All the President’s Men

            I remember watching this film in a journalism class in high school and loving it. While most of my classmates were bored with it, my friends and I saw the struggle that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein went thru to crack open the Watergate scandal and ate it up. The film was made much more interesting to me both then and now because of the significance of the storyline. The fact that these reporters and their investigations caused the President of the United States to resign was a great storyline. So, while the movie may get a tad dry at times, I was very into the film as a whole.

            What I remember from the film the most was the incredible sound clarity when people were walking or putting out their cigarette. This was something that I was still taken by when I watched the film again. There seemed to be a focus on the steps that people took and the sounds that they made, which I thought was quite unique to the film. This is one of the ways that the film does a nice job portraying what a reporter’s life is like:  always on the go, talking to people, and writing down every little piece of information even if it seems irrelevant. Another way the film does this is zooming in on the phone or notepad when Woodward or Bernstein dialed a number or wrote something down. This ensures the viewer is focused on the importance of not only what is being written, but the details that the reporters must listen to gather information. I thought this technique used by the filmmakers was very effective.

            The central aim of the film was to chronicle the time, effort, and steps that were used by the reporters to find out more about Watergate and President Nixon’s involvement with it. The makers of the film did a very nice job in my opinion. Woodward had to meet Deep Throat, his source at 2 am and time lapses showed the immense amount of time that the reporters spent digging up all of the facts. The time lapse is important because it condenses an immense amount of time and still achieves the effect of showing the great time spent on the case. Another main theme and point of the movie was to depict the difficulty that it takes to get people to talk about possible corruption in politics or in the government. The people were constantly hanging up on Woodward and Bernstein and giving them short answers. This is really highlighted when the people being interviewed would give only initials of people and left it up to the reporters to figure out who they were talking about. This leaves the viewers of the film with a sleazy feeling which the makers of the film had to have been trying to do. The film is quite ambitious and not only serves to entertain viewers, but to prove that corruption and cover up exists in government. Also, it is a nice portrayal of how newspapers are run and operated.

            Footage of the President Nixon during his 1973 inauguration as well as his resignation is used in the film and is highly effective. While people in the 1970’s may not have needed a reminder that this film was indeed based on a non fiction book and real scandal, the footage serves as a nice reminder that the happenings in the film are mostly true. The real footage does a spectacular job of bring the scandal to life and reminding the viewers that the “wild goose chase” that Woodward and Bernstein went on was no all for naught.

            The greatest purpose of the film to me is the calling for accountability in government. Because Nixon ultimately resigned because of the scandal and the investigation into it, the film is a reminder that any corruption will not go unnoticed if a trail is left behind. In a way, this created a new standard for the behavior of the government and its officials. After the investigation that is portrayed in the film, political leaders had to think twice before pulling the wool over the public’s eyes. Along with representing the shaping of values in the U.S., the film also used quite a bit of profanity. I believe that his adds to the realistic tone of the movie. I guess I have always viewed newspaper offices as a place that the reporters could say things how they wanted to say it because they can’t exactly write things exactly how they feel about subjects. I think the rating of PG is a little on the generous side because of the foul language and the usage of “Deep Throat” which is a homage to a porn star. They could not help the name of the source because that’s what it really was, but I would have thought that would have made the movie at least a PG-13 rated film. I think if this film were made today it would be rated at least PG-13.

            I enjoyed the movie just as much as I remember enjoying it and many of me fond memories were brought back to me. I thought the attention to detail was very good and the acting was well done as well. Seeing Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in their younger years was very cool. Seeing a second movie with Hoffman for this class in which he’s just a few years older is also kind of cool. You can kind of see his growth in maturity and his acting as he ages. Overall, I give this film an 8.5 out of 10.