All the President's Men

Genre: political drama

With: Dustin Hoffman (Carl Bernstein), Robert Redford (Bob Woodward), Jack Warden (Harry Rosenfeld), Jason Robards (Ben Bradlee), Martin Balsam (Howard Simons), Hal Holbrook (Deep Throat), Jane Alexander (the bookkeeper), Meredith Baxter (Debbie Sloan)

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Screenplay: William Goldman (from the book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward)

Release: 1976

Studio: Warner Bros. et al.

Rating: 14

MBiS score: 8.7/10

‟Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.”

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Story-line: Washington, 1972. When a break-in occurs at the Democratic National Committee office and its presumed perpetrators are arrested, two Washington Post reporters discover that this odd event is linked to a much larger scheme.

Pluses: a formidable pair of leads in Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, stellar support from Jason Robards and Jack Warden, a well-crafted and chilling screenplay that gets downright spooky when Woodward and Bernstein realize how dangerous their work has become, top-flight direction and irreproachable production values.

Minuses: none I can think of.

Comments: if you're not familiar with the Watergate scandal, its particulars and key figures, this hefty and vital movie brilliantly covers that whole cover-up. Please note that the identity of Deep Throat, a crucial source, was known only in 2005! As a personal comment, what we are seeing now in Washington echoes those tumultuous times and, any way I look at it, I do worry for the American people.   

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