All the President's Men [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula turned journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling account of their Watergate investigation into one of the hit films of Bicentennial year 1976. While researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex, green Washington Post reporters/rivals Woodward (Robert Redford, who also exec produced) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) stumble on a possible connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. With the circumspect approval of executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), the pair digs deeper. Aided by a guilt-ridden turncoat bookkeeper (Jane Alexander) and the vital if cryptic guidance of Woodward's mystery source, Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" all the way to the top of the Nixon administration. Despite Deep Throat's warnings that their lives are in danger, and the reluctance of older Post editors, Woodward and Bernstein are determined to get out the story of the crime and its presidential cover-up. Once Bradlee is convinced, the final teletype impassively taps out the historically explosive results. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Features:
  • "Telling the Truth About Lies: The Making of All the President's Men"
  • "Woodward and Bernstein: Lighting the Fire"
  • "Out of the Shadows: The Man Who Was Deep Throat"
  • Commentary by Robert Redford
  • Vintage featurette: "Pressure and the Press: The Making of All the President's Men"
  • Vintage Jason Robards interview excerpt from Dinah!, hosted by Dinah Shore
  • Alan J. Pakula thrillers trailer gallery

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Adapted Screenplay - 1976 (William Goldman)
•     Won Best Art Direction - 1976 (George Jenkins, George P. Gaines)
•     Won Best Sound - 1976 (Arthur Piantadosi, Dick Alexander, Les Fresholtz, Jim Webb)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1976 (Jason Robards, Jr.)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1976 (Alan J. Pakula)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 1976 (Robert Wolfe)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1976 (Walter Coblenz)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 1976 (Jane Alexander)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1976 (Alan J. Pakula)

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 1976 (Alan J. Pakula)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 1976 (Jason Robards, Jr.)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Drama - 1976
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1976 (William Goldman)

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Director - 1976 (Alan J. Pakula)
•     Won Best Picture - 1976
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1976 (Jason Robards, Jr.)

• National Society of Film Critics

•     Won Best Picture - 1976
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1976 (Jason Robards, Jr.)

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Director - 1976 (Alan J. Pakula)
•     Won Best Picture - 1976
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1976 (Jason Robards, Jr.)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Dustin Hoffman - Carl Bernstein
       Robert Redford - Bob Woodward
       Jack Warden - Harry Rosenfeld
       Martin Balsam - Howard Simons
       Hal Holbrook - Deep Throat
       Jane Alexander - Bookkeeper
       Stephen Collins - Hugh Sloan, Jr.
       Ned Beatty - D.A. Dardis
       Penny Fuller - Sally Aiken
       John McMartin - Foreign Editor
       Robert Walden - Donald Segretti
       Frank Wills - Frank Wills
       Allyn Ann McLerie - Carolyn Abbot
       Anthony Mannino - Arresting Officer

• Director:

  Alan J. Pakula

• Producer:

  Jon Boorstin, Walter Coblenz, Robert Redford

• Screenwriter:

  William Goldman

• Book Author:

  Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward

• Cinematographer:

  Gordon Willis

• Composer (Music Score):

  David Shire

• Editor:

  Robert Wolfe, C. Timothy O'Meara

• Production Designer:

  George Jenkins

• Set Designer:

  George P. Gaines

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Jim Webb, Richard Alexander, Les Fresholtz, Arthur Piantadosi

• First Assistant Director:

  Art Levinson, Kim Kurumada

REVIEW:

• Following Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book, director Alan Pakula and scripter William Goldman make this film a dynamic detective yarn, even though everyone already knows the ending, by covering only the reporters' investigation of the scandal and keeping the administration criminals offscreen. The reporters may be able to expose the truth this time, but who knows what other government conspiracies remain in the shadows. With a heightened realist style that recreated the Washington Post newsroom down to its garbage, All the President's Men became a popular and critical success, indicating that the public had not yet tired of the Watergate story -- at least when it featured Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Despite winning several critics' prizes, All the President's Men lost the Best Picture Oscar to Rocky, although it did pick up awards for Robards, Goldman, and its meticulous art direction. Cannily appealing to both an audience's desire for a "happy" ending and the 1970s knowledge of that ending's limitations, All the President's Men told a true-life suspense tale about the triumph of a free press, even though what Woodward and Bernstein exposed about Richard Nixon's White House was hardly reassuring. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi