All the President's Men, Dir. Alan Pakula 1976

     While listening to Bret Easton Ellis`s wonderful podcast recently, in which he mentioned the soundtrack to 1976`s All the President's Men, I realized I had never really sat down and watched this supposed classic with any real intent. I have become quite engaged with American politics since Barack Obama`s election victory 7 years ago. British politics on one hand is pretty mundane, but in the US figures such as Sarah Palin, Donald Trump and most of the current Republican candidates for next years election are truly fascinating, if rarely for the most sane reasons. 

     As a result of my current fascination with the US political race, I decided to give All the President's Men, directed by Alan J Pakula another watch. The film focuses on the two Washington Post journalists who after the Watergate building break in, started an investigation into political corruption within the GOP. This leads to the revelations which eventually forced Richard Nixon to resign from the presidency. What is fascinating about this time is the truly little attention paid to the incident, and if it wasnt for the sheer belief in what two very brave and relentless men were doing, effectively putting their lives on the line, history would have perhaps been very different.

     Pakula directs the entire movie with a slow building menace. You find yourself checking the shadows for sinister government agents who should pop out at any moment to snuff out the two journalists. The soundtrack builds the tension expertly, and there are some really terrific scenes of pure edge of the seat tension in a desolute and wonderfully lit dark car park. It takes some true filmmaking brilliance to make conversations between two men inbued with such menace and dramatic tension, but Pakula pulls it off expertly. At over 2 hours, the picture is well judged and never felt too long. 

     In the central roles Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman pull off the excitable hungry young journalists brilliantly, and there is a nice comedic chemistry between the two that really gives the viewer moments to relax admist all the tension. The supporting cast area all excellent, whether it`s the editors of the newspaper in the male-dominated smoky meetings that you would expect of the era, or the sources who anxiously release tidbits of information. There is particular emphasise on telephone conversations and these are very well directed. The final shot makes powerful use through the simplicity of a typewriter and left me satisified and jubliant. 

     All the President's Men is something of a dead art now. A big budget, highly adult and complex movie. Made for an intellectual audience by intellectual filmmakers. Watching it today it is still riveting. 

5/5