If 'Five Easy Pieces' indicated the uneasiness that was to come in American cinema of the 1970s, then 'All The President's Men' typified the political paranoia and social unrest that those films were to come to explore. One of the defining events of 1970s America was the Watergate scandal, in which it was revealed the White House had criminally used re-election funding for Nixon's campaign to support a burglary in the Democrat's head office. This shook the foundations of the country - the revelation that the most senior members of the nation were dishonest and had betrayed the American people. Alan Pakula's film was just as sensational in revealing how the truth was uncovered and how two ambitious Washington Post reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford respectively), refused to back down despite the difficulty in both finding information and convincing their own superiors that there was a story to be printed, leading to the resignation of President Nixon.
The film is a masterclass in hard-hitting reportage. Following a highly realistic, chronological narrative detailing every aspect of the investigaton and the struggle to pin down elusive information, we are treated to an angle on the news that we rarely get to see. Most films previously would focus on the subject of the news and cut to a spinning headline, but here we go behind the scenes and learn how a newspaper operates and exactly how highly secretive information can be leaked out and pieced together into the headline. Recalling Kurosawa's 'High and Low', which follows in detail a police investigation into a kidnapping plot, the excitement and suspense is conveyed through the reporters' ever decreasing circles towards the definite truth and the exposure of the criminals. In the very masculine world of the newspaper, the reporters and editors prowl around the office as the camera cuts to television news reports and the White House's attempted revenge on their speculative journalism. Even though we know the truth, we are still anxious to know if Woodward and Bernstein can get it out there, and hope they're not just buying into their own conspiracy theories. Even they begin to doubt themselves, and the harsh reality of their ongoing battle hits them when it's revealed that half the country hasn't even heard of the word 'Watergate'.
The film can sometimes be hard to follow - sharp talking; technical terms; intimate details of the American political hierarchy - and a previous knowledge of the Watergate scandal would no doubt be useful, but the reality is the story that's revealed is almost secondary to the audacious interviewing techniques employed by Bernstein and Woodward. From the incessant questioning of frightened employees to the secretive meetings with the infamous inside source, Deep Throat, and the persistant, presumptive phonecalls to trick those with the information into spilling the beans. Both Hoffman and Redford give great performances as intelligent, passionate and cunning men who become more and more fanatic about the truth the closer they get, despite the growing threat to their own safety. Their own paranoia about the conspiracy reflects the paranoia in the United States after Kennedy's assassination, trapped in the Cold War and losing in Vietnam. This easily gives the film a modern relevance, after films such as 'Farenheit 9/11' and the media have revealed that perhaps all was not legitimate about America's intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the 'climate of fear' created by terrorism.
This film is the perfect example of how politically engaged the Hollywood studios were at this time, and it's unfortunate that cinema, post-Star Wars and Jaws, is struggling to return to this form against the money-making blockbuster. Recently, films like 'Syriana' and 'Michael Clayton' have returned to this trend and an upcoming spate of films on Iraq and Afghanistan are very promising. What we need now is a bolder selection of filmmakers prepared to put themselves on the line with controversial material and create a stronger movement of such investigative and inspirational films, and also for the media to be necessarily passionate enough to always seek the truth.
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