All the President's Men

[Penk!]

Anyone else a fan?

It was on my list for the BCB Film Poll and it nearly made the top ten. It's what cinema should be: dynamite entertainment, provocative art.

I think that a lot of the smartest recent true-story films take a lot from it. Not just Spotlight, which is obvious, but things like The Social Network, Moneyball. They really take a lot from it in terms of adapting real-life events into gripping films.

[Diamond Dog]

A really honest and accurate depiction of one of the greatest pieces of journalism in history. A film I have never stopped watching halfway through, even when catching it by chance.

[Matt Wilson]

I guess I'll be the first to say I find it slightly dull. I understand it's an important film, but it's a bit like eating your vegetables because you know they're good for you. It wouldn't even make my list of top twenty '70s pictures and I feel that both Redford and especially Hoffman were better elsewhere.

[Sneelock]

I watch it with people who agree with Matt but I'm on the "one of the best of the 70's" team myself.
Nobody was sicker of Watergate than I was when the movie was new. The idea of those big stars playing those guys rubbed me the wrong way.
I heard about little "cutesy" things that probably didn't happen being added and I was actually dragged along kicking and screaming to see it. it was not a pretty sight.

I loved it from the get go. I think it works. I watch ten minutes of it at any point and I'm hooked. I think Pakula, as a director, had some Polanski type skills - he could really get under your skin. the movie stars are compelling. you can see them think. the "cutesy" stuff moves the story along and makes the characters compelling.

I think the main thing that makes the movie work better for me that it does for some of the people I watch it with is this: why is it important? it's important to me that nobody is above the law and that freedom of the press could make them accountable one way or the other. I think some of the people I watch it with find those ideas quaint & old fashioned.

it's structured like a Hardy Boys story and I think it works because of this. I think it's a dynamite movie.

[sloopjohnc]

The San Francisco Chronicle has never been an esteemed news source, so as a local boy when Robards, as Bradlee, makes a joke that The Chronicle supposed willingness to print forecasts of the previous day's weather for those who missed it, pretty much summed it up and was a joke only locals would get.