Review
All the President's Men
- Director
- Alan J. Pakula
- Year
- 1976
- Rating
- Reviewed by
- Gon C Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
- Review date
- Thursday, October 14, 2004
Real-life reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) made history thanks to their perseverance in digging into the Watergate case, not resting for a minute until they could prove themselves right. Despite the case looking like a weird but nonetheless typical burglary, the theory of a conspiracy or a web of espionage against the Democrat party arose but was snubbed by most pretty soon. Not by the two young reporters of the Post, who believed in the theory, and went for it. Soon, they just couldn’t or wouldn’t back up.
With so many enemies and so few believers, their outlook was bleak, but they kept it up, and eventually, well, made the most of it (literally!). Despite their little credibility and questionable sources, their Editor in chief, Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), decided to back them up. A wise decision indeed!
William Goldman’s script was inspired by the book of the same name by “Woodstein” (Woodward and Bernstein), where they told of their journalistic odyssey. The story is interesting regardless of the drama involved, but it becomes all the more so on account of its intriguing details. For instance, Woodward’s main White House insider, known as Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), was and is still a mystery (though his identity has presumably been identified since); add to that the paranoia, the silent threats, the opposition, and the increasing tension, and you sure got a story worth a bestseller and a mainstream movie.
All the President’s Men unfolds like a typical newspaper film, only more familiar to the viewer given the notoriety of the Watergate case. Soon, however, the investigation becomes a web of mysteries and lies, which turns the film into both a political thriller and a detective story. Of each genre, the film makes the most, and it’s hard not to be absorbed by its reality. Despite the artistic liberties the filmmakers might have taken, I don’t imagine the true happenings to be much different from this, because at its core, it’s a story about apparent impotence and a David and Goliath fight (a remarkable aerial shot at the Library of Congress is a good symbolism of that), and that’s what makes the experience so irresistible.
Redford and Hoffman do a good job as the young reporters. Their struggle is clear and they go from ambitious hotshots to anguished professionals on the edge of losing everything, and they’re always believable. In the support, veterans include Martin Balsam and Jack Warden as editors, and they’re both pretty great; but it is Robards who steals the show as Bradlee, with his unique mannerisms and reactions, vanity, and wisdom. His scenes are vibrant. On the same level (though quite different in tone and thus not comparable) is Jane Alexander, whose scenes as a paranoid Republican are absolutely unforgettable.
David Shire’s low-key score, Robert L. Wolfe’s editing, and Pakula’s direction, certainly are praise-worthy.
Interesting in a historical level, but mostly a very entertaining film, All the President’s Men is a must-see.
“Just be sure you’re right.”
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Groucho wrote at 6/1/2005 9:27:44 AM:
By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON - Watergate whistleblower Deep Throat played a central role in one of the biggest White House scandals ever, helping bring down a president and inspire a political mystery so famous his nickname earned an entry in Webster's. Thirty years later, the source is secret no more.
At age 91, after decades of hiding his role as The Washington Post's tipster from politicians, the public and even his family, former FBI official W. Mark Felt told his secret to a lawyer his family had consulted on whether Felt should come forward.
The attorney, John O'Connor, wrote a Vanity Fair magazine article revealing Felt's disclosure, and within hours of the story's release Tuesday, Felt's family and the Post confirmed it.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," Vanity Fair quoted Felt, the former No. 2 man at the FBI, as saying.
"It's the last secret" of the story, said Ben Bradlee, the paper's top editor at the time the riveting political drama played out three decades ago.
Felt lives in Santa Rosa, Calif., and is said to be in poor mental and physical health because of a stroke. His family did not immediately make him available for comment, asking the news media horde gathered outside his home to respect his privacy "in view of his age and health."
"The family believes that my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice," Felt's grandson, Nick Jones, said, reading a family statement. "We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well."
Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein said in a statement: "W. Mark Felt was 'Deep Throat' and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage. However, as the record shows, many other sources and officials assisted us and other reporters for the hundreds of stories that were written in The Washington Post about Watergate."
For many, Felt's admission answers one of the biggest questions in American politics and journalism: Who was the source so fearful he'd be found out by the Nixon White House that he insisted on secret signals rather than phone calls to arrange meetings with the Post reporters, a man portrayed as a cigarette-smoking bundle of nerves by Hal Holbrook in the 1970s movie "All the President's Men"?
"A good secret deserves a decent burial and this one is going to get a state funeral," Leonard Garment, acting special counsel to President Nixon after the Watergate story broke and author of the book "In Search of Deep Throat."
Felt "had the credentials, he had the knowledge, he had a series of motives, he probably was very unhappy with the way the investigation was going," Garment said.
For some, it raises new questions.
"I never thought he was in the loop to have the information," John Dean, counsel in Nixon's White House and the government's top informant in the Watergate investigation, told The Associated Press. "How in the world could Felt have done it alone?"
Dean said he couldn't see how Felt, then in charge of the FBI's day-to-day operations, could have had time to rendezvous with reporters in parking garages and leave clandestine messages to arrange meetings. Perhaps FBI agents helped him, Dean suggested.
The scandal that brought Nixon's resignation began with a burglary and attempted tapping of phones in Democratic Party offices at the Watergate office building in Washington during Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign. It went on to include disclosures of covert Nixon administration spying on and retaliating against a host of perceived enemies. But the most devastating disclosure was the president's own role in trying to cover-up his administration's involvement.
Among other things, Deep Throat urged Woodward and Bernstein to follow the money trail — from the financing of burglars who broke into the Democratic National Committee offices to the financing of Nixon's re-election campaign.
The resulting campaign finance scandal led Congress to overhaul the nation's campaign finance rules, ordering federal candidates and national party committees to disclose their donors' identities and observe new contribution limits.
Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee had kept the identity of Deep Throat secret at his request, saying his name would be revealed upon his death. But then Felt revealed it himself, a move that startled Woodward and the Post, the newspaper reported.
Also surprised was Nixon chief counsel Charles Colson, who worked closely with Felt in the Nixon administration and served prison time in the Watergate scandal.
"He had the trust of America's leaders and to think that he betrayed that trust is hard for me to fathom," Colson told the AP.
Even the existence of Deep Throat, nicknamed for an X-rated movie of the early 1970s, was kept secret for a time. Woodward and Bernstein revealed their reporting had been aided by a Nixon administration source in their best-selling book "All the President's Men." Felt's name doesn't appear there.
A hit movie was made of the book in 1976 starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. It portrayed cloak-and-dagger methods employed by Woodward and Deep Throat. When Woodward wanted a meeting, he would position an empty flowerpot containing a red flag on his apartment balcony. When Deep Throat wanted to meet, the hands of a clock would appear written inside Woodward's New York Times.
The identity of the source had sparked endless speculation over the past three decades. Dean, Nixon chief of staff Alexander Haig, White House press aide Diane Sawyer, speechwriter Pat Buchanan and Garment were among those mentioned as possibilities.
Felt also had been mentioned, but he regularly denied it. His motive for tipping off Woodward and Bernstein remains unknown, but the Post suggested in a story Tuesday night that anger over Nixon's decision to pass him over for FBI director after the death of J. Edgar Hoover could have been a factor.
Felt had expressed reservations in the past about revealing his identity, and about whether his actions were appropriate for an FBI man, his grandson said. His family members thought otherwise. His daughter, Joan, argued that he could "make enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the children's education."
Woodward and Bernstein were the first reporters to link the Nixon White House and the Watergate break-in.
Nixon, facing almost-certain impeachment for helping to cover up the break-in, resigned in August 1974. Forty government officials and members of Nixon's re-election committee were convicted on felony charges.
Felt was convicted in 1980 for authorizing illegal break-ins in the 1970s at homes of people associated with the radical Weather Underground. He was pardoned by President Reagan in 1981.
___
Associated Press writers Greg Sandoval in Santa Rosa, Calif., Pete Yost in Washington and Larry McShane in New York contributed to this report.