Delayed Reaction: All the President's Men

The Pitch: You remember Watergate, right? It happened, like 2-3 years ago. It sounds like a good movie idea.

Did Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford really not get Oscar nominations for this? That doesn't seem possible. I decided to look into that and realized that this was the same year as Network which managed 2 nominations in the lead actor field, not to mention Stallone for Rocky, which won Best Picture, and Robert De Niro for Taxi Driver. In fact, the only nominee I didn't recognize was Giancarlo Giannini for Seven Beauties. Had the Hoffman and Redford roles been combined, a Lead Actor nomination would've been a lock. They must've split their odds, because other people were nominated from All the President's Men. In fact, Jason Robards was the only non-Network actor to win an award that night*.

*It's taking everything I've got to not go into a rant about how I don't get all the Network love.

It was impossible for me to separate this in my mind from Spotlight. It should be the other way around since this came first, but it happens. There's something romantic about the grizzled newspaper writer. Always on the beat, always chasing a new lead. Like police, without the resources. Find me a newspaper editor with rolled up sleeves, and I guarantee that's someone who is going to put in some work. I don't even care if that's the was newspaper people really are like. I've bought into the notion and, when done well, movies about them are pretty entertaining. Hell, even The Paper was engaging.

I do think the movie plays differently depending on your familiarity with the Watergate scandal. I know the basics, but not much. This film came out a couple years after it and throws a lot of names and facts at you. It was work keeping up with the names and details of the investigation. I like when a movie doesn't spoonfeed the information. I am curious if a lot of this was assumed knowledge at the time for anyone going into the movie or if people in 1976 were similarly being educated.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend