01/16: All The President's Men

I watched this movie for the first time 3 weeks ago, and I was well aware of the hype of it being one of the greatest movies of the 70s. Especially one based on a true story. Side note: I bought this around Black Friday when Amazon had a great deal on Digibooks, and this movie happened to be available on them. This movie was about the genesis of the investigations of Nixon and Watergate.

So, what do I think? I actually didn't think it was bad nor was it that good. Here you got two of Hollywood's all-time stars, Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, sharing the top bill. But unlike roles they have done, these seem more calming than ever. These guys basically are just people who go to work everyday and try to accomplish their employers' goals and get the story on time. Yes, they both portray journalists in a newspaper office. Redford's character is the rookie, having been employed at the place shortly while Hoffman's character been writing for the paper more than a decade. At first, the two men butt heads as Hoffman seems very threatened by Redford. Eventually they learn to work as a team (slowly but surely). One great observation about the newsroom: times have really changed since the mid-70s as obviously, typewriters are so obselete that even 80 year olds don't even use them. Think about the misery whenever someone types an error! Lots of indoor smoking (especially by Hoffman) was notable.

I guess one of the things that makes me like this movie is there's really no love story here. In movies, we could use a little less love stories, if you know what I mean! Plus these guys are basically conspiracy theorists and they spend the entire movie trying to get the truth, prove something, make a point and silence those who trespass against them. Those are just the elements that make this movie stand out. Despite of all this, I'm not really sure what made this movie 'Oscar-material'. Maybe its the actors and their performance(s), I don't know.

I would check it out, also for the historical part of it.

My rating: 7 out of 10