Follow the money
Is the phrase, master screenwriter William Goldman attributed to Deep Throat (aka Mark Felt), the informant who took part in revealing the truth behind the June 1972 Watergate break-in in the superb 1976 political thriller All The President’s Men, although the phrase did not appear in the book or in any of the Watergate documentation.
The film covers the first seven months of the Watergate scandal with The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) investigating the Watergate break-in and the events that unfurled culminating in the film’s climax with Woodward and Bernstein typing the full story, whilst a television in the newsroom shows Nixon taking the oath of office for his second term as POTUS in January 1973.
I was drawn to writing about this film after watching it again on my recent flight back from NZ and it struck me that the journalism depicting in the film was driven by curiosity and news sense whereas today journalism is now almost totally corrupted by left-wing ideology where the profession is no longer curious about anything which given the events across the world for the last 10 years beggars belief.
It would be quite easy to get waylaid by recent and current events, especially in the USA, which is not the purpose of this review but instead it is to focus on the outstanding quality of this film.
The film was directed by Alan J. Pakula, and was the third film of his paranoia trilogy, which included Klute (1971) and The Parallax View (1974). All three display his hallmark understated delivery and I was considering devoting a post on the trilogy but I simply couldn’t stand having to write about Jane Fonda, a woman I absolutely detest, although she arguably gave her best movie performance in Klute.
The Parallax View is certainly worth catching again as it’s a very under-stated, although downbeat thriller starring Warren Beatty as a reporter investigating into a secretive organisation, whose primary focus is political assassination.
But back to All The President’s Men, this is a wholly absorbing film where the craft in its making is simply impeccable. From the sets of The Washington Post’s news room to the performances of a terrific cast, the film effortlessly depicts the complex details which the viewer can follow with comfort.
Both Redford and Hoffman were utterly convincing as the two reporters, with Martin Balsam and Jack Warden proving excellent support as their editors; plus Jason Robards was fully deserving of his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Ben Bradlee, the managing editor of The Washington Post.
Back in 1976, Rocky won the Best Picture Oscar when both All The President’s Men and Network were nominated. Now I enjoyed Rocky as an escapist entertainment but in terms of film quality it pales into insignificance against either All The President’s Men or Network. I guess the Academy were fwits even then.
All The President’s Men provides the most observant study of working journalists we’re ever likely to see in a feature film; and it succeeds brilliantly in suggesting the mixture of exhilaration, paranoia, self-doubt, and courage that permeated The Washington Post as its two young reporters went after a presidency.
Enjoy.
and the tease for next weeks post . . . Star of stage, screen and alimony.
Apologies to WolfmanOz and all for the later than usual posting. I simply lost track of time.
All good Dover – after all there are other things in life than just the Cat.
It’s certainly a magnificent film in terms of production standards and acting.
The problem is that it replicates the Democrats’ narrative down to the last minim. Not a hint of any alternative explanation is even considered, in terms of proportionality especially.
As for the ‘gun’ journalists, neither of them ever did anything notable for the rest of their careers. Taking down a Republican President was enough for them to skate and get paid well as pundits ever since.
It does make one wonder just how good they really were – or just lucky and maybe even preselected for political reliablity.
It’s top grade propaganda.
Jason Robards was outstanding. I remember the film for him rather than the other two.
Watergate was a nothing burger.
One of them at least had been working in intelligence I believe and had only recently moved to journalism.
I agree with Johanna.
When the President is Republican they all want to be Woodward and Bernstein. When it’s a Democrat, they are all Monica Lewinsky!
@ davefromweewaa:
VERY accurate and succinct analysis of the bulk of the global “churnaism” racket.
That’s because it was good ol’ Hollyweird bulltish.
Tucker exposed the reality of the sham recently. Here’s The Young Turkmenistanis’ attempted takedown of Tucker’s expose of the bleeding obvious (if you can bear to watch/listen to it). Good ol’ Cunk blunders in at about the 3 minute mark.
Not sure I agree with your first point – remember the events of Watergate were 50 years ago now – times have changed markedly since then.
On your second point Woodward knew Felt (intelligence connection) and I tend to think they just got lucky.
Compared to the last 5-10 years . . . yes – but 50 years ago it was big and very serious – again it shows how times have changed and standards have slipped even more.
I loathe Fonda too but Klute is one of my fav movies. My Dad loved it too. Yes, All the President’s Men is just demonrat propaganda. Nixon was treated so so badly.
If I’m not mistaken, Carlson has said the Watergate burglars were CIA operatives setting Nixon up.
When I first saw it as a child I thought it was gripping drama. I dont know what the burglars were doing there.
But I like others agree this is am Hollywierd Democrat propaganda.
Thinking they are intelligent when they are far from it – extinction rebellion types.
And Woodstein still hanging around like a bad smell
Here’s The Young Turkmenistanis’ attempted takedown of Tucker’s expose of the bleeding obvious (if you can bear to watch/listen to it). Good ol’ Cunk blunders in at about the 3 minute mark.
Wow. My earlier comment above at 3:12pm has now had the film clip stripped out of it.
As for finding the actual Tucker episode were he exposes the entire fraud, then (cue spookee muzak …) good luck. 😕
Nixon, who had voting stats every other candidate would kill for, was railroaded big time.
A solid political thriller.
The off-mic conversations in the news room scenes gives it a nice documentary feel.
It should be remembered the flic is about the shady dealings of CReEP*,
not the does-rat-shit-in-restaurants-stories-only-been-here-nine-months newbie
who conveniently happened to have a deep background source that could keep the story heading in the right direction.
*Only a little too perfect.
The links in this article are Deep State revealing,
Trump gets the Nixon treatment
Their is apparently quite a bit of information surfaced over the last few years revealing the Deep State setup.