All the President's Men

All the President's Men (1976) tells Watergate from two reporters' desks. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein start with a burglary story and two years later a president resigns. The film conveys this through phone calls, doorsteps and refused questions rather than set pieces. Robert Redford started the project in 1972, reading the Post's reporting while promoting The Candidate. He bought the book rights in 1974 for 450,000 dollars, which means the film was underway before the book was finished. The Washington Post refused to let them shoot in its newsroom. The production measured and photographed the offices and rebuilt them on two Burbank soundstages for 200,000 dollars. Around 200 desks were bought at 500 dollars each from the same supplier the Post had used in 1971, out of date phone books were reproduced, and boxes of the Post's own rubbish were carted to the set for authenticity. Executive editor Ben Bradlee said he realised the film would be made with or without him and chose to influence it factually instead. William Goldman wrote the screenplay and won an Oscar for it. The film took four: Best Supporting Actor for Jason Robards, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction and Sound. It runs 138 minutes. Good for: journalism, procedural tension, and seventies American cinema. Less good for: there is no action, it is almost entirely conversation. The volume of names is hard to follow on a first viewing, and the opening is steep for anyone who does not already know the outline of Watergate.