| All the President's Men | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Alan J. Pakula |
| Produced by | Walter Coblenz |
| Screenplay by | William Goldman |
| Based on | All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein |
| Starring | Robert Redford Dustin Hoffman Jason Robards Jack Warden Hal Holbrook Jane Alexander Martin Balsam |
| Music by | David Shire |
| Cinematography | Gordon Willis |
| Editing by | Robert L. Wolfe |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | April 9, 1976 |
| Running time | 138 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8.5 million |
| Box office | $70.6 million (United States) |
All the President's Men is a 1976 Academy Award-winning political thriller film based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. The film starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively; it was produced by Walter Coblenz, written by William Goldman, and directed by Alan J. Pakula.
Contents |
In June 1972, a security guard (Frank Wills, playing himself) at the Watergate complex finds a door kept unlocked with tape. The police arrest burglars in the Democratic National Committee headquarters within the complex. The Washington Post assigns new reporter Bob Woodward to the unimportant story.
Woodward learns that the five men—four Cuban-Americans from Miami and James W. McCord, Jr.—had bugging equipment and have their own "country club" attorney. McCord identifies himself in court as having recently left the Central Intelligence Agency, and the others also have CIA ties. The reporter connects the burglars to E. Howard Hunt, formerly of the CIA, and President Richard Nixon's Special Counsel Charles Colson.
Carl Bernstein, also assigned to the story, and Woodward are reluctant partners but work well together. Executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) believes their work is incomplete, however, and not worthy of the Post's front page. He encourages them to continue to gather information.
Woodward contacts "Deep Throat", a senior government official and anonymous source he has used before. Communicating through copies of the The New York Times and a balcony flowerpot, they meet in a parking garage. Deep Throat speaks in riddles and metaphors, but advises Woodward to "follow the money".
Woodward and Bernstein connect the burglars to thousands of dollars in diverted campaign contributions to Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, pejoratively pronounced 'creep'). Bradlee and others at the Post dislike the two young reporters' reliance on unnamed sources like Deep Throat, and wonder why the Nixon administration would break the law when the President is likely to defeat Democratic nominee George McGovern.
Through former CREEP treasurer Hugh W. Sloan, Jr., Woodward and Bernstein connect a slush fund of hundreds of thousands of dollars to White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman—"the second most important man in this country"—and former Nixon Attorney General John N. Mitchell, now head of CREEP. They learn that CREEP used the fund to begin a "ratfucking" campaign to sabotage Democratic presidential candidates a year before the Watergate burglary, when Nixon was behind Edmund Muskie in the polls.
Bradlee's demand for thoroughness forces the reporters to obtain other sources to confirm the Haldeman connection. When the White House issues a non-denial denial of the Post's above-the-fold story, the editor thus continues to support them. Deep Throat claims that the cover-up was not to hide the burglaries but "covert operations" involving "the entire U.S. intelligence community", and warns that Woodward, Bernstein, and others' lives are in danger. Bradlee urges the reporters to continue despite the risk and Nixon's re-election. A montage of Watergate-related teletype headlines from the following years is shown, ending with Nixon's resignation and the inauguration of Gerald Ford on August 9, 1974.
Robert Redford bought the rights to Woodward and Bernstein's book in 1974 for $450,000 with the notion to adapt it into a film with a budget of $5 million.[1] Ben Bradlee realized that the film was going to be made regardless of whether he approved of it or not and felt that it made "more sense to try to influence it factually".[1] The executive editor of the Washington Post hoped that the film would have an important impact on people who harbored a negative stereotype of newspapers.
Director Alan J. Pakula and Redford were not happy with screenwriter William Goldman's first draft.[1] Woodward and Bernstein also read it and did not like it. Redford asked for their suggestions but Bernstein and writer Nora Ephron wrote their own draft. Redford read and did not like it, saying, "a lot of it was sophomoric and way off the beat".[1] He and Pakula held all-day sessions working on the script. The director also spent hours interviewing editors and reporters, taking notes of their comments. Claims that Pakula and Redford rewrote the screenplay have been debunked, however, after an investigation into the matter by Richard Stayton in Written By magazine. Stayton compared several drafts of the script, including the final production draft, and concluded that Goldman was properly credited as the writer and that the final draft had "William Goldman's distinct signature on each page."[2]
Dustin Hoffman and Redford visited the Post offices for months, sitting in on news conferences and conducting research for their roles.[1] The Post denied the production permission to shoot in its newsroom and so set designers took measurements of the newspaper's offices, photographed everything, and boxes of trash were gathered and transported to sets recreating the newsroom on two soundstages in Hollywood's Burbank Studios at a cost of $200,000. The filmmakers went to great lengths for accuracy and authenticity, including making replicas of phone books that were no longer in existence.[1] Nearly 200 desks at $500 apiece were purchased from the same firm that sold desks to the Post in 1971. The desks were also colored the same precise shade of paint. The production was supplied with a brick from the main lobby of the Post so that it could be duplicated in fiberglass for the set. Principal photography began on May 12, 1975 in Washington, D.C.[1]
The billing followed the formula of James Stewart and John Wayne in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), with Redford billed over Hoffman in the posters and trailers and Hoffman billed above Redford in the film itself.
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.
| Award | Category | Winner/Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards[3][4] | |||
| Best Art Direction | George Jenkins George Gaines |
Won | |
| Best Director | Alan J. Pakula | Nominated | |
| Best Editing | Robert L. Wolfe | ||
| Best Picture | Walter Coblenz | ||
| Best Adapted Screenplay | William Goldman | Won | |
| Best Sound | Arthur Piantadosi James E. Webb Les Fresholtz Dick Alexander |
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| Best Supporting Actor | Jason Robards | ||
| Best Supporting Actress | Jane Alexander | Nominated | |
| American Cinema Editors (ACE) | Best Edited Feature Film | Robert L. Wolfe | Nominated |
| BAFTA Film Awards | Best Actor | Dustin Hoffman | Nominated |
| Best Cinematography | Gordon Willis | ||
| Best Director | Alan J. Pakula | ||
| Best Film | |||
| Best Editing | Robert L. Wolfe | ||
| Best Production Design/Art Direction | George Jenkins | ||
| Best Screenplay | William Goldman | ||
| Best Sound Track | Arthur Piantadosi James E. Webb Les Fresholtz Dick Alexander |
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| Best Supporting Actor | Jason Robards | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Martin Balsam | ||
| Directors Guild of America | Outstanding Directorial Achievement | Alan J. Pakula | Nominated |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Director | Alan J. Pakula | Nominated |
| Best Picture | |||
| Best Screenplay | William Goldman | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Jason Robards | ||
| Kansas City Film Critics | Best Supporting Actor | Jason Robards | Won |
| National Board of Review | Best Director | Alan J. Pakula | Won |
| Top 10 Films of the Year (#1) | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Jason Robards | Won | |
| New York Film Critics | Best Director | Alan J. Pakula | Won |
| Best Film | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Jason Robards | ||
| Writers Guild of America (WGA) | Best Adapted Screenplay | William Goldman | Won |
According to Box Office Mojo, the film earned a "Domestic Total Gross" of $70,600,000.
In 2007, it was added to the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list at #77. AFI also named it #34 on its America's Most Inspiring Movies list and #57 of the Top 100 Thrilling Movies. The characters of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein shared the rank of #27 Hero on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list. Entertainment Weekly ranked All the President's Men as one of the 25 "Powerful Political Thrillers".[5]
American Film Institute recognition
In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
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