All the President's Men
Director:
Alan J Pakula
Year: 1976
Rating: 8.5
Year: 1976
Rating: 8.5
June 17th was the 50th anniversary of the
Watergate break in. Even after all these years and having seen this
film more than a few times it still grips me like few films do. Because it
was real. Because it mattered. At the end of the film Jason Robards as Ben
Bradlee says to Woodward and Bernstein - "Nothing's riding on this except
the First Amendment, the Constitution, freedom of the press and maybe the
future of the country". Fifty years ago and it still feels relevant today.
Our press is more important than ever when there has been a relentless attack
on the free press with accusations of fake news, alternative facts, a right
wing news media that covers up the news when not making it up and a political
party devoted to destroying our collective belief in reporters and the media.
And it has succeeded to such an extent that a large percentage of our country
believe Trump won the election. When Woodward and Bernstein reported these
stories, the White House denied everything of course but it all turned out
to be true. Same with Trump - it all turned out to be true. Our legitimate
press is pretty good because they understand the process of making sure it
is true before going to press.
The film goes into exhaustive detail showing how it is done. Checking and rechecking, getting multiple sources, grinding it out. Though the film cuts it down to 2 hours, their investigation was ongoing for over a year. It was like a tiny thread on your sweater that you pick at until the whole sweater unravels. When the dam of silence broke it was a beautiful thing. Stories coming out every day from the media. The Dirty Trick squad, the corruption of the FBI, the CIA and the Justice Dept, the laundering of millions of dollars, the payoffs and layer by layer leading to Nixon. It was these two reporters - Metro reporters - who saw a story and just hung on to it and they brought down a President and sent his entire crew of cronies to jail. Being in college at the time and disliking Nixon intensely - even working for McGovern in the election - it was thrilling as more and more names were revealed and finally Nixon. It was a good day for America but also a warning of how fragile our democracy can be. We are learning that again.
But this isn't a documentary - it is told in dramatic fashion slowly building towards the climax - Nixon resigns. The feel of the newsroom, the tough editors demanding the reporters get it right, Bradlee was a legend - here and regarding the Pentagon Papers putting his paper on the line because he believed in his reporters. There were no bigger stars than Hoffman and Redford at the time and director Alan Pakula does a great job of making it feel like a tense mystery. Amazingly, these two reporters are still around, still asking questions, still digging up the news. They inspired a whole generation of investigative reporters who do great work.
Rating: 7.0
The man in the shadows in the car park of All the President’s Men was Mark Felt. Deep Throat. In that film he was played by Hal Holbrook and very little was revealed about him. In fact, neither Woodward nor Bernstein ever revealed his identity nor his position. Felt did that himself in 2005 at the age of 91 three years before his death. In 1972 when Herbert Hoover passed away and every politician in Washington D.C. sighed in relief, Felt became the number two man in the FBI and immediately destroyed all the secret files before they fell into the wrong hands. He had been in the FBI for 30 years and had been the man who passed on all the dirty secrets to Hoover. In other words, he knew everything. He was a complete straight arrow and FBI in every molecule of his body. In the opening scene he is called into a meeting with Nixon’s men and asked if he thought it was ok for them to fire Hoover and hint that the job will be his because they know he is sympathetic to this administration. He replies – gentleman you should know that Hoover knows everything anyone has done that they may not want revealed to the public. He has the information in files in his office. They decide not to. Of course, Felt does it with the great authoritative voice of Liam Neeson who portrays him in this film.
In general, the film received poor reviews and did not do great box office business. My guess is that few people knew who Mark Felt was and Watergate felt like ancient history. But if you overlay it with All the President’s Men, I think it is fascinating and riveting. In ATPM he was only a mysterious figure giving hints as where to go with their investigation – “Follow the money” – but here we get to see what he was seeing, why he became Deep Throat, his fear of what was going on, his fight against the forces that wanted to shut down the FBI from looking into it. Five men captured in the Watergate burglary. Within a day or two the FBI knew that they we ex-FBI or ex-CIA and had connections to the White House while Woodward and Bernstein were spinning their wheels trying to find out. Nixon appoints an apparatchik, Patrick Gray (Marton Csokas) to head the FBI and shut everything down. Gray gives Felt 48-hours to wrap it up. He won’t and keeps looking into it. When he realizes that the walls are closing in he begins meeting with Woodward and giving him the direction to go in. The White House suspects he may be the informer in the FBI. “So why don’t they fire me”, he asks Gray. “Because they know you are more dangerous outside than inside”. Sometimes it is just one good man whose loyalty to the country that stops our democracy from failing. We have learned that again lately.
The film goes into exhaustive detail showing how it is done. Checking and rechecking, getting multiple sources, grinding it out. Though the film cuts it down to 2 hours, their investigation was ongoing for over a year. It was like a tiny thread on your sweater that you pick at until the whole sweater unravels. When the dam of silence broke it was a beautiful thing. Stories coming out every day from the media. The Dirty Trick squad, the corruption of the FBI, the CIA and the Justice Dept, the laundering of millions of dollars, the payoffs and layer by layer leading to Nixon. It was these two reporters - Metro reporters - who saw a story and just hung on to it and they brought down a President and sent his entire crew of cronies to jail. Being in college at the time and disliking Nixon intensely - even working for McGovern in the election - it was thrilling as more and more names were revealed and finally Nixon. It was a good day for America but also a warning of how fragile our democracy can be. We are learning that again.
But this isn't a documentary - it is told in dramatic fashion slowly building towards the climax - Nixon resigns. The feel of the newsroom, the tough editors demanding the reporters get it right, Bradlee was a legend - here and regarding the Pentagon Papers putting his paper on the line because he believed in his reporters. There were no bigger stars than Hoffman and Redford at the time and director Alan Pakula does a great job of making it feel like a tense mystery. Amazingly, these two reporters are still around, still asking questions, still digging up the news. They inspired a whole generation of investigative reporters who do great work.
Mark Felt : The Man Who Brought Down the
White House
Director: Peter Landesman
Year: 2017Director: Peter Landesman
Rating: 7.0
The man in the shadows in the car park of All the President’s Men was Mark Felt. Deep Throat. In that film he was played by Hal Holbrook and very little was revealed about him. In fact, neither Woodward nor Bernstein ever revealed his identity nor his position. Felt did that himself in 2005 at the age of 91 three years before his death. In 1972 when Herbert Hoover passed away and every politician in Washington D.C. sighed in relief, Felt became the number two man in the FBI and immediately destroyed all the secret files before they fell into the wrong hands. He had been in the FBI for 30 years and had been the man who passed on all the dirty secrets to Hoover. In other words, he knew everything. He was a complete straight arrow and FBI in every molecule of his body. In the opening scene he is called into a meeting with Nixon’s men and asked if he thought it was ok for them to fire Hoover and hint that the job will be his because they know he is sympathetic to this administration. He replies – gentleman you should know that Hoover knows everything anyone has done that they may not want revealed to the public. He has the information in files in his office. They decide not to. Of course, Felt does it with the great authoritative voice of Liam Neeson who portrays him in this film.
In general, the film received poor reviews and did not do great box office business. My guess is that few people knew who Mark Felt was and Watergate felt like ancient history. But if you overlay it with All the President’s Men, I think it is fascinating and riveting. In ATPM he was only a mysterious figure giving hints as where to go with their investigation – “Follow the money” – but here we get to see what he was seeing, why he became Deep Throat, his fear of what was going on, his fight against the forces that wanted to shut down the FBI from looking into it. Five men captured in the Watergate burglary. Within a day or two the FBI knew that they we ex-FBI or ex-CIA and had connections to the White House while Woodward and Bernstein were spinning their wheels trying to find out. Nixon appoints an apparatchik, Patrick Gray (Marton Csokas) to head the FBI and shut everything down. Gray gives Felt 48-hours to wrap it up. He won’t and keeps looking into it. When he realizes that the walls are closing in he begins meeting with Woodward and giving him the direction to go in. The White House suspects he may be the informer in the FBI. “So why don’t they fire me”, he asks Gray. “Because they know you are more dangerous outside than inside”. Sometimes it is just one good man whose loyalty to the country that stops our democracy from failing. We have learned that again lately.