All the President’s Men, Priority on Journalism, not Narrative

Laura Flippin's latest blog post:

Typical newspaper movies emphasize the results over the grueling processes that are involved in reaching the ends.  The everyday life and actions of a reporter is not necessarily a fun thing to see—it takes a lot of work and effort to uncover the truth.  Therefore, most pieces simply skip to the satisfying end.

That is not the case with All the President’s Men, according to a review posted on Roger Ebert’s blog.  The film avoids this cliché, phony newspaper movie stereotype and, in the process, takes matters to the opposite extreme.  The movie focuses on the details of the investigation of Woodward and Bernstein into the debacle that would become known as Watergate.  In the lengthy film, the audience is shown every step along the way—false leads, discussions or lack thereof with contacts and lucky breaks.  This can become tedious at times, as the audience merely waits for Woodward and Bernstein to catch up with what the viewers already know—the ending to the story and the investigation.

However, the film does succeed at its goal.  It set out to provide an observation of how journalists truly work, in a way that had never been shown in feature film previously.  It displays the rampant paranoia and courage of The Washington Post, as Woodward and Bernstein work through every obstacle.  It also shows the battle the two men face in encountering their editors, as they stubbornly insist on carrying on with the investigation.

Despite some lagging on the part of the script, director Alan J. Pakula manages to keep the film’s pace taut.  The acting and editing of the film is so well paced that the audience can often overlook the setbacks the pair experiences in their search for the truth.  Through this tight pacing, a series of doors slammed in Woodward and Bernstein’s faces seems to flow smoothly, not awkwardly, as it could have.

When Robert Redford bought the rights to All the President’s Men, the joke became that reporters would now be made Hollywood movie stars.  Instead, the film’s production made the stars reporters.  Ebert is conflicted about this, as he knows, deep down, the audience would prefer a bit of that Hollywood touch to strictly accurate investigative reporting.  However, in that aspect of avoiding that stereotypical newspaper film, All the President’s Men certainly succeeded, and that alone makes the film worth a viewing.

from Laura Flippin Movie Reviews http://ift.tt/1qkaV5x