Ivana Aragon
2nd period Government
All the President’s Villains
All the President’s Men is a film in which two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein, work together, in hopes of revealing the works of the Watergate Scandal. Throughout
the film they interview numerous people in order to figure out the truth and real evidence for a top
story for the Washington Post. Of course they end up revealing one of the biggest government scandals
in the US government. In doing so, most of the main characters end up going to jail and Nixon resigns
from office before congress impeaches him. I believe this film was rather affective and made many clear
points of the actual scandal.
Some positive things I found in the film would be the characters, sound effects, and emphasis of
the work of the characters. Some examples of all of these are the characters of Dustin Hoffman and
Robert Redford, I think these two actors did a phenomenal job with the role. This also ties into how the
roles were played. I think that the whole layout of the investigation was rather useful. The film and
characters emphasized just how hard it was to actually break this case and they didn’t stop until the
answers were found. A sound effect that is burned into my brain after watching the film is the
typewriters. Since the beginning of the film that’s all you herd were Bernstein and Woodward working
diligently on their typewriters from sunrise to sundown trying to get the story done. Again, this sound
effect emphasized the work these men put into the case.
Some negative things I found throughout the film were the clarity. Being that it was an older film
some scenes may have been too dark to see. Sound also relates to this, at some parts it was hard to
understand the characters. Other than those two minor defects I didn’t really find that many negative
things about this film.
Throughout the film all the characters were afraid to reveal the truth and evidence, in fear that
they would lose their job. In that aspect, the film is trying to show how corrupt the government power
was. Basically the government’s power was so corrupt these people’s freedom of speech and rights
were taken away. Another theme of the film would be freedom of press. Obviously, any correct and legit
information Bernstein and Woodward received they were going to post it. When Deep Throat tells them
their lives could be in danger because of what they were posting, their freedom of press was being
taken away, and all because the government was trying to hide their mistake.
As I stated before, the main characters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, did a phenomenal
job with the film. From the beginning they were working together to figure the case out. I like how they
plan out what they’ll say when they are going to interview someone. For example, when they went to
interview the bookkeeper and Woodward told Bernstein no I’ll say we already know who P is then we’ll
find out who the other letter is. They were both very intelligent men and I thought it was rather clever
how they came up with ideas on how to break the case.
I loved this film and I learned a lot from it. The movie emphasized most points to help the
viewer better understand just how corrupt our government was. Not only did I learn something from it,
but I found the film rather entertaining. I would give it five stars out of five stars.