Post by StevePulaski on Jun 27, 2016 22:55:23 GMT -5
All the President's Men (1976)
Directed by: Alan J. Pakula
Directed by: Alan J. Pakula
Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in All the President's Men.
Rating: ★★★½
The journalistic atmosphere in All the President's Men is so real and cut-throat you swear you're smelling the stink of cigarette musk, sweat, pencil shavings, and imminent deadlines as you're witnessing the uncovering of the greatest scandal of the last century by one of society's most necessary mediums. All the President's Men's preoccupation with depicting the intricacies and details of a newsroom is both its greatest asset and biggest detriment, for screenwriter William Goldman nearly forgoes everything from storytelling conventions to narrative structure to give us a piece-by-piece retelling of how two "Washington Post" journalists accidentally cracked the Watergate scandal.
He does so by painting a picture filled with names, leads, telephone numbers, interviews, witnesses both surly and cooperative, and tips, some of which helpful, others nothing but dead-ends that further muddy the story and make deadline approach that much faster. Anyone who has worked in a newsroom - even myself, someone who worked as a staff writer for the newspaper in high school and college - can massively empathize, at least in a basic sense, to the redundant events occurring in the film that subject our characters to a process that often breeds contempt and frustration.
The film revolves around "Washington Post" journalists Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), who initially work on the opposite sides of the cubicle, but eventually join forces to investigate a break-in of a local Watergate building that held the Democratic National Convention. We initially spend most of our time with Woodward, as he slaves away over a series of phone numbers and leads trying to piece together something of a cogent story, with his editor-in-chief Benjamin Bradlee (Jason Robards) barking orders and expressing dissatisfaction with his work almost constantly, before shifting our focus to Bernstein. Bernstein is a bit more frantic as Woodward, and the two clash a few times in the early stages of impending cooperation, but they realize that they will need one another if the story continues to get as questionable and as fuzzy as it does.
The bulk of All the President's Men revolves around the journalistic practice and the beauty of it. Consider a five-minute long sequence where Woodward sits at his desk, calling random numbers, scribbling random names on his notepad, some relative, some not, and furiously trying to piece together some semblance of cohesion to this unfathomably lofty case. There's beauty in the disorganization of narrative with this film that comes out in sequences like this, and we get the feeling that Goldman and director Alan J. Pakula enjoy stringing the audience along through dead-ends, false leads, and things of the like. It's all part of getting to the bottom of the case, and when things finally begin to fall into place and work out for our two tireless, sleep-deprived journalists, the audience, in turn, feels like they've succeeded in cracking a very important case.
The subtle waves and echoes of a self-involved, referential narrative in All the President's Men is what not so much disguises as it effectively overshadows the narrative shortcomings of the film as a basic story. This is a film that's predicated upon the journalistic process, as frustrating and as tireless as it can be, with two marvelous central performances and a screenplay that have become staples of "New Hollywood" filmmaking. There's beauty in the mess and the clutter, like a stack of organized but unkempt loose-leaf papers atop a journalist's desk, when it comes to this film.
Starring: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, and Jason Robards. Directed by: Alan J. Pakula.