All the President's Men (1976)

Last Friday, Brother and I sat to watch All the President's Men as scheduled. Some of it was good. Some of it was bad. Some of it was awesome. On the whole, ATPM was underwhelming. The filmmaking is fine. But it's impact has not aged well. Let's dive in.

There are spoilers below the cut.

The plot is mostly based on fact. I've read at least one part is complete fiction. The film does a good job of manufacturing a story arc, building up to a dramatic climax, this is actually rather anti-climactic, thinking about it now. Again, thinking about it now, ATPM starts out better than it ends. There is more going on at the beginning than the end. Characters and character elements get left behind by the plot.

The acting and characters are the movie's strongest link. Redford and Hoffman are terrific. They have some chemistry as Woodstein, but they don't get to show it much after the movie gets going. I especially liked the round table scenes with Ben Bradlee and his editors. I love scenes with a group of men interacting like that. Thinking about it, besides those scenes, the plot really exists in a vacuum. But I digress. Jason Robards is excellent as Bradlee, of course. And of course, there is Hal Holbrook in the career defining role of Deep Throat.

You know, the stars are all good. But it is the supporting players that really make ATPM, giving the proceedings an undercurrent of paranoia. Jane Alexander (^_^) and Stephen Collins really stand out. And let me mention Jack Warden and Martin Balsam, just because they are awesome no matter what.

The production is kind of hit and miss. It doesn't sit well with me. Kind of hard to explain why. I liked the scenes in the parking garage with Woodward and Deep Throat. The parking garage is a cool setting. I didn't like the Washington Post's newsroom. ATPM is the movie that defined a generation of journalists. But that newsroom just seems off, without the right atmosphere. You know, the biggest problem with ATPM is that it's a 70s-early 80s journalism movie that has nothing to do with Southeast Asia. It just don't seem right.