Director: Alan J. Pakula
Screenplay: William Goldman
Based on the book by: Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards, Jane Alexander, Meredith Baxter, Ned Beatty, Stephen Collins
Country: USA
Running Time: 138min
Year: 1976
BBFC Certificate: 15
While investigating a suspected burglary at the Watergate Complex in Washington D.C, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward begins to suspect that there is more to the case than a simple crime when the perpetrators are discovered to have links to both Cuba and the CIA. Teaming up with fellow reporter Carl Bernstein they begin pulling at threads which unravels an election rigging conspiracy that leads all the way back to the office of President Richard Nixon.
The Watergate Scandal is a political event so well heard of that its name has become synonymous with any damning report about a political figure – and yet I’d wager many people don’t fully understand what Watergate was and just how it brought down President Richard Nixon. After watching All The Presidents Men you may still not understand the ins and outs of the scandal, but this excellent character drama from director Alan J. Pakula (Presumed Innocent, The Pelican Brief) provides a compelling look into the reporters who gradually uncovered the conspiracy at its center and fought to tell the truth to a country that was being lied to by its government.
Based on the book by said reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, we follow this pair closely as their investigation goes from simple coverage of a court hearing to something bigger which has them constantly looking over their shoulders is hugely compelling, largely in thanks to the central performances from Redford and Hoffman. Playing Woodward and Bernstein respectively they are a superb double act, with Redford largely playing the straight man and Hoffman injecting a degree of humour into the story with his natural wit. The supporting cast also turn out some fantastic performances with Jack Warden, Martin Balsam and Jason Robards forming the editorial team at the newspaper, while a cornucopia of character actors show up in a variety of roles. Standout in the supporting cast, however, is Hal Holbrook playing Deep Throat, Woodward’s unnamed government contact who is instrumental in getting the pair to pull at the right threads. Revealed in 2005 to be former FBI director Mark Felt, Deep Throat feels ripped from the pages of classic noir fiction, always kept in the shadows for his meetings with Woodward. Indeed it is this portrayal that arguably influenced Fox Mulder’s similarly named informant, Deep Throat, in the sci-fi series The X-Files.
Just as compelling as the character work is the films focus on the process and it’s absolutely fascinating in the digital age to watch Woodward and Bernstein pursue their leads and research the case pre internet. The scenes of analogue research in which Woodward and Bernstein pursue their leads, spend time in archives and have shady meetings in abandoned car parks are fascinating viewing. What’s also notable in 2026 is the film being set pre social media and the “post truth” era. While the scandal was covered up through obfuscation and denial, it’s important to see the duplicity on show which one could argue is even more brazen when politicians are able to have their own curated platforms to spread their personal message and twist reality around it.
It also doesn’t hurt that All The Presidents Men is a fantastic looking film. Director Pakula and cinematographer Gordon Willis shoot the film in a way that packs the frame in with detail. Split diopters are readily deployed to keep characters in focus across the frame and the world feels so lived in it’s almost like the film is a portal back to the 1970s. This is also helped by the brilliantly natural dialogue, mainly thanks to the fantastic interplay between Hoffman and Redford but also in how the long takes allow their characters to play out with each other. It’s a fascinating film to watch and a style of filmmaking that sadly feels lost in this era.
This is all bolstered by a fantastic remaster with a crisp 4k upscaling and some excellent HDR treatment to really make that cinematography pop. The audio as well is clear which is great in such a dialogue heavy film – indeed there is very little music here with David Shire’s score only appearing in a handful of scenes. It’s a great showing for a hugely compelling film.
If I could level one criticism of All The Presidents Men, it’s perhaps that the film wraps up its narrative far too soon, opting to follow up the resolution to the scandal through a series of text epilogues showing that Woodward and Bernstein never gave up on their quest for the truth despite Nixon getting a second term while covering up the political espionage his team had been funding. At nearly 2 and a half hours, this is a longer film, but it arguably feels like it could have gone further, exploring the emerging case and ultimately leading to the resignation of the President, but as I said at the start this isn’t really that story. It’s the story of two men’s quest for truth and, in a world where the truth can be so easily twisted, where the most powerful people are allowed to get away with a great many awful things, this is an important film to revisit.
Bonus Features
- All the President’s men: the film and its influence
- Woodward and Bernstein: a journalism masterclass
- Woodward and Bernstein: lighting the fire
- Telling the Truth about Lie
- Out of the Shadows: the man who was Deep Throat
- Jason Robards on Dinah!
While there are a reasonable amount of bonus features here, providing some intriguing insight into the making of both the film and the men behind the story, there are a couple of omissions from previous DVD and Blu-Ray releases, notably a commentary from the late Robert Redford as well as a feature length documentary on the making of the film. It’s a shame they haven’t been included here.