The movie: All the President’s Men
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards, Jack Warden
Rated: PG
Released: 1976
What I “know”: A little more than most movies, but I’ll explain that below. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and the WaPo basically destroy a President.
What I know after reading the DVD case: (Yeah, I bought this one because Netflix had it as a “long wait” and I figured journalism + Redford makes me happy) In the Watergate Building, lights go on and four burglars are caught in the act. That night triggered revelations that drove a U.S. President from office. Washington reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) grabbed the story and stayed with it through doubts, denials and discouragement. All the President’s Men is their story. Directed by Alan J. Pakula and based on the Woodward/Bernstein book, the film won four 1976 Academy Awards. It also explores a working newspaper, where the mission is to get the story — and get it right.
So, spoiler, I’ve worked in newsrooms of one type or another for essentially my entire adult life. However, by the time I got into the business, in 1999, most newsrooms were already slowly starting to creep backward from the heaving masses of humanity they once were. But I’ll tell you, if you’ve never been in one: Being on a newspaper desk, at night, nearing deadline is an intoxication and rush that’s very hard to reproduce. And it’s every day. And it’s filled with dark humor and sarcasm and people busting their butt to do what they can to get the paper out. It’s different online, as every minute is deadline so it’s both more pressure and less at the same time. But who I am is ABSOLUTELY colored by the business I chose and the people I have been blessed to know. Journalists are the best. So this is going to probably be much more a newspaper movie to me than a politics movie.
Also, good call to the main guys involved for going for “Woodward and Bernstein” over “Bob and Carl.” Bob and Carl are the guys hanging out in the Walmart parking lot complaining about their wives and Obama.
Oh, and one more thing: I’m TERRIBLE at history. It’s not my thing. I was born the year this came out, and I obviously wasn’t alive for Watergate, so I know only very surface things about it. So some of my revelations during this movie might seem stupid to any of you. Deal with it.
00:33: Want to know how to pull at my heartstrings? Start with a closeup of a typewriter hard at work.
01:15: The President’s helicopter looked like a flying VW bus.
06:50: Man, that guy who couldn’t keep his head down is the reason this all fell apart. They weren’t looking under desks or anything, just flipping on lights. Split up, hide, and keep your heads down until the lights go back off. Simple stuff, fellas.
10:30: Look, Mr. Marcum, you’ve got Robert Redford trailing you through a courthouse. Don’t act like it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you.
13:55: Corded phones! Legal pads and pens! Reporting in the 70’s, folks.
18:30: I warned you guys, but I’m getting all googly over the cold calls and the sketches and the doodles and the scribbles and the notepad and the information and aaaaaggggghhhhh I love reporters.
25:20: Cigarettes! Typewriters! This is amazing.
28:36: Never trust a librarian. They will lie to you as soon as they’ll help you use the Dewey Decimal System (time reference!). You would think that people who worked for the White House communications office would have better detecting skills than “she says she never talked to the guy who sits 5 feet away from you and has taken notes.”
30:14: Them, going through all those boxes of request slips? Just sitting there, doing the grunt work? THAT’S what’s missing from these days of “hot takes” and Tweets and instant gratification. The factual background for anything.
40:53: “Just … follow the money.” Always a good lesson. Oh, Deep Throat, you are a delight already.
42:43: Dustin Hoffman’s hair is a revelation.
Dustin Hoffman’s hair isn’t here for your crap.
Two glorious heads of hair.
47:05: So while I’ve been all-in on the tech o’ the times, I totally just was like “How hard can it be to find someone? Look them up onl…oh yeah” when they cut to Redford going through like 27 phone books. Man, you guys had it tough.
52:50: I think we’ve all had that moment where we look like Redford when he gets the connection he’s been looking for.
1:06:16: Stop me if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m in LOVE with their reporting. Working through it, getting seconds and thirds and locking stuff down. I’m weak.
1:20:00: Rule of journalism: If you shut up, people WANT to talk. That woman had her guard up and then it just all came out. Man, she really hates Mitchell.
1:22:09: “You’re both paranoid. She’s afraid of John Mitchell, and you’re afraid of Walter Cronkite.”
1:47:05: I’d meet Robert Redford in a dark parking garage. I’m just putting that out there. Even now, at 80.
OK so I kind of bailed on blogging the end of the movie because I got totally sucked into the reporting. Sue me. As I assumed, I was much more into the journalism angle. Bless Woodward and Bernstein. I bought the book on Amazon at the same time I bought this movie, and I’m 98 percent sure I’ll start reading it tomorrow. Well, today, since it’s 3 a.m.
I miss journalism.