The Blockbusters That Shaped Us: Style & Structure in ‘All the President’s Men’

A poignant piece of historical film, All the President’s Men is preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Or in the Robert Redford/Dustin Hoffman-led political thriller’s case: All three.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula, also known for To Kill a Mockingbird and The Pelican Brief, All the President’s Men is a definitive look into 1970’s American journalism. The film puts a singular lens onto the pursuit of truth against all odds, with plenty of lessons for screenwriters of the historical political thriller genre.

Let’s not pass over the fact that while it seems like everything is based on a book these days…it always has been. All the President’s Men is based on the 1974 eponymous book by Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

Going into a watch of the film, one should step into the mindset that it’s of a certain era culturally, and stylistically of a time when story had more time to breathe, structure was still being invented, and freedom of speech wasn’t just the topic of the film.

This was back in the day when writing down a conversation with pen on paper was ‘on record’.  And that word was taken as reliable truth.

It’s a novel concept.

Cinematographer Gordon Willis’ long shots create an unhurried approach that infuses the film inherent tension. We just can’t wait to see what happens—literally—as the scene is drawn out.

The opening robbery at the Watergate complex.

The many scenes of Woodward tap-tap-tapping away at his typewriter while real footage plays on television screens in the foreground or on the radio in the back of Nixon’s progress to President of the United States.

This technique especially pays off in the following scenes:

There’s nothing flashy in these scenes. It’s all very…natural. Blocking used to underscore story.

Tension comes from the dialogue and action: Redford running, believing “they” are after him post meeting with Deep Throat, Hoffman counting on the phone waiting for a Source to not hang up in confirmation of the facts. It’s the way he counts…you lean forward and hold your breath with him. It’s the kind of character intimacy and filmmaking conventions reserved for horror films these days.

And it’s so, so effective. Our eyes glued to the screen just in case we might blink and miss something. Because inevitably, “something” does happen. And when it does, it’s quick conversation and scored by David Shire. In fact, there’s no notable music at all until a quarter of the way into the film.

This all feeds into the film’s structure. The newsroom goes from tedious to comforting. The place we can’t wait to get back to and ‘dig in’ with our journalistic comrades.

All the President’s Men expects a certain intelligence of the audience. The plot isn’t reiterated, though the character goals are in a way that feels natural to the story during the team’s editorial meeting at the midpoint of the movie at a time when both the editor and the audience are wondering the same thing: is the pursuit still worth it?

Robert Redford was a highlight of the ‘70s. Not only did he make great films, he was a “godfather for independent film as founder of the Sundance Film Institute” as published in Variety upon his death. His legacy is literally shining a light on great cinema.

Dustin Hoffman was already a household name after The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy. Redford sought him out himself to play fellow journalist Carl Bernstein in All the President’s Men. Casting those two leading men made a certain statement.

So did the loud absence of Katherine Graham as a character in the film. Legend is, Graham, the Post’s publisher during the Watergate Scandal, asked Redford to be omitted, for better or worse, despite her advocating for her journalists Woodward and Bernstein in real life. In fact, I don’t recall spotting any female until at least twenty minutes in, and in the background of course. Ironic, considering there was a female at the helm during the actual scandal. Later sources are female, and share more screen time with the leading men. But the film is definitely…’reflective’ of the times in terms of sex and race representation.

What was made utterly clear is the journalists’ relentless search for the truth. Like the movie itself, an ideal of the past amidst social media “stories” and the dawn of AI “truths”.

Even then, during that turning point editorial meeting at the 50-minute mark, the question’s raised, “Why is no one else covering this story?”

Right up there with the question seven minutes later, “Why did the Republicans do it?”

And the gut vs. facts debate between Woodward and Bernstein in the car over questioning a source on her stoop that results in “Where’s the story?”

Though the answer could be the line “The way they’re not talking is unnatural.” I’m not entirely sure most of the quadrants that make up modern audiences would sit through the amount of tap-tapping on the typewriter, note-taking, and newsroom research All the President’s Men features to get at those answers.

The film operates in a time where a person’s word was law. If a reporter wrote it down, sure they fact-checked, but there was no recording other than pen to paper. It’s a beautiful thing, that kind of trust.

I’ll be honest, I had to Google if something was wrong with my version of the film, as it ended so abruptly like a TikTok reel that forces you to watch it all over again to ensure you didn’t miss something. But no, it wasn’t a technical glitch. Though TikTokers could learn a few things from this kind of film.

All the President’s Men shows yet again how style and structure can underscore theme, elevating the message through medium. The film was about the characters’ journey, there was no fluff, no other personal pursuits or wounds to explore, just cold hard facts. When that search for the facts was over.

So was the film.

That could’ve been a documentary then, you say? Maybe. But there’s something about fiction that makes the medicine go down, no?