Rewatching All the President’s Men

I was perusing the DVDs in a library when All the President’s Men caught my eye. Redford and Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein. Nixon and Watergate! Deep Throat! I pulled it from the shelf for examination. It had been at least 30-35 years since my last viewing of the 1976 film. Why not again? It might prove entertaining to see how a newspaper once led the way to bringing a corrupt President and his henchmen to justice. Those were the good ol’ days.

As I thought about the film, it also brought to mind a recent book I’d perused after finding it in a street library: Leon Jaworski’s The Right and the Power, his bestselling account of serving as Special Prosecutor in the Watergate investigation that resulted in almost 50 convictions of Nixon’s underlings, but not Tricky Dick himself. Practically everyone convicted served prison sentences, some lengthy, and much lengthier than the maniacs convicted of storming and breaching the Capitol. Jaworski was a sane Republican from Texas who put country and the Constitution over party, as if there were any other choice. Like I said, the good ol’ days.

It took a few days to getting around to watch All the President’s Men and I can report the film holds up incredibly well, is still relevant as it relates to Trump’s criminal activity while in the White House. The viewing also sent me diving into a vortex of reflection about my relationship to the movie in my Oregon City youth, and later, as a high school journalism teacher.

First of all, let’s start with ace reporter Redford wearing a tan corduroy blazer! (Maybe that’s where my obsession started). Then there the endless scenes of the reporters on the phones trying to dig up the story. Next, all the great spooky scenes in the parking garage with Deep Throat. The movie is so demanding of the intelligence of the viewer in a way I can’t remember a movie demanding in a long time. This is an action film, if you consider racing to uncover a scandal action, and I do.

All the time, you know the good guys are going to win, and you never feel that way about American politics anymore, even though Democrats run two out of the three branches of government.

As for newspapers around the country, thousands have disappeared in recent years and this development represents a serious danger for American democracy and its institutions.

It was impossible not to think of Trump and his edition of henchmen. They ran a different criminal enterprise than Nixon and his goons. The former was to enrich Trump and his family, the latter to crush Nixon’s enemies and secure his reelection. Quite a difference.

I first saw All the President’s Men in junior high, the year it came out. My mom recalls she took me to the film. I don’t remember seeing it then, but I did view it high school on VHS a few years later in a journalism class that changed the course of my life. I wanted to be Woodstein but for some reason never pursued that dream in college by majoring in journalism or writing for the college paper. I still don’t why that is.

The movie reentered my life some 15 years after high school when I started teaching high school journalism and advising newspapers. I showed the film and it didn’t seem to connect to 90s students at all. I’m sure it would bore them to death today, and I never showed it again although I kept teaching journalism for another 12 years.

Perhaps all thinking Americans should watch this film, for the history, and for the critical lessons it imparts. A President is not above the law and both parties should make that a bedrock principle. It should be the office above party, voting above party, the Constitution above party, the nation above cult.

It’s also worth watching to see how hard reporters worked to find the truth. These types are still out there, but it’s certainly not the same in the age of social media. What is?