Watergate will go down forever in United States history as a major stain on the political system. Watergate is known as one of the biggest political corruption stories in the world. The scandal started with a break in and ended with the resignation of then president Nixon. There was much secrecy and deceit in this story, which played out like something directly out of a crime novel. An epic conspiracy with ties all the way up to the White House.
These events took place in the 1970’s and set forth a media firestorm. The Watergate scandal was exposed to the public by the Washington Post. The story of journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward would go down in history, as these two men fought for freedom of speech and press, all while risking their own lives to break one of the largest scandals in history.
The Hollywood film “All the President’s Men” tells the true story of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. Bernstein and Woodward were both journalists for the Washington Post. They were partnered together to cover the Watergate break-in. What started as a story with minor importance soon blew up into the investigation of the century.
The film starts off with a security guard finding duct tape on a door at the Watergate complex. The security guard ends up calling for police backup when he realizes something is not right. The police soon come and arrest five burglars. The Next day news reporter Bob Woodward played by Robert Redford is sent down to the courthouse to follow up on the story. The story soon escalates as Woodward finds out that the five burglars had surveillance equipment and were bugging the complex. Woodward soon discovers that there are connections to the CIA and that there may be more to the story than meets the eye.
Soon after Woodward is paired up with journalist Carl Bernstein played by Dustin Hoffman. The two journalists slowly uncover a web of lies. With the help of a secret informant known as “Deep Throat” the two journalists are thrown into a pool of deceit as they discover the truth about the scandal. Most shocking of all is who the scandal leads to, then president, Richard Nixon.
“All the President’s Men” is an important film. It tells an important story in history, while also raising much discussion. Most shocking of all perhaps is that the events in the film also resonate today and throughout history. Recently many of us were aware of the Edward Snowden leaks. Snowden who risked his own life to exploit a scandal involving the American public and the NSA. Snowden believed so much in the American Freedoms he risked his own safety to leak secret information. Snowden was forced to flee the country and never return or face certain persecution. Much like Snowden, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein believed in freedom and risked their own safety to expose the truth.
Woodward and Bernstein soon faced off against the most powerful man in the world. Nixon and his administration discussed at length how to use agencies to retaliate on reporters. Clearly many freedoms were at risk here as freedom of speech and freedom of press were soon attacked by the government trying to hide their corruption. The resiliency of these two journalists broke the scandal to the public, forever changing history.
Many readers know how the story ends. Many of you may even had lived through the actual scandal. Many readers may have never even heard of this story. The film “All the President’s Men,” will forever go down as a classic story. It involves espionage, secrecy and scandal. The story plays out like a modern-day detective movie. The film also gives a scary look at our modern world. It signifies the importance of journalism and standing up for constitutional freedoms.
In the pivotal ending scene, Ben Bradlee played by Jason Robards says “That freedom of speech, freedom of press and perhaps even the future of the country are at stake.” This line clearly expresses the high stakes that are at play throughout the film. It summarizes the message precisely and clearly. It makes you wonder, what is going on in our modern world currently? While scandals are unfortunately common in our society, it’s up to journalists and reporters to expose these stories. “All the President’s Men” shows that freedoms are at risk for not being able to stand up to tyrants and worse all politicians that were elected to lead by the public. Who knows what the United States would look like today if this scandal never came to light. Perhaps these freedoms would be more so at risk.
We are lucky to live in a society that has many freedoms. It’s important to protect free speech, and freedom of the press to allow for stories and opinions to be heard. This film is an important piece of cinema history. It depicts true events and reflects on our modern world. With many recent events, such as the now famous Russian hacking scandal in the media. You can quickly link the events of this film to ongoing news.
“All the President’s Men” comes highly recommended. It keeps your attention throughout its two plus hour run time. The story unfolds slowly but it keeps you intrigued. It educated me more so on the events of the Watergate scandal. More importantly the film made me analyze current media stories and how important journalism is in the modern world. If you like films or shows such as “Kill the Messenger” or “Newsroom” than you will love this film.
