“All the President’s Men” is Robert Redford’s gripping telling of the investigation of the Watergate affair by Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. It is based on their book. The film is a tense political thriller that bustles along showing the subtle nuances of investigative reporting as the two men chase leads, connect dots and put pressure on those involved and their subordinates. There are notable parallels to recent events that make it seem contemporary as well as helpfully hindsighted. It was a page in history that was turned too quickly before it was entirely read. It pays to revisit it.
In one scene, Woodward is in his apartment. An old source has refused to discuss anything with him about the Watergate burglary. He gets his newspaper from the doorstep. As he flips it open, a message falls out. It reads: ” Do not write or try to contact me by telephone again. If you must talk to me, put the red flag in the pot on your balcony. If I want to talk to you, I will leave a note on page 20 of your New York Times. Take precautions against being followed.” After placing the red flag, we see him driving in his car, stopping and hailing a taxi and then meeting his source in a parking garage. He tells the source he will be “on deep background,” meaning his information will not be attributed even to an anonymous source but will be used to seek out other sources to corroborate it or other information. The informant will come to be called Deep Throat. His identity only became known years after the movie was made.
Deep Throat’s advice to Woodward is to “follow the money.” It is following the money that implicates Attorney General John Mitchell, Nixon’s highest aides and finally Nixon himself. Few investigators in the press and legal system, however, were willing to follow the money far beyond Nixon. There were deeper implications of the intelligence and business communities (both of which are touched upon briefly). Both were subsequently downplayed. Bernstein and Woodward themselves wrote of a hope for restoration after Nixon. Nixon’s resignation brought a sense of relief many were eager for. The Senate committee hearings ceased to be broadcast when corporate connections were discussed. Illegal donors were inexplicably charged with “non-willing contributions,” turning their felonies into misdemeanors.
In the film, a Republican woman says that the scandal is “beyond party politics,” which is ironic given the aftermath, as attention was diverted from patterns shared between the parties, lasting mechanisms and values, to focus on the ousting of a president. This irony is accentuated given the Democratic party leadership’s recent implication in an organized attack against one of its own presidential candidates. The bipartisan aspects of the Watergate scandal were precisely what were minimized. Deep Throat’s final appearance evokes the revelatory final speech of “Network,” as he tells Woodward, “it leads everywhere.” The real cover-up is not of Watergate alone but of expansive covert operations. These ranged from widespread surveillance, burglaries and money laundering to the secret bombing of Cambodia for over a year. He tells Woodward their lives are in danger.
