I recently saw All The President's Men on DVD, seeing it probably for the first time since its initial theatrical release.  My reaction?

Blown.  away.

I had entirely forgotten what a compulsively watchable movie this is.  (The fact that it stars Redford and Hoffman in their endearing cuddly prime is gravy.)

This movie should be required viewing for three groups of people.  It should be watched by movie fans who want a compelling story.  It should be watched by film students as an exercise in how movies ought to be.  And it should be watched by journalism students, not to mention current practicing journalists, as a reminder of what journalism ought to be.

The movie, directed by Alan J. Pacula and scripted by William Goldman based on the nonfiction book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, tells the story of Woodward and Bernstein's investigation into the Watergate break-in that turned into the scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation.   It is not the story of the underlying events of the scandal, but of the reporters uncovering the information. 

The story begins with the Watergate break-in and the arrest of five men.  Woodward (Robert Redford) as a metro reporter is sent by the Post to the arraignment.   At the arraignment, Woodward is intrigued by the fact that the four Cubans already have counsel, unusual in burglary cases, and that the American is a security consultant recently retired from the CIA. 

Woodward's editors allow him to continue to investigate the story to see if it leads somewhere interesting, and soon assign fellow Post reporter Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) to the story as well. 

The movie makes clear that these two men have this particular story because they want it -- and nobody else does.  To other reporters, it simply seems either confusing or uninteresting, but Woodward and Bernstein are intrigued by the number of little anomalies they keep coming across, and the viewer can't help but become intrigued as well.  (And that, my friends, is primo movie making.)  It's a puzzle story. 

As our knowledge of Watergate has grown fuzzy over the years, some of us might recall the story of the early investigation as Woodward meeting his mystery source Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) in a parking garage and being given information.  All The President's Men reminds us that's not really the way it happened.  Deep Throat didn't actually tell Woodward much of anything, and certainly no specifics.  What he did was confirm what Woodward had found out from other sources, and also drop some hints of almost the 'warmer' or 'colder' variety. 

The story of the investigation is not about having an inside source, but about doggedly picking apart each little anomaly.  The Watergate burglars each had substantial sums of money on them.  "Follow the money," Deep Throat advised, and our reporters follow the money right back to the Committee To Reelect The President.   That takes them to an illegal slush fund and the information that the break-in and attempted bugging of the Democratic National Committee was not the first illegal action funded by the slush fund, but only the latest in a long series.

When Woodward has a name on a check and no other information, he will go through the Post's room full of metropolitan phone books in an attempt to track the person down.  Bernstein's specialty is to creep like an incoming tide over the threshold and onto the living room sofa of a potential source who initially states up front that she has nothing to say and winds up bit by bit answering all of Bernstein's questions.  (Come to think of it, that incoming tide trick is how he got himself onto the story in the first place.)

Other outstanding performances are Martin Balsam as Managing Editor Howard Simons, and Jason Robards as Executive Editor Ben Bradlee.  These guys inhabit their roles - they are running a newspaper.  Jane Alexander is a study in paranoia as CREEP accountant Judy Hoback, who eventually spills the beans about the slush fund. 

The movie covers the period from the break-in to the second Nixon inaugural, at first a rather puzzling place to stop.  The remainder of the story is told in brief glimpses of teletype reporting from the Post, resignations, guilty pleas, up to the Nixon resignation.  But on second thought, it does make sense to stop where the movie ends, because it stops where the scandal has grown beyond Woodward and Bernstein.  Up to that point, if these two guys had thrown in the towel, the story would probably have simply gone away. From there on, the rest, to coin a phrase, is history.

Film students:  This movie is composed almost entirely of conversations and yet is compelling drama.  Study it to learn how it's done.

Journalism students: This movie demonstrates how you can break a story without being an 'insider' with access to the powerbrokers.  Come to think of it, today's Bob Woodward could stand to relearn that lesson himself.

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