All The President's Men (1976)

Doubt, denials and discouragement. All the Presidents Men sheds a light on the Watergate scandal, undoubtedly America’s darkest moments in politics. But the third and pinnacle film in Alan J. Paukla’s ‘paranoia trilogy’, isn’t about fear mongering or breathing uncertainty in the American political system, instead it is about a quest for a glimmer of honesty and truth against an horizon that only seeks to present you with lies. Instead it’s about creating an active society that constantly questions the people in charge, to ensure that they are always having the public’s best interest at heart. But most importantly it’s about determination and never giving up despite all the doubt, denials and discouragement. Comics, literature and TV have waxed lyrical time and time again about the great detectives they each boast. We’ve all heard about the great exploits of Bruce Wayne, Sherlock Holmes and even Colombo, but have any of them ever solved the biggest conspiracy the western world as yet to see? No, not even close, on the contrary the greatest detective story wasn’t the stuff of fiction, wasn’t a result of a creative eureka moment and it wasn’t stumbled on by accident. The greatest detective story is real and was born out of the sweat, blood and tears of Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) at the Washington Post. At first they thought it was a mere burglary, they thought all they had to do was talk to a few police officers, write a quick report and then find their work in a small segment in the newspaper. But instead they unraveled only the first few inches of miles of corruption, which set of a domino effect of lies after lies, after lies until they found themselves in the middle of a web of danger when their questions soon put their lives at risk. William Goldman’s script bravely does away completely with any reminisce of backstory, subtext or even the motivation behind the two main characters. Instead you get a blow by blow account about all the facts and incidents that occurred during the Watergate scandal, presented from the book written by the two reporters themselves. Of course it’s refreshing to see a Hollywood film dispel with its occasionally annoying tendencies to want to sensationalise story lines, by adding exaggerated set pieces or adding long sprawling love stories. However in All the Presidents Men, Goldman credits the audiences with a long attention span and a determination to know the truth behind such an important moment in history. He also doesn’t insult their intelligence by assuming they won’t be interested in a film that doesn’t contain a compulsory sex scene. Unfortunately on the hand I feel the story would have been far more accessible to someone like me, who you knew very little about the Watergate scandal and the men who exposed it, if they took the time in the film to occasionally slow it down, and give its audiences a chances to breath and assimilate at least some of the of information being bombarded at them. Hoffman, Redford. Could you think of any double act that is more dominant of their respective field than these two? You might say the Klitschko’s in boxing and Chuckle brothers in comedy or Batman and Robin in crime fighting; but Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford are insurmountable in their roles of Carl and Bob. Sure it Hoffman role doesn’t have the tear jerking heart of Ratso Rizzo and Redford performance doesn’t have the gallantry and charisma so evident in his role as the Sundance Kid, but instead the roles are subtle, well calibrated and respectful. Subtle because in a film with a lot of static scenes in which Carl and Bob sit at their type writers or standing at the door trying to ask questions; their hushed urgent voices and every furrow of the eye brow were enough to paint a captivating story. Well calibrated and respectful because neither actor tried to give those big Al Pacino speeches that were sure to earn them Oscars, instead they allowed themselves to be the vessel that helped expose the truth. It is evident that they cared more about the telling of the story then they did about the acclaim and awards glory. But you can’t talk All the Presidents Men and not talk about Alan J. Paukla, a masterful creative genius behind crafting one of the most intelligent, subtle and complex trilogies in cinema history. Because it takes a real visionary and fearless film maker to take such a serious and close to the social grain subject matters that deals with the dark sides of humanity; corruption in All the Presidents Men, paranoia in Klute and murder in the Parallax View and still be able to give us a glimmer of hope like a life raft among the sea of our uncertain times.