All the President's Men

Year of Release:  1976
Director:  Alan J. Pakula
Screenplay:  William Goldman, based on the book All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
Starring:  Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards
Running Time:  138 minutes
Genre:  Political thriller, drama

This film tells the story of the investigation into the infamous Watergate scandal, in which five men burgled the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex in Washington DC, and the subsequent cover-up by then President Richard Nixon.  The film focuses on the investigation into the scandal by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Hoffman), and is based on the non-fiction book they subsequently wrote.

The film is one of the classic films about journalism.  The film contrasts the brightly lit, open plan offices of the Washington Post where characters are constantly in motion, followed by a constantly roving camera, with shadowy with shadowy, dimly lit homes, offices, and the underground garages where Woodward meets his mysterious informant (Holbrook).  This is about the day to day business of journalism, days spent on the phone and knocking on doors, desperately searching for anyone who will talk to them, pouring over reams of documents for scraps of information or verification.  This all could seem quite dry, and confusing, but as scripted by William Goldman, and directed by Alan Pakula, who made several political thrillers during the 1970s, it is quite gripping and fairly easy to follow, even if you are not particularly familiar with the case.  The story keeps moving along, with committed performances from the cast and a wealth of background detail.  In the scenes in the Post offices, both the foreground and the background are kept in focus. 
The film was released just a couple of years after the Watergate scandal concluded and so most of the original audience would probably have been aware of the case, but now it is kind of a historical case, even though it was one of the major American political scandals and one of the key events of the 1970s, although by today's standards it all seems rather quaint.

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in All the President's Men