Looking back on it from the perspective of another particularly fraught moment in American history, the 1976 film adaptation of All the President’s Men feels both as timely and relevant as it ever has and, simultaneously, like an almost quaint artifact from an era in which truth and facts still had some currency in the public discourse. For as earth-shattering as the events depicted felt at the time, those who lived through them could hardly have imagined how much exponentially worse things would get five decades later.
The American republic survived Richard Nixon’s corruption and the Watergate scandal, and will perhaps (hopefully) survive the current political toxicity that has overtaken the country. Nevertheless, if ever we need a reminder of the dangers of history repeating itself, a fresh watch of this movie feels like a good place to start.
| Title: | All the President’s Men |
| Year of Release: | 1976 |
| Director: | Alan J. Pakula |
| Watched On: | Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | TCM Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
In June of 1974, publication of the non-fiction book All the President’s Men became an explosive cultural moment that contributed significantly to the resignation of then-President Richard Nixon just two months later. One of the biggest movie stars in the world at the time, Robert Redford scooped up the adaptation rights and hired his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid scribe William Goldman to write a screenplay. He then also brought in director Alan J. Pakula, whose paranoid conspiracy thrillers Klute and The Parallax View had both effectively tapped into the zeitgeist of the era.
Recognizing the urgency of their timing, Redford and his team pulled the movie together quickly and released it to theaters in April of 1976 while the real-world events it chronicled and the sting of Nixon’s betrayal were still fresh in the public consciousness. The film was a sensational hit and went on to be nominated for a bunch of Oscars but, in a controversial decision some of the Academy voters would later admit to regretting, ultimately lost the Best Picture trophy to populist blockbuster Rocky.
Arguably the greatest political thriller ever made (in no small part due to its basis in fact), All the President’s Men details the investigation by Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward into the politically-motivated break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office building. Sensing something deeper at play than just a simple burglary, Woodward and Bernstein unravel a complicated web of connections that tie the perpetrators to key members of the Nixon administration and eventually to the President himself – thus leading to Congressional impeachment and the most powerful man in the world walking away from his job in disgrace.
In addition to producing, Robert Redford had of course always planned to star in the movie as Bob Woodward. Debatably, the casting of such a dreamboat leading man might lead to a feeling that the movie has been too glamorized, but Redford is a fine actor and such a compelling screen presence that those concerns fade quickly. The Bernstein role was then filled by Dustin Hoffman, whose career was red-hot at the time coming off notable pictures like The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, and Straw Dogs. Backing them up is a stellar pool of other talent, including Jason Robards as Post editor Ben Bradlee, Hal Holbrook as mysterious informant Deep Throat, Jack Warden, Ned Beatty, and more. All the performances, top to bottom, are terrific.
The direction by Pakula also manages to convey tremendous amounts of suspense despite everyone in the audience already knowing the end of the story in advance. Even fifty years later, the film remains a riveting thriller that somehow avoids feeling sensationalized. It’s stunning achievement that hasn’t lost much of its potency.
At the same time, the story of All the President’s Men takes place in a world where a news outlet uncovering corruption in the White House was a shocking revelation, where disclosing that information to the voting public was a daring act of speaking truth to power that could actually change the course of world events, and (most critically) where an American President could be so shamed by his actions coming to light that he would resign his office. Sadly, we don’t live in that world anymore. Our current reality is so far divorced from any of that, the movie almost feels like a wish-fulfillment fantasy for aspiring journalists. (As we’ve just recently seen, the days where the publishers of The Washington Post would be brave enough to stand up to political pressure against the paper are also long gone.)
In that regard, All the President’s Men may come across as less inspirational today than it might have in the past.
The Blu-ray
Warner Bros. released All the President’s Men on Blu-ray back in 2011, sold initially in a Digibook package. The same disc was later reissued in a regular keepcase, on its own or as part of double-feature sets with other 1970s thrillers. At the time of this writing, the studio has not made any move to bring the film to 4K Ultra HD. An upgrade would definitely be merited, even if just a remastered Blu-ray.
The existing Blu-ray is quite dated in quality. The full-screen 16:9 image (opened up slightly from the original 1.85:1) appears to be mastered from a second-generation or further source element, rather than the Original Camera Negative. The picture varies in sharpness and is extremely grainy. Unfortunately, the grain is not handled well by the digital compression, which leaves it with a very noisy and sometimes blocky texture.
Some scenes look better than others. The worst parts have a dupey appearance and are practically out of focus. However, in general, the video transfer is reasonably sharp and has good contrast and fair color. Although it would undoubtedly be improved with a fresh scan of the negative and better encoding, the current disc is not unwatchable. In fact, considering the genre and the era depicted, its grittiness is somewhat appealing. Still, I look forward to the eventual remaster, which feels inevitable, even if nothing has been announced as of yet.
[Update: Apparently, the film’s cinematographer, Gordon Willis, was also very displeased with the Blu-ray transfer when it came out.]
The mono soundtrack, provided in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 format, is most notable for how quiet it is. First, the track is authored at a low default volume and needs quite a bit of amplification during playback. More than that, however, the movie’s sound mix relies heavily on silence and hushed conversations to convey tone. The movie is almost all dialogue, with very little music. The closest thing to dynamic sound effects are the sharp tap-tap-tap of typewriter keys and the piercing ring of carriage return dings.
Supplements include an audio commentary by Robert Redford, an hour-long documentary broken into four featurettes, a vintage Jason Robards interview from Dinah Shore’s talk show, and a trailer. The Digibook version adds a couple short essays, some actor profiles, and a printed timeline of the Watergate events. At least one of the later reissued Blu-rays contains another bonus disc with a newer retrospective documentary called All the President’s Men Revisited, but my copy predates that.
Related
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