Political thrillers offer up some of the best films when handled right. Director Alan J. Pakula had a great string of films in the action/thriller genre including The Pelican Brief, Presumed Innocent and The Devil’s Own. In 1976 he brought together Robert Redford and Dusting Hoffman for All The President’s Me co-starring Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook and Jason Robards based on the 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

​

All The President’s Men follows Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, whose investigation of a seemingly minor hotel room break-in uncovers the greatest political scandal in United States history and leads to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

 

This is yet another of those classic films that I swore I had seen, but upon revisiting it realized I had never seen it all the way through. For those that have never seen it the film is a slow burn that sticks to a somewhat real-time type of story as these reporters try get to the facts of Watergate. It’s always interesting to see these deep dives into these real events and this film takes you on for the ride to get the story without trying to force more out of it.

 

While it has some moments that build the tension and mystery it’s not an exciting film but one that lets the facts and story play out. Without this stellar cast this film could have easily got lost in the pacing as it is a very slow film by design as it is the nature of reporting and trying to uncover the truth. It’s no surprise that Redford and Hoffman are excellent here, but guess I thought it was going to have more power impact to it as opposed to the more subtle approach. This isn’t a bad thing as it gives it a more real feeling to the world and time it is dealing with.

 

​