the fresh films reviews

S I N C E   1 9 9 7










 

All the President's Men (1976)

Directed by:
Alan J. Pakula
COUNTRY
USA
GENRE
Political drama
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Alle presidentens menn
RUNNING TIME
138 minutes
Produced by:
Walter Coblenz
Written by (based on the book by Bernstein and Woodward):
William Goldman


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Carl Bernstein Dustin Hoffman ½
Bob Woodward Robert Redford ½
Harry M. Rosenfeld Jack Warden
Howard Simons Martin Balsam
Deep Throat Hal Holbrook
Bed Bradlee Jason Robards
Judy Hoback Jane Alexander
Debbie Sloan Meredith Baxter
Martin Dardis Ned Beatty
Hugh Sloan Stephen Collins
Arresting Officer F. Murray Abraham
Kay Eddy Lindsay Crouse
Miss Milland Valerie Curtin

 

Review

Arguably one of the most thorough political movies ever finds Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford as the real-life Washington Post journalists who helped dig out the facts about the Watergate scandal. The real achievement here is the way director Alan J. Pakula, through William Goldman's brilliant script, manages to keep almost two and a half hours of conversations about names, figures and journalism suspenseful and interesting. One of the reasons is that All the President's Men not only is an important and just documentation of one of the most remarkable political scandals of our time, but it is also perhaps the best film portrait of newspaper journalism ever. This is a movie for the patient viewer, but he is rewarded with a remarkably well-directed film complemented by some brilliant performances. The pairing of Hoffman and Redford works to perfection, and by their side, Jason Robards is commanding. Pakula is clever enough never to opt for the sensational, instead visualizing the complexity of his story without losing focus. One of the best of the many 'political conspiracy' movies of the seventies.

Copyright © 16.12.2004 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang [HAVE YOUR SAY]