Creatures of the Night
All the President’s Men no longer serves the same function it did when the film was first released in April 1976. At that time the country was still reeling from the impeachment of President Nixon, and the details of the Watergate scandal that brought down his administration were fresh in everyone’s minds. The film was an exciting biopic, an adaptation of journalists Carl Bernstein’s and Bob Woodward’s book which told how their investigations of a burglary at DNC headquarters snowballed over several years into the uncovering of criminal corruption within the White House.
Forty-three years have passed, and the pain and disillusionment first felt during Watergate has borne a jaded pile of decades that have given us more of the same and worse. The details of Watergate have faded from our collective consciousness and now serve as quasi-fictional elements within the film’s plot. But the sound of footsteps echoing in a deserted parking garage, the stricken look on people’s faces when questioned by our reporters, are powerful reminders that the horror of that time is still with us. All the President’s Men has turned into a Val Lewton-style thriller of shadows and mist, taking us back to that frightening moment when we first saw the monster.
All the President’s Men is available free with membership on Netflix and Amazon Prime, for rent streaming via YouTube Premium, Apple, and Vudu, and on Blu-ray and DVD from Warner Brothers.