All the President's Men (Archive)

some scenes in particular. It was a very rewarding rewatch hopefully it was a rewarding listen then and will be now. That seven from seventy six series was a good one. We talked about Taxi Driver Network, Rocky. We saw a movie that I think we both watched for the first time, car Wash Barbara Coppoles Harlan County, USA, was one that I had seen many times before, or at least multiple times, but we had to include it in another new one. Shantel Ackerman's News from Home. So a great series, and

All the President's Men was a cornerstone of it. We hope you enjoy this conversation, and we remind you that the Film Spotting Archive access to it is just one of the benefits you get as a member of the film Spotting Family. You can learn more about that at film Spotting family dot com. From February twenty twenty one, here is That's seven from seventy sixth review of All the President's.

into their partnership, and we root for them. We want them to find something, We want them to find anything, and we empathize as they drive and make phone calls and call and drive. I mean they feel like they really relive in those cluttered desks and that they're really irritated by the noise. From that first bang of the typewriter keys to the final drone of the teletype, you just know you're watching something special. Thanks for letting your ramble in.

one other thing on my mind. Eight months ago, we discussed a classic movie on this show that came out ten months prior to Alan Pocula's All the President's Men and also garnered a Best Picture nomination, Steven Spielberg's Jaws.

The review was due to Jaws celebrating its forty fifth anniversary, but we had no idea going in just how relevant the killer shark movie featuring a dangerous huckster mayor and citizens who almost literally on Fourth of July weekend, choose liberty over the warnings of experts, would turn out to be in June twenty twenty, in contrast, we decided to start this seven from seventy six series with All the

President's Men precisely because of its timeliness. A movie about the investmentgation and cover up that led to a president resigning in disgrace seemed all too perfect to consider the same week the Senate is about to take up an impeachment trial. Sadly, we're also talking about All the Presidents Men. The same week we learned of the passing of How Hulbrook, who plays Bob Woodwards, connected contact known as Deep Throat Jaws, one of the most well made thrillers ever, didn't seem timely,

and terrifyingly was All the President's Men couldn't be more timely? Yet, I don't have a single comment or reflection in my notes that could be construed as political, only comments about the craft. What about you?

up to it is what we're seeing here. And also they're very different scandals. You know, they're very different atrocities, let's say, committed against democracy. So I don't think there

are quite as many one to one comparisons. At the same time, watching it, you know, you do realize in both cases the levels of obfuscation that are at play in something like this where you recognize that the malfeasance starts at the very top and is directed from the very top, but how many layers of protection there are put in place? Maybe more so in the time of

All the President's Men. That's what they have to kind of investigate their way through, right, is to get to the top and maybe the you know, the maddening thing about our current situation is that it's so clearly coming from the top down. I mean, there is video recorded. Anytime you say to an insurrectionist, we love you, I think you've got your evidence. So there's a distinction there as well. So yeah, I think this isn't quite as

one to one politically. Maybe the phrase the scene that we started out with also has some resonance not very bright guys at the top of the show. I mean, anytime Adam, the remaining member of your cabinet is the my pillow guy, I think we can also say, yeah, not very bright guys. But sure, here's another point of comparison between the two eras. There are very bright enablers, and that is what is scarier than you know, clearly

scarier than my pillow. Goofball, and you see that this is something else that Woodward and Bernstein have to investigate their way through, implicate and prove the participation of are the enablers, and that we've seen has also a factor of our current situation. So yeah, I think there are some parallels, inevitably, maybe not as strong as we thought, probably not as strong as Jaws. It's not what I

came away from this movie with, for sure. The first thing I came away from this revisit was just a high, as you said, Adam, about journalism, just like a giddy high about the craft that is that work, the work of journalism, and the craft of all the President's men to depict and capture it.

For me, I am just so pleased with the storytelling, which in this case is synonymous with the filmmaking, to the point where I almost literally can't keep a smile off my face, and I feel a charge because of every choice that is being made. And I'll give one other example real quick. You know this, I've tweeted about it before. It just seems that once a year I'll end up putting the Departed on a movie I really loved and I think I had as the second best

movie of that year. But it wasn't necessarily a movie I saw at the time and said, oh, this is, you know, Pantheon level Scorsese. But there it is on Netflix, and Josh, whenever I just kind of need a movie on in the background, I just kind of want something to distract me maybe occasionally, to take my mind off whatever I'm working on. And inevitably with that movie, I

do get lost in it. And I had that moment with The Departed just this past Saturday, and every time it happens, annually Sarah will walk in the room and she'll shake her because I look like an idiot sitting there with a goofy grin plastered on my face and a quick sidebar. Anybody who bemoans that movie winning Best Picture like it was a lifetime achievement for Scorsese. Sorry,

couldn't disagree more. Nevertheless, All the President's Men, despite being the antithesis of The Departed in so many ways, except it is, Josh, if you think about it, a movie as well that's about organized crime and corruption. It's obviously the way less ostentatious and in your face, it's way more. All the Resident Men is deliberately paced. There's no use of music or similar use of music on the soundtrack,

but it's the exact same experience for me. I love every single moment of the writing, of the performances, and of the direction. And of course this is where the filmmaking then crosses over into journalism. This is the ultimate procedural procedural in the truest sense. This is a movie that is just about the work, and there are so many examples we could list. But even going back to your political comparison, we don't really get to ever know or really even see Richard Nixon as a character in

this movie. Right except for that very beginning, which I had actually somehow forgotten about. I could have sworn all the presidents meant, which I just saw in the past year. Actually with my kids, I could have sworn it open just with the heist, you know, the lights going on, the cop finding the door. But we do get that little prelude with Nixon giving the State of the Union address, But otherwise we only get Nixon information as it relates to the post, as it relates to this story these

journalists are following. There's no real wider philosophical conversations about politics or the media, and if there are any conversations that skew close to it. It's always in the context of what the post is doing and how it affects them and the choices they're making, and even that opening proper the burglars just going about their work methodically. It's all rendered very pragmatically, right. I Pakula doesn't lean into the suspense or kind of the coolness of the heightst

like so many movies do. Here again, there's no music underneath it to live in it up even the way it's foiled. That security guard just doing his job just happens to walk in the door, notices a door is unlocked, finds it suspicious that there's some tape over it. And I like even that the cops who ultimately arrest the burglars don't want to do it, like they're off going on some other job and they're playing closed detectives, but they're closer to the Watergate and they end up doing it.

This is obvious to say, but just think about how much of the running time of all the Presidents Men is about doing the work of journalism, chasing leads, chasing threads, sitting at desks, making phone call after phone call after phone call, being in the car knocking on doors, just relentlessly pursuing any bit of information they can and having to secure a certain number of confirmations right before they

can run a story. There's just this process to it all, and we'll get more into the actual craft of it and Gordon Willis's cinematography later, I think. But the sheer number of shots sitting at desks in the newsroom that showcase the entire newsroom, all the buzzing in the background, the chatter amongst reporters and editors, the phone calls, the typing, it all reinforces it and finally, Josh, to get back

to what you were saying. In terms of the enablers, there is obvious brilliance in William Goldman's screenplay, and somehow it really wasn't until this time that I recognized just how simple it is. And Sophie, my daughter, rewatched this movie with me. She loves the movie now too, And of course she doesn't have as much of a historical

relationship to Nixon or Watergate or this film. She doesn't know who Haldeman is or Erlickman is, and all the names and the different threads these reporters are chasing kind of lose her a little bit, and I get it, But when you really break it down, this whole movie is just about them trying to determine the five names who controlled the slush fund, because if they can do that, and if one of those five names happens to work in the White House, happen to report right to the president,

then that's it. That's that's everything. That's what breaks this whole thing wide open, And if you really do follow it from start to finish, that's all they're ever doing. It's not like they're off on a bunch of different tangents trying to take down President Nixon and all of his corruption. They're just trying to determine how checks from the committee to re elect the president got in the hands of Watergate burglars, and it just so happens it goes all the way up to the president.

necessarily gives you that. It gives you, as you're saying, the broad strokes, the goals of Woodward and Bernstein, and crucially how they went about doing their job. I mean you could say that Goldman's screenplay kind of you know, that last meeting with deep Throat just kind of unravels everything for them in a way we don't really see right that comes out in all in the montage of the ensuing newspaper articles, so we don't see the final

threads being drawn together. Again, that's not the purpose of the movie. So thinking of you smiling while watching this, my exact same experience, just sitting there, started smiling very soon into it, chuckling at moments. Here's a moment and this goes back to how it was sort of a journalism high for me. When Woodward is on the phone and to my last point, I don't remember exactly who this was, but he hears the guy say, I know I shouldn't be telling you this.

have movie reviews, don't you desperately need movie reviews? And the editor was like, yeah, sure, kid, but you know what, You're gonna have to go cover the local school board for me first, then I'll let you write a movie review. So one school board meeting, one movie review. That guy his name was rich Parmonar. He's no longer with us, but he was like basically the Ben Bradley of weekly suburban newspapers. I mean he was so over school, so intense.

To him, A story about like water rates was Watergate, I mean it was it was high stakes in his mind. So anyway, that's kind of where I spent a year or two doing that stuff, making the phone calls, getting hung up on, knocking on enough doors to you know, get exactly what you needed. And it was never in my block, like I knew how to do that, and

I could do it. I wasn't as passionate about it as I was about movies, obviously, but just remembering those experiences and going on to work in larger newsrooms where there were real reporters two deaths over and I could hear them making those calls to bigger politicians and knowing what was going on. It was such a thrill to be re immersed in that. And I think a part of it is just the fact that and here we can move to the craft. It's so tactile, it's so

carefully observed, it's so knowing, and it's so analog. I mean, I think it is crucial that this movie came out and is capturing a time that was pre digital for the most part, because it really just emphasized not that it's necessarily quote unquote easier to do this kind of work now, but you've got a lot more tools and there are a lot more resources then having to go into the you know, here's another thing that I just chuckled that when Wood where it has to go down

to the library and pull out the phone books, the actual phone books.

just absolute laser focus. There might be a bigger story going on behind you. And I think there is a split diapter shot where I don't remember exactly what it is, but everyone else in the newsroom is gathered around a television. That story at that point was probably bigger than the one Wouldward was working on. But for him, it doesn't matter. Your story, the one that's due in twenty minutes is

the biggest story of your life. And the split diapter shot captures that intensity in just an amazing way that is not flashy but so crucial.

in which we're communicating even in the office when we're a few feet from each other via Slack some other platform. So that all ties back to me to another aspect of the craft here, which is how sensory it is and the use of sound. And let's go ahead and give credit. I didn't know this until I looked it up today. It won the Oscar for Best Sound Mixing

in nineteen seventy seven. Arthur planted do Se Dick. Alexander less fresholts, what a remarkable job with this movie, because all it does is just kind of hum in the background, sometimes more noticeable than others, but it's always there, just adding tension. You're leaning in to hear it. Those sounds evoke the anxiety the characters are feeling. I'm thinking even of like the sounds in the courtroom when Woodward goes and he's bugging the guy, the lawyer, who says, it

just got really there. It's so great.

the slips of paper at the Library of Congress. As the camera you know, elevates and we see them overhead and we see how kind of diminished they are by the scope of this and the work. But you hear very prominently in the soundtrack every slip of paper that they are going through, even in the parking garage. Not only are you so attuned, of course to any sounds, because you become as paranoid as deep throat and Woodward are.

There's also a great moment coming out of that Library of Congress scene, and we could just spend the whole review talking about moments like this, but there is as that camera elevates up this kind of droning sound, it starts to feel like the pressure is mounting a little bit. It's kind of ominous. And then we see them emerge

from the door, I mean, they pull the cars. The music stops, it cuts immediately, and it just makes you feel instantly like they've emerged from some kind of hibernation, right, or they've been lost to the world searching down this lead and they couldn't find it, and in that moment they erupt from the door. But it's it's just subtle moments like that with the sound design to make this movie so special.

that desperation so well. The sound of the movie, though, Adam, the defining sound of all the President's men, the typewriters, of course, and that is, you know, just that is

a suspense thing too. You almost don't need a soundtrack of music soundtrack in this film because when people are typing, the speed with which they're typing captures all the suspense and the momentum that you need, and we get that so many times here, and that's a marker of the eras when you were talking about what does the Post newsroom look like now compared to that, I mean, that's a key turning point is when the typewriters left the

room and the weekly I worked at had them. When I went to a bigger paper just a year or two later didn't have them. And it was a bigger newsroom, but it was a quieter one. So that goes back to the idea of sound design. And that's just so defining when I think of All the President's Men? Is that clacking in the background.

the rundown of what articles they've got. They're deciding how they're going to lay out the paper, what the top stories are going to be. And the first one is an extended one. And there is something about it, Josh, in terms of the cross talk, you know, the overlapping dialogue there, the camaraderie that they have, the ease that the actors that the men in that scene have with each other.

a lot of rehearsal. Right, But even with all that rehearsal, you still got to pull it off. And it blows me away every time I watch it.

it's just an astonishing example of realism. And every performance is like that, you know. I mean you could say that maybe the one perform that stands out a little bit to this regard is Hoffman's as Bernstein, But it's hard to say that because Bernstein is supposed to be kind of a jumpy guy, right, He's it's part of his character that makes him seem a little less quote

unquote realistic. But Redford is so naturalistic here, just so at ease in this every guy reporters skin that you forget how good looking he is because he kind of he manages to to like play that down without you know, playing a part where he needs like makeup or to look slovenly or anything. He just comes across as this

guy who wants to do his job. Part of it is maybe the impatience he shows as Woodward too, that I think is like he's not trying to be a dream about he has no time for chit chat when he's on the phone, you know where where's Bernstein's more of a cajoler. That's kind of his style is let's be friends. I'm going to get this information out of you. And Woodward is like, I'm going to be persistent. I'm just going to keep at it, go at until I

get that tidbit that I need. But it is just such a naturalistic performance by Redford that I think is a hallmark really of almost every other performance in the film.

happening in the background that is probably more important. But there's a reason why Pakula and Gordon willis give this scene and that moment the attention it deserves because this is where it does all converge and the story that

justifies the whole movie finally take shape. So for people who know and this is another case where you can kind of connect Jaws to all the President's men, right in terms of a famous use of a split diopter, not that there aren't other many examples in cinema history, but a diapter shot simply kind of gives you the best of both worlds in terms of shallow focus and

deep focus. Instead of lighting it in a way and shooting it so that you see everything that's happening in the newsroom, it forces you as a viewer to still stay focused on what's in the foreground. So in this case, on the right side of the frame, even though it's kind of at a slant, you're just looking at Redford pretty much in medium close up. Everything behind him is out of focus, but everything that's to the left of the frame behind Redford is in sharp focus just like

he is. That's because of the diopter, and people do all kind of surround this TV. At one point, it's the press conference announcing that Eagleton is bowing out of the VP race. So this is the big news and all of the real commotion occurs at the very moment. Kenneth Dalberg answers the phone.

of your face. This whole scene actually vividly portrays that, right, because everybody in the newsroom is going crazy about Eagleton having to bow out this kind of scandal surrounding him, but the undoing of the presidency is happening in the moment Kenneth Dalberg says those words, and then the masterstroke of just so subtly reducing that depth of the shot, focusing inch by inch even more on Woodward until we are finally on him and close up. It's a six

minute scene. It plays out over the course of six minutes, one long take. As you suggested, Redford is so brilliant, and if the writing is brilliant, it catches you so off guard, even the Dalberg line where he says, I've just been through a terrible ordeal.

and you mention Redford's kind of impatience. There's an urgency to it. He just keeps saying, well, what do you think it could be? He's trying to keep Dalberg on the line, him talking, and it eventually does pay off. And that moment when he says it, I know I shouldn't be telling you this. Redford's muttering to himself and closing his eyes. Just the ultimate please God moment really is remarkable. And there are other subtle acting moments too.

When Dalberg says, stands, that's the moment that it now connects to the president, and at that very moment, Redford just kind of subtly looks up, you know, maybe just for a second, he looked down at his notes, and now when he says stands, he looks up and it's almost as if the camera had done a slow tilt in that moment. Only Redford does it for us where we go, okay, we now recognize fully the magnitude of

this situation. And again that's why I think this moment gets this treatment in the movie, because up to this point they've come from the Library of Congress, they made all these phone calls, they're hitting every dead end, they don't seem to have a story. And it's only when Dalberg says that that then everything comes together. So, of course, from a filmmaking point of view, Pekola heightens the intensity of it and the focus of it for us as

viewers as well. Like I said, it's six minutes long, but it's got to be one of the most effective, but at the same time modest long takes in cinema, because it barely even registers as a long take because of all that activity in the foreground and the background, the bouncing between calls, the way it draws you to what is being said and the consequences of those revelations is what keeps it from being about the Breva cinema that it actually is.

this guy on deadline needs a confirmation. The guy won't name the name, but so Bernstein lets out this this game.

create suspense. You could cut away to something else going on the newsroom and knowing that we as an audience, we just want to get back to that countdown, Come on and elongate it, you know, between the counts of two and three, give us a couple of seconds of some other business so that we're impatient. And when we get back, we're still on three, and we're like, come on, no, that's not the choice. Nothing fancier than setting on this medium shot again of Bernstein's face as he's counting, waiting

till we get to ten. And that's just an example of the restraint that all the presidents men also knows how to employ when necessary. Kind of gear shifting here, give us different, you know, ways of feeling that tension, feeling that suspense so it doesn't become overbearing or wear us out, keep us on our toes. And in this moment, it's by just being very simple and straightforward.

for comment. They're not talking. But what else beside the money? Where's the goddamn story?

a little bit of mystery. And then when he finally does come out and converse with our heroes as he takes the red pen to their story. I think that's the moment where we see him walk over, and it's one of those great tracking shots through the newsroom. The camera is kind of just at a slight low angle, which gives him a little bit more even gravitas than he already has. And then that moment where he says to bury it inside, and Hoffman gets so mad and

Robarts just turns his head and gives him a stern look. Oh, and you see, you see Hoffman like a seven year old boy just realize what he's done and get instantly quiet.

some heat. Woodward and Bernstein don't fully understand that, but he's starting to feel it, and it comes out just an expression of anger like that, the tone of his voice. You know, he's not messing around. And in those moments they cut to Woodward and Bernstein's faces and it's where they recognize that he's not messing around. Something has changed.

The tenor of this has completely changed the scene at the end, the whole thing about get in the bath fifteen minutes, you screw up again, I'm going to get angry. I mean, what's better writing than that? And better delivery of lines in all of movies? And I'll give you another one, even though there's probably ten more. The ken Clawsen phone call when ken Clawson realizes what he's done and realizes the hole he's in and calls Ben Bradley

to try to straighten it out. Yeah, and Robards plays it like he knows exactly what ken Clawson is up to. He knows he's got him, he knows he can use this against him to get the information that he wants. And the smile when he says ken as he picks up the phone is just like he can't wait to give Clawson a little dig and manipulate him. It is truly one of my favorite performances ever, and thankfully it didn't win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

jumped out at me. But also the key to this performance as deep throat is all for me in that final conversation, because what he's doing in the in the previous ones very effective, you know, in terms of leading us on and tantalizing, not giving us too much, just as he's not giving Woodword too much and playing that cool but also mysterious. But it's that last conversation where he goes from this mesmerizing mystery man to a guy who's scared.

And she's just so vulnerable and so scared. But she's also clearly indignant.

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