All the President’s Men. 1976. USA. Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Screenplay by William Goldman, based on the book by Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward. With Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards. 139 min.
William Goldman’s Oscar-winning screenplay follows Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward as they doggedly uncover the unscrupulous details of the Watergate political scandal that resulted in Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974. In 1972 a security guard at the Watergate apartment complex finds a door surreptitiously kept unlocked with a strip of tape; he calls the police and five burglars are arrested for breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee; Woodward and Bernstein dive into the investigation, forever changing the American political landscape—and effectively ending blind trust in our national leaders.