"All the President's Men" (1976)

Rank on the AFI List: #77

WHAT I ALREADY KNEW ABOUT THE MOVIE:
Before I read the back of the DVD case? NOTHING. Then I learned it was about the journalistic investigation into the Watergate scandal.

LET ME EXPLAIN...
I thought this was a good movie. It had great acting and a documentary-like feel to it that made it different from the vast majority of movies. Having said that, this is a peculiar movie to have on the AFI Top 100 list.

Why do I say that? My wife made this very good observation: "All the President's Men", unlike the vast majority of films in the Top 100, doesn't really have that "timeless" quality. For example, there are those classic love stories, good vs evil tales, underdogs to cheer for, groundbreaking technical accomplishments, and adventure movies that will live on forever that future generations can watch and appreciate. "All the President's Men", on the other hand, is about a specific scandal from the 1970s. Yes, it was a major scandal and a devastation to the U.S. government, but it's not a timeless story of betrayal and drama. I can't see this movie remaining on AFI's Top 100 list for a very long time.

Now, I say again that I thought this was a good movie, and my thought on why it's considered one of the best movies ever made would be the "realistic" approach to telling the story. To explain this, I've included a spectrum that my film professor described to us in class.


On one end of the film spectrum is "Realism". These would be your typical documentary films. While watching a "realism" movie, viewers are meant to see the story as real life and not necessarily a movie. Fictional movies that lean this way include The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield.

On the other end is "Formalism". These would be avant-garde type movies that are so artistic and creatively delivered that you are constantly reminded that it's a movie and not real life. The best example I personally know for such a film is Run Lola Run out of Germany (an awesome movie, by the way).

In the middle of these two spectrums is "Classicism", which is where most movies reside. In these films, you know you're watching a movie, but it's told in a fairly realistic way.

So what does this have to do with "All the President's Men"? My opinion is this film, while still a classic-style movie, does a great job of feeling like a realism-style film.



"All The President's Men" seemed almost like the real thing (despite the fact that well-recognized Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman were the main actors). In fact, there were several times during the movie when my wife and I referred to it as a "documentary". Maybe it's because it's about a true story, but the lack of music in most scenes, the realistic delivery of many of the lines, and the fact that no scene was "dramatized" up with music, slow motion, close-ups, etc. (in other words, it was told in a very straightforward, journalistic way) really helped this movie feel much more "real" than most movies.

What makes this a "Top 100" Movie?
I'm inclined to think it was this movie's "realism" that made it onto AFI's Top 100 list. (Were there any other movies before it that told a story in such a realistic and undramatized way? If so, did they do anywhere near as good of a job as this movie did? I don't know those answers, but I'm inclined to think they're both probably a "no".)  Or maybe because it was a well-done film about the biggest government scandal in American history has something to do with it.

Complaint:
This is not really the movie's fault, but it sure got a bit confusing with all the names and different characters being brought up and investigated. It made me wish I had more knowledge of the whole Watergate scandal before I watched this. The movie progresses with the assumption that the viewers already know who all the politicians and people are/were. I didn't.

LET ME SUM UP...
This felt like a very different "AFI Top 100" movie, but that made it enjoyable for me. I appreciated the realistic way this movie told the story of how two writers from the Washington Post managed to uncover the biggest U.S. government scandal in history. My wife didn't like it, particularly because it didn't strive to address any morality issues - not with any of the politicians, not with the reporters, not with the President. If you want that sort of approach to Watergate, this is not the movie to watch. But if you like seeing a movie that feels almost like watching real life, this is a great one to check out.

MY RATING: 7/10

TOTAL # OF FILMS WATCHED: 50