Book to Screen: “All the President’s Men”

For quite some time, I have always wanted to check out the film adaptation of “All the President’s Men,” based on the 1974 non-fiction book by journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. And, once I saw that the film is currently streaming on HBO Max, I finally had the chance to check it out!

Two green reporters and rivals working for the Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, research the botched 1972 burglary of the Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate complex.

With the help of a mysterious source, code-named Deep Throat, the two reporters make a connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. Despite dire warnings about their safety, the duo follows the money all the way to the top.

“All the President’s Men”, released fifty years ago, received universal critical and audience acclaim for its portrayal of investigative journalism. The detailed approach the filmmakers had used for this film is extremely well-done, turning the mundane work of reporting into a thrilling, high-stakes detective story.

This 1976 film is a masterclass in tension, brilliantly turning the mundane details of investigative journalism into a truly gripping procedural thriller in a way. The “cat and mouse” pace (where the film adds psychological tension) is really captivating and the scenes of meticulous research, frantic typing and whispered meetings in dark parking garages are very riveting.

Dustin Hoffman and the late acting legend Robert Redford brilliantly established a dynamic that evolved into a strong, believable partnership. Their performances were really restrained, relying on natural dialogue and subtle gestures rather than theatrical outbursts. The supporting cast is especially fantastic, including Oscar winner Jason Robards as editor Ben Bradlee, who brings a sort of energy that anchors the newsroom.

“All the President’s Men” also featured quite a few stand out moments that are quite memorable. There's a tense single take sequence featuring a close up on Redford as he works with a phone contact, which really demonstrates his character’s focus and technique in extracting a lot of information.

All of the scenes featuring Deep Throat and Woodward are really mysterious and tense. There’s a long, slow iconic short that shows Woodward and Bernstein appearing small and isolated at the Library of Congress while being surrounded by massive piles of requested White House files.

“All the President’s Men” is universally acclaimed as a masterpiece of political cinema, renowned for its documentary-like realism and as a premier depiction of investigative journalism. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the film continues to be praised for its meticulous pacing and enduring relevance as a tribute to investigative journalism.

MPA: Rated PG   (runtime 138 minutes)

Initial release date: April 5, 1976

Streaming service: HBO Max/various PVOD platforms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC3YFyah_Yg

• One scene involving Robert Redford on the phone is a continuous six-minute single take with the camera tracking in slowly. Towards the end, Redford accidentally calls the phone caller by the wrong name. But as he stays in character, it appears genuine, so the take was used in the final cut.

• The two lead actors memorized each other's lines so that they could interrupt each other in character. This unsettled a lot of the actors they were playing opposite, leading to a greater sense of authenticity.

• The film introduced the catchphrase "follow the money", which was absent from the book or any documentation of Watergate.

• Hal Holbrook was the first (and only) choice to play the shadowy informant Deep Throat. During pre-production of the casting process, Bob Woodward -- while looking at various actors' head shots and resumes, but not revealing Deep Throat's true identity (being the former Deputy Director of the FBI, Mark Felt) -- insisted to director Alan J. Pakula that Holbrook was the best choice to play Deep Throat. (Holbrook, in fact, bears a strong resemblance to Mark Felt.) Holbrook originally turned the role down, thinking it would not be a significant part. However, Robert Redford came to Holbrook's house and convinced him to take the role, saying that Deep Throat would be the character that the audience would remember more than any other in the film.

• On Tuesday, May 31, 2005, in advance of a revelatory July 2005 "Vanity Fair" article written by his attorney and spokesman, 91-year-old Mark Felt acknowledged publicly for the first time that he was "Deep Throat," a fact corroborated by Bob Woodward and The Washington Post. At the time of the Watergate break-in, Mr. Felt was the Deputy Director of the FBI, the second-in-command.

• Robert Redford felt that by casting himself as Bob Woodward he was unnecessarily unbalancing the film. The obvious answer was to cast a star of equal weight. For that reason, he approached Dustin Hoffman at a Knicks game and offered him the role of Carl Bernstein.

• To prepare for their roles, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman hung out in the Washington Post newsroom for several weeks, observing reporters and attending staff meetings. Once, when Redford was standing in a hallway, a group of high school students came through on a tour of the newspaper offices. The students immediately started taking pictures of Redford with their pocket cameras. At that point, Bob Woodward walked by. Redford told the students, "Wait a minute! Here's the real Bob Woodward, the guy I'm playing in the movie! Don't you want to take a picture of him?" The students said no, and walked on. Hoffman also recalled that he had been asked by the paper's science reporter to fetch a new typewriter ribbon. Due to Hoffman's long hair and casual dress, the science reporter had mistaken him for a copy boy. By contrast, Jason Robards only spent one day in the Washington Post newsroom, observing his counterpart, Ben Bradlee. Afterwards, according to Bradlee's widow, Sally Quinn, Robards "left and never came back...but he absolutely got Ben!"

• One can see typing paper with red bands and the sides and with a large number printed on it. This is used for long-form stories, with the number indicating the page number in the typed story. The red bars represent approximate column width when translated into the printed story.

• Nothing was allowed into the script unless it had been meticulously verified and confirmed by independent sources.

• The film was originally rated 'R' for its explicit language, likely due to 11 utterances of the f-word. It was re-rated 'PG', likely due to the historical significance of the subject matter.

• Unlike the book, the film itself only covers the first seven months of the Watergate scandal, from the time of the break-in to Nixon's second inauguration on January 20, 1973.

• Two of the most acclaimed journalism-inspired movies are All the President's Men (1976) and Spotlight (2015). Ironically, both of these surround the Bradlee family. Ben Bradlee Senior was the editor of the Washington Post during the Watergate-related events covered in All The President's Men, played by Jason Robards. Ben Bradlee Jr., played by John Slattery, was the editor at the Boston Globe when the paper published the clergy abuse expose, which was chronicled in Spotlight.