All The President's Men (1976)

PLOT IN THE FORM OF A HAIKU
Redford and Hoffman
Solve the Watergate scandal
With lots of typing

I was on a minor Watergate kick not too long ago; I read the book this movie is based on and The Final Days and Nixonland before my kick spotlight moved onto another topic. (Right now it’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and sports figures affected by it. Interesting fact you might not realize – in addition to hockey players and football players, bobsledders and lugers [lugists? those who luge] and do skeleton also seem to be affected. They call it “sled head”.)

Anyway, it’s interesting to watch this 70’s movie in 2021. Smoking! Typewriters! Verifying sources! Rotary phones! These days, it’d be #Watergate #DNC #FollowTheMoney #DeepThroatIsALie and it would take them about two seconds to find Kenneth Dahlberg. Soundtrack would be different, too, unless everyone had mechanical keyboards. I could see Carl Bernstein having a mechanical keyboard that lit up in different colored patterns. I wonder if Ben Bradlee would make his secretary print out his emails, and then he'd write his response on them, and the secretary would have to type up his response and print it out for his review before sending it as an email. ASK ME HOW I AM FAMILIAR WITH THIS PROCESS.

I was fascinated by the Washington Post set, particularly when I learned that when it was recreated on the soundstage in California, they took pictures of everyone’s desk in DC to recreate it. If they ever had to recreate my desk, they’d need to include the four years’ worth of holiday schedules tacked to my wall and at least one bottle of fountain pen ink and a few empty Diet Pepsi bottles and a big stack of SIGN HERE tabs.

So phone calls are made and Deep Throats are contacted and doors are shut in faces and questions are asked. Bill Bryson and Babe keep track of all the names and checks and cards follow the money and eventually the truth comes out and all the higher-ups in Washington DC are found guilty or resign and NOTHING LIKE THIS EVER HAPPENS AGAIN IN US HISTORY.

EVER.