All the President's Men

                Just as with The Killing Fields, All the President’s Men is a film I decided to take off my movie list and get from the library instead.  I was especially motivated to do this when I saw on my movie list this film suddenly had a very long wait.  It went from no wait for forever to very long wait practically overnight.  This change of status made me very curious as to what could possibly be in this film.          

                It is the 1970s and all sorts of questions are surrounding the Richard Nixon presidency.  Watergate has happened, but the public does not know the full extent of what the break-in means.  Bob Woodward (Robert Redford), a journalist, senses there is more to the break-in story than is being revealed.  So, he writes an article about it.  An article that is then commandeered by another journalist, Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), who believes the article was not written well enough.  Of course, this overtaking does not exactly please Woodward, but he accepts Bernstein’s changes and they decide to work together, something their bosses greatly encourage later on.

                With so little information, and no one thinking that Watergate is a story of importance, there is not much for Woodward and Bernstein to go on at first.  To find out the truth of the matter, they must use secret, private sources, and questionable methods to get the information they need.  With every turn and every article they write, Woodward and Bernstein are told they are pretty much nuts for what they are doing.  Yet that does not deter either one of them.  With the support of their bosses, Woodward and Bernstein keep investigating and keep pushing until the very end.  As this film is based upon a true story, one has to wonder, with everyone else doubting there was a story to be told, had Woodward and Bernstein not worked as hard as they did, would the truth of Watergate have ever come out?

                As much as I appreciate what Woodward and Bernstein did, there were times when I was not too fond of how they got their information.  Some of the people they talked to were truly 100% afraid for their wellbeing if they were found to have even been seen in the presence of these two journalists.  Yet Woodward and Bernstein kept pushing despite the person’s fear.  Quite often they even resorted to trickery to get the information they needed.  The problem is, had Woodward and Bernstein not used these tactics, would the end result have been the same?  I honestly don’t know.

                This leads me to think about journalists today and whether or not they use the same tactics that Woodward and Bernstein did.  With so much going on in the world right now, I can’t imagine it’s easy being a journalist.  There are so many things to cover and so fast, I’m sure it’s hard to keep up.

                However, despite all that journalists have to cover, I still feel there aren’t enough tough questions being asked.  I’m talking about the really tough questions.  The ones people need answers to so they can go about their lives.  With so much going on every day, and so many important things in limbo, I feel that far too many issues get only their surface scratched.  The truth and motivations behind what is being done are allowed to remain hidden, while those in charge at every level go about their business as though there is nothing of concern, leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces of their decisions and deal with the repercussions.  It is at these all to frequent moments that I think of Woodward and Bernstein and wonder, who will be our Woodward and Bernstein of today?