All the President’s Men (1976)
Directed by: Alan J. Pakula
Premise: An adaptation of the nonfiction book. Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) investigate a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at The Watergate Hotel and discover a larger conspiracy.
What Works: All the President’s Men is often regarded as a key example of the investigative journalism drama but the film is unusual in that genre. Movies such as Spotlight, The Post, and She Said are infused with righteous indignation with plucky journalists exposing the misdoings of the powerful. In this genre, publication is comeuppance. At its most fundamental level, All the President’s Men does this as well but its tone and approach to the material are very different. Journalism, and especially investigative work, can be like the parable of the blind man and the elephant. Investigators may not know exactly what they’re onto and All the President’s Men dramatizes that experience. As depicted in this movie, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and their editors don’t initially realize what they’ve got. The stakes of the story emerge gradually throughout the film. Although All the President’s Men is about the Watergate scandal, the subject is almost incidental. The film’s primarily function is to put the viewer in the emotional and intellectual shoes of investigative journalists as they piece together a story. The style of the moviemaking is designed to be confusing. The filmmakers often eschew establishing shots and the action is cut together in ways that are disorienting. The visual style is interesting. At first glance, All the President’s Men appears realistic but the details reveal stylistic choices that recall film noir, a genre associated with moral ambiguity and corruption. The performances also occupy this overlap between realistic cinema verite and stylized Hollywood filmmaking. Playing Woodward and Bernstein, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman were major Hollywood movie stars but they’re not presented in an obviously heroic fashion. All the President’s Men is about their collaboration but it does not play like a buddy movie. It’s more of a story about coworkers rather than friends. Playing Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, actor Jason Robards gets the closest to a scene chewing Hollywood performance. The characters possess self-doubt rather than the know-it-all smugness of an Aaron Sorkin picture. That fallibility humanizes the characters but also heightens the stakes as Woodward and Bernstein piece together a story of national and historical significance. Looking at All the President’s Men half a century after its release, the film plays as a transitional text. At its core, this story represents an earnest belief in the power of the press and faith that journalists are primarily motivated by the search for truth. In that respect, All the President’s Men feels almost naïve. The film also represents a turning point in our regard for politics and political leaders. Watergate ushered in a popular cynicism that colored our regard for power and government in the decades that followed. This makes All the President’s Men—in addition to its other virtues—an important historical artifact.
What Doesn’t: Near the end of All the President’s Men, Woodward and Bernstein claim that people’s lives are in danger, implying that the government might kill the reporters or their sources. This is most likely a dramatic exaggeration. All the President’s Men is intentionally opaque. The movie creates an impression of the confusion and uncertainty of piecing together the truth. As such, the film does not have exposition scenes that lay out the big picture. It doesn’t even tell the whole Watergate story, ending about halfway through the events of Woodward and Bernstein’s book. When All the President’s Men was released in 1976, the Watergate scandal was fresh in the audience’s mind. The movie didn’t need to provide exposition because most viewers brought that understanding with them. Half a century later, many viewers may not know that context. While it works unto itself as an investigative drama, All the President’s Men might be best appreciated in conjunction with other films about the Nixon administration, namely Oliver Stone’s Nixon.
Disc extras: The 4K Blu-Ray edition includes featurettes and an interview.
Bottom Line: All the President’s Men is an intentionally perplexing film and contemporary viewers may be confused by it beyond the ways the filmmakers intended. It does not portray the whole of the Watergate scandal but this movie’s primary purpose is experiential. It plunges the viewer into the uncertainty of piecing together a story and it does that brilliantly.
Episode: #58 (July 3, 2005); Revised #1125 (November 8, 2026)