Part of Weekend Classics: Robert Redford
The iconic duo of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star as the iconic duo of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in Alan J. Pakula’s iconic 1976 ripped-from-the-headlines award-winning film. In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defense case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organizers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. Post editor Ben Bradlee (played by Jason Robards) is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Bernstein to it. As they follow the money, the trail leads higher and higher into the Republican Party — and eventually into the White House itself.
“This movie has been from the very beginning the obsession of Robert Redford.” —William Goldman (as he accepted an Academy Award for his screenplay for ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN) “...Largely pushed into being by one of its stars, Robert Redford, [ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN] is a lot of things all at once: a spellbinding detective story about the work of the two Washington Post reporters who helped break the Watergate scandal, a breathless adventure that recalls the triumphs of Fred and Joe Hard in that long-ago series of boys’ books, and a vivid footnote to some contemporary American history that still boggles the mind.” —Vincent Canby, New York Times (Apr 8, 1976) “One of modern American film’s most intelligent and provocative accounts of a nation’s political failings, and a near-perfect depiction of journalism at its purist and most inspired. To be more succinct, it is quite brilliant…. As smart and cautionary now as it was in the '70s.” —Ian Nathan, Empire Magazine “Redford is mesmerizing as Woodward, the inexperienced Boy Scout who still needs to sharpen his copy. There’s a naivete that registers early on, but the further the character wades into the murky Watergate details or the underground parking garages where he meets Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), the more he comes to realize how rotted the institution of government has really become. There’s never a breakdown scene or a big monologue highlighting said change, which only makes Redford’s ability to communicate it all the more impressive.” —Danilo Castro, Next Best Picture
