. But given nearly 50 years of separation from the events now, it feels INSANE to have the entire third of the story play out in 45 seconds of typed headlines.
Hoffman and Redford both super charming and handsome in very different ways.
Ben Bradlee was a perfect mix of grumpy boss, but who remembers being in the trenches and is willing to go to war for his guys.
I recently praised October Sky for depicting the toil and struggle that comes before success, the repeated failures and iterative improvements it takes, and this movie goes above and beyond to depict in, with great effect! The amount of times these dudes have to put up with "I can't talk about it" preceding a slammed door or a slammed telephone is merciless, but they don't let it keep them down.
The other recent work this movie brought to mind was the first season of The Paper in which a former powerhouse publication, The Truth Teller, has been relegated to half a floor as a subsidiary of a Toilet Paper company. Comparing that modern day depiction to what journalism was in earlier cinema, in which journalists are the unabating seekers of truth, really made me feel some feelings about what news media and journalism have been and have become.
"You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up... 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight."