The Best Political Thriller Of The Last 50 Years Is Now On HBO Max. 2 Things Stood Out In My Rewatch

It’s been 50 years since All The President’s Men was released in 1976, an incredible year in film. It’s a movie I’ve watched a few times over the years. As a political science major in college (and a film buff), it was in my semi-regular rotation, and I still think it’s the best political thriller of all time. That it came out so soon after the events of Watergate that took down President Nixon is just as impressive. On a recent rewatch (with my HBO Max subscription), my first in at least a decade, I was struck by a couple of things that I’ve never put much thought into before.

Everything Was So Polite On One Level

As someone born in the ‘70s and raised in the ‘80s, the Watergate era is pretty familiar to me. I wasn’t born early enough to remember the events as they unfolded, but the era isn’t weird. Rotary dial phones, cigarettes everywhere, stylish corduroy… I do remember all of that. So All the President's Men doesn’t feel as “old-timey” to me as it might to people younger than me. However, I was really struck by how polite, almost genteel, so much of the investigation was.

Whenever Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) or Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) needed information, it was often just a phone call away. Woodward even calls John Mitchell, the former Attorney General, at home like it’s no big deal, and Mitchell answers! There is such a big difference in how people treat phone calls today. Like most people, I don’t answer my cell phone if the call is from an unknown number. Back in the early ‘70s, when the events in the movie occurred, that wasn’t an option. Everyone answered the phone, because you never knew if it was going to be important or not.

Everyone answered the door, too. There are so many times where Woodward and Bernstein knock on the door of someone they want to interview, and the person answers and often invites them in for coffee (and more cigarettes). It’s incredible how much social norms in this regard have changed over the years. Here were two reporters working on what would become one of the biggest stories of the century, and everyone was opening their doors to them. It doesn’t bother me that things have changed, but this movie highlighted to me just how much they have.

How The Most Famous Quote Is Always Relevant

I am not going to get political in this story; that’s not what this is about. However, one of the most famous lines in All the President's Men, coming from Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), is still, and really has been since the dawn of time, incredibly relevant. Corrupt governments from the time of Nero up through today have always been about the money first. If you want to find the real motivation for corrupt politicians, always “follow the money.”

One reason All the President’s Men has aged like fine wine, and what makes it one of the best movies of the ‘70s is that at its core, Watergate was no different than many political scandals over the centuries, making the lessons timeless. The money is always the key to unlocking the conspiracies. 25 years later, Lester Freamon would use the same line when uncovering all the corrupt politicians in Baltimore in The Wire (one of the best shows on HBO Max).

The Movie Is So Well Constructed

The other reasons the movie has aged so well are because of how well it flows, explains the dense amount of information it presents, and, of course, the performances. It's crazy that Redford wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar, nor was Hoffman. Both are just great at portraying young reporters who make mistakes along the way, but triumph in the end. At least Jason Robards, who plays the legendary Ben Bradlee, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (one of four Oscars that the film won). Jane Alexander was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as “The Bookkeeper,” based on the real-life Judy Miller.

The pacing of the movie is top-notch. Despite having very little action, the movie is tense and moves along at a perfect clip. It is also remarkable just how well it presents the material. Remember, most of this investigation was through paperwork and interviews, and it was complicated. All the President’s Men nails all the critical information and serves it up to viewers in an easily digestible manner. You can go way deeper into the Watergate Scandal with books (or even Wikipedia), but here, you get all the really important points of the investigation, and the movie is still snappy and fun.

It Really Made Me Miss Robert Redford

I don’t remember what the first movie was that I saw Robert Redford in, but I have a hunch it was The Natural. Over the years, he’s always been one of my favorite actors, and while he certainly lived a full, amazing life, it was still hard to digest his death last year. I watched a couple of his movies in the wake of his death, including The Natural, but this was my first revisit of All the President’s Men since then. Watching him at what was really the height of his career really made me miss him.

Even though Redford's playing a somewhat prickly character in Bob Woodward, he’s still so utterly charming at all times. He also looks so sharp in that brown corduroy suit he wears in much of the movie. His rapport with Hoffman is fantastic, especially when they are doing a “good cop/bad cop” routine with people they are trying to interview. The style of the movie, with overlapping dialogue, plays really well because of their chemistry.

Political thrillers, or really any movie about politics, are tricky to make, especially when they are based on real events, and doubly so for events that had happened so recently as was the case in All the President’s Men. Director Alan J. Pakula, who was nominated for Best Director, and screenplay writer William Goldman, who won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, along with all the actors, really pulled a rabbit out of a hat here.