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Title: All the President's Men (1976)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Dustin Hoffman | ... | Carl Bernstein | |
| Robert Redford | ... | Bob Woodward | |
| Jack Warden | ... | Harry Rosenfeld | |
| Martin Balsam | ... | Howard Simons | |
| Hal Holbrook | ... | Deep Throat | |
| Jason Robards | ... | Ben Bradlee | |
| Jane Alexander | ... | Bookkeeper | |
| Meredith Baxter | ... | Debbie Sloan | |
| Ned Beatty | ... | Dardis | |
| Stephen Collins | ... | Hugh Sloan | |
| Penny Fuller | ... | Sally Aiken | |
| John McMartin | ... | Foreign Editor | |
| Robert Walden | ... | Donald Segretti | |
| Frank Wills | ... | Frank Wills | |
| F. Murray Abraham | ... | Arresting Officer #1 | |
In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defense case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organizers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually into the White House itself. Written by Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
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A central problem for all thrillers is that the need to find twist after clever twist means that stories escalate quickly into realms of implausibility; an apparently boring tale of low level corruption soon brings down the President of the United States. Which gives 'All the President's Men' a huge advantage over most thrillers, because this film (based on the Watergate incident in 1972) can tell such a story and support it on the basis that all of it is true. Director Alan Pakula, something of a conspiracy thriller specialist, here does a great job in adapting the book written by the journalists who broke the story: the film is never overly melodramatic, but is always tense, and although it has pair of heroes, we're left in no doubt of their selfish motivations as they work potential witnesses any way they can in their bid to nail the truth. Unlike most clichéd detective thrillers, the true nature of the crime is unknown (and arguably, remains unknown to this day), so even though we know what happened, there's an air of unpredictability to the story; reporters Woodward (played by Robert Redford) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) don't know what they are looking for, even though they are certain that (somewhere) it is there. The plot is nicely paced, and even dares to skip lightly over the eventual vindication of the journalist's hunches, preferring to concentrate on how it felt for them, chasing this huge story, over a mere historical reconstruction of President Nixon's demise. Indeed, although Nixon appears in this film, it's only on television, and played by himself. This means that what we don't get is a wider analysis: a theory as to the true motive of Nixon's actions is hinted at but nothing more; nor does the film tell us whether it regards his behaviour as a disgrace to modern politics, or an mere symptom of them. In this respect, Oliver Stone's (more fanciful) 'Nixon' makes an interesting companion piece. But as a complex, gripping and understated thriller, 'All the President's Men' has few equals. Truth is stranger than fiction indeed.