Name: Review: “All the President’s Men”

Thrilling! That’s the only word that can describe this Alan Pakula masterpiece. All the
President’s Men is one of the many brilliant mystery movies on the resume of Pakula. Others
are Presumed Innocent starring Harrison Ford and The Pelican Brief with Denzel Washington.
The performance is also helped majorly by its two lead actors, Robert Redford(Bob Woodward)
and Dustin Hoffman(Carl Bernstein). So without further ado let’s unravel the mystery of if it’s
worth a watch.
This movie is based on the true story of the Watergate scandal. It opens on the burglary
of the Democratic Party Headquarters. The burglars get caught and arrested. This leads
reporter Bob Woodward to do a piece on the burglary but as he researches, things don’t add up.
As the situation develops, the more something seems out of place. Woodward teams up with
Carl Bernstein and together they uncover and publish the truth behind the motives of the
burglars.
This movie is the embodiment of suspense done right. You should expect nothing less
from Pakula. Every piece of evidence they found was just enough to keep you entertained but
not too much to ruin the story. Every interview and phone call felt important in discovering the
truth. Hoffman and Redford were great at keeping tension and building suspense. I for one
almost thought I was getting this information too and trying to figure it out with the reporters.
Now what do I mean by almost?
Well that’s the struggle with doing a true story especially one of this caliber. The
Watergate scandal is something so big that it led to the resignation of a president. That’s
something watchers are bound to know about. This took away the huge reveal at the end
because I already knew about this huge event and I’m sure many others do as well.
However, knowing this doesn’t take away from the story as much as you might think. For
one you may know that President Nixon resigned, but you may not know why. The movie is
more about getting the details and the struggle of finding them rather than the actual end result
of it all. This makes it enjoyable even though the end is spoiled if you watch the news.
So in the end, the good outweighs the bad in my eyes. Whether the same holds true for
other watchers is up to them. If you do decide to watch, it would be my recommendation to be in
the moment. Enjoy the suspense created by the actors and get lost in the adventure of these
two journalists uncovering one of the biggest political scandals of all time.