All the President’s Men (1976)
Woodward and Bernstein in action.
Though this film came out decades ago, on the heels of the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation, it’s just as relevant today as it was back then. The more that I learn about this time in our history, the more shocked I am about just how little has changed. I doubt that, in the early 1970s, the nation would’ve imagined talk of impeachment running rampant again a few decades later, and yet, here we are.
To me, what sets All the President’s Men apart from other films that tout the “based on a true story” claim, is the attention that was paid to every single detail.
While preparing for this film, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman hung out in the offices of The Washington Post and spent time with the staff there. They got to know the real Woodward and Bernstein, both of whom were involved in the crafting of the narrative of the film. The team wanted it to be so realistic that they tried filming in the real offices of The Post, but with so many reporters trying to act when the camera was on, they had to move everything to a sound stage. They even got furniture from the real offices to make sure that every piece of the puzzle was exactly right.
I became fascinated with Woodward and Bernstein and the whole Watergate scandal at the beginning of 2019 when Bob Woodward was a guest on The…
