All the President's Men

Overview

Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula turned journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling account of their Watergate investigation into one of the hit films of Bicentennial year 1976. While researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex, green Washington Post reporters/rivals Woodward (Robert Redford, who also exec produced) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) stumble on a possible connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. With the circumspect approval of executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), the pair digs deeper. Aided by a guilt-ridden turncoat bookkeeper (Jane Alexander) and the vital if cryptic guidance of Woodward's mystery source, Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" all the way to the top of the Nixon administration. Despite Deep Throat's warnings that their lives are in danger, and the reluctance of older Post editors, Woodward and Bernstein are determined to get out the story of the crime and its presidential cover-up. Once Bradlee is convinced, the final teletype impassively taps out the historically explosive results.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/05/2010
UPC:	0883929152698
Original Release:	1976
Rating:	PG
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	2:18:00
Sales rank:	1,062

Special Features

Closed Caption; Commentary by Robert Redford; Alan J. Pakula thrillers trailer gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Dustin Hoffman	Carl Bernstein,Assistant Metro Editor
Robert Redford	Bob Woodward
Jack Warden	Harry Rosenfeld
Martin Balsam	Howard Simons
Hal Holbrook	Deep Throat
Jane Alexander	Bookkeeper
Meredith Baxter	Debbie Sloan
Ned Beatty	Dardis
Stephen Collins	Hugh Sloan
Penny Fuller	Sally Aiken
John McMartin	Foreign Editor
Robert Walden	Donald Segretti
Frank Wills	Frank Wills
F. Murray Abraham	Arresting Officer #1
David Arkin	Eugene Bachinski
Henry Calvert	Bernard L. Barker
Dominic Chianese	Eugenio R. Martinez
Bryan Clark	Arguing Attorney(as Bryan E. Clark)
Nicolas Coster	Markham(as Nicholas Coster)
Lindsay Crouse	Kay Eddy(as Lindsay Ann Crouse)
Valerie Curtin	Miss Milland
Gene Dynarski	Court Clerk
Nate Esformes	Virgilio R. Gonzales
Ron Hale	Frank Sturgis
Richard Herd	James W. McCord, Jr.
Polly Holliday	Dardis' Secretary
James Karen	Hugh Sloan's Lawyer
John Randolph	John Mitchell
Allyn McLerie	Carolyn Abbot
Gene Lindsey	Baldwin
Paul Lambert	National Editor
Frank Latimore	Judge
Anthony Mannino	Arresting Officer
James Murtaugh	Library Clerk
John O'Leary	Attorney
Jess Osuna	FBI Man
Neva Patterson	Angry Woman
George Pentecost	George
Penny Peyser	Sharon Lyons
Joshua Shelley	Al Lewis
Sloane Shelton	Bookkeepper's Sister
Ralph Williams	Ray Steuben
George Wyner	Attorney
Stanley Clay	Assistant Metro Editor
John Devlin	Metro Editor
John Furlong	Newsdesk Editor
Jamie Smith Jackson	Post Librarian
Jeff MacKay	Reporter
Christopher Murray	Photo Aide
Louis Quinn	Salesman
Richard Venture	Assistant Metro Editor
Wendell Wright	Assistant Metro Editor
David Gilbert	Voices
Jason Robards	Actor
David Shire	Composer

Technical Credits

William Goldman

Alan J. Pakula	Director
Walter Coblenz	Producer
Jon Boorstin	Producer
Robert Redford	Producer
William Goldman	Screenwriter
Arthur Piantadosi	Sound/Sound Designer
Jim Webb	Sound/Sound Designer
Dick Alexander	Sound/Sound Designer
Les Fresholtz	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Following Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book, director Alan Pakula and scripter William Goldman make this film a dynamic detective yarn, even though everyone already knows the ending, by covering only the reporters' investigation of the scandal and keeping the administration criminals offscreen. The reporters may be able to expose the truth this time, but who knows what other government conspiracies remain in the shadows. With a heightened realist style that recreated the Washington Post newsroom down to its garbage, All the President's Men became a popular and critical success, indicating that the public had not yet tired of the Watergate story -- at least when it featured Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Despite winning several critics' prizes, All the President's Men lost the Best Picture Oscar to Rocky, although it did pick up awards for Robards, Goldman, and its meticulous art direction. Cannily appealing to both an audience's desire for a "happy" ending and the 1970s knowledge of that ending's limitations, All the President's Men told a true-life suspense tale about the triumph of a free press, even though what Woodward and Bernstein exposed about Richard Nixon's White House was hardly reassuring.