Having recently watched Frost/Nixon, I was prompted into my once-decadely re-watching of All The President's Men.
This time, I really noticed how influential it's been on two television series in particular:
1. The X-Files.
Obviously, the whole Deep Throat thing, meeting in a deserted underground car park, never getting anything more than a cryptic hint here or a nudge in the right direction there, then a screech of tyres, you look round, and he's gone.... but also, when Woodward and Bernstein are reading through a list of CREEP names, they pause on the surname 'Scully' and say it twice...
2. The Wire
The look and feel of the newspaper office, for a start (Washington Post = Baltimore Sun), plus the whole very dry, methodical, unglamorous, follow-the-money type of detective work ('Woodstein' = Lester Freamon), and also the way it's so fucking difficult to follow. In fact, it's even drier than The Wire in that respect. In The Wire, we at least get the occasional shot of a photograph being pinned to the cork board (literally putting names to faces). In ATPM, it's just a bewildering sequence of names: some hapless local money-launderer who flips up to some CREEP member, and so on, until you get inside The White House. For example, unless I'm mistaken, we never actually see Haldeman (the big prize at the end of the chain) depicted.
Criticisms: well, that, for a start. I'm not an idiot, I don't need everything spelt out, but - as I said halfway into Series 1 of The Wire, for god's sake throw us a bone.
Secondly, the last five minutes felt like Pakula had run out of film. One minute, Woodward and bernstein's Watergate story looks like crumbling, and the Washington Post is embattled and discredited. The next, we see that electronic typewriter hammering out bulletins that such-and-such has been found guilty, and someone else, and someone else, until Nixon resigns. Would have been good to see how that house of cards actually toppled, after we've invested so much time in watching the slow build-up.
Still, one of my all-time favourite films. I love watching most Seventies cinema in general, whether good or bad, purely because of the grey, grainy look of the lighting and the film stock, the shabby charisma of America itself at that time, and the whole atmosphere of the era. But this is definitely one of the greats.
You know who's the star, for me? Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee, exuding calm authority as he pulls the reins on 'Woodstein' only to make sure their story is watertight (i.e. actually doing them a favour), enabling rather than hindering. A subtle and restrained performance.
This time, I really noticed how influential it's been on two television series in particular:
1. The X-Files.
Obviously, the whole Deep Throat thing, meeting in a deserted underground car park, never getting anything more than a cryptic hint here or a nudge in the right direction there, then a screech of tyres, you look round, and he's gone.... but also, when Woodward and Bernstein are reading through a list of CREEP names, they pause on the surname 'Scully' and say it twice...
2. The Wire
The look and feel of the newspaper office, for a start (Washington Post = Baltimore Sun), plus the whole very dry, methodical, unglamorous, follow-the-money type of detective work ('Woodstein' = Lester Freamon), and also the way it's so fucking difficult to follow. In fact, it's even drier than The Wire in that respect. In The Wire, we at least get the occasional shot of a photograph being pinned to the cork board (literally putting names to faces). In ATPM, it's just a bewildering sequence of names: some hapless local money-launderer who flips up to some CREEP member, and so on, until you get inside The White House. For example, unless I'm mistaken, we never actually see Haldeman (the big prize at the end of the chain) depicted.
Criticisms: well, that, for a start. I'm not an idiot, I don't need everything spelt out, but - as I said halfway into Series 1 of The Wire, for god's sake throw us a bone.
Secondly, the last five minutes felt like Pakula had run out of film. One minute, Woodward and bernstein's Watergate story looks like crumbling, and the Washington Post is embattled and discredited. The next, we see that electronic typewriter hammering out bulletins that such-and-such has been found guilty, and someone else, and someone else, until Nixon resigns. Would have been good to see how that house of cards actually toppled, after we've invested so much time in watching the slow build-up.
Still, one of my all-time favourite films. I love watching most Seventies cinema in general, whether good or bad, purely because of the grey, grainy look of the lighting and the film stock, the shabby charisma of America itself at that time, and the whole atmosphere of the era. But this is definitely one of the greats.
You know who's the star, for me? Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee, exuding calm authority as he pulls the reins on 'Woodstein' only to make sure their story is watertight (i.e. actually doing them a favour), enabling rather than hindering. A subtle and restrained performance.
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