These days, the last thing you might want to watch to take your mind off current events is a dark drama about a power-hungry administration breaking the law and facing impeachment. But trust me on this: “All the President’s Men” is a great movie. And, as a bonus, it has a sort-of happy ending.
Released in 1976, which happened to be (a) America’s 200 th birthday and (b) just two years after Nixon left the White House in disgrace, “All the President’s Men” follows Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) as they piece together the insanely complex conspiracy behind a break-in at the Democrat National Headquarters located in the, ahem, Watergate complex.
It’s a movie that’s virtually nothing but guys in bad ties talking on telephones and knocking on doors, desperately trying to get someone, anyone, to talk to them. But it’s also thrilling, a tense, exciting detective story that manages to be surprising and compelling, even if you know how it ends.
This week on Out of Theaters, Billy and Will Pfeifer investigate “All the President’s Men,” from the performances to the camerawork to William Goldman’s Oscar-winning script. And, as a couple of guys who made their bones working in a newsroom, they talk about the film’s accuracy and mourn the lost days of journalism.
Plus, Will praises the new Criterion edition of “Polyester,” Billy wonders if its director, John Waters, is dead (spoiler alert: He’s alive and well) and they both marvel over the wonder that is Odorama.
