All The President's Men
This is going to be the first of two oldies that i watched recently. So check back and enjoy!
All The President’s Men
This is a classic film that I have watched any number of times. I own the video somewhere, and have read both the original book, and the sequel that followed, Final Days. Both are naturally important books, but one should be wary of leaping into them expecting some sort of action-packed jamboree. The truth is that they are both very telegraphic in their style, very good, but at times they read like overlong newspaper articles (note, I say newspaper rather than magazine, a very different kettle of fish. If you don’t know what I mean, go pick up the New Yorker and the Washington Post and tell me if they are written in the same way. Go ahead. I dare you).
But I digress; the film is excellent and you should see it if you have not. Not only is it a tense thriller, but the story is also real. It keeps you excited until the very end, which is impressive considering that it is simply about a couple of guys running around talking to people.
One thing that did strike me as amusing about the whole enterprise, is the reminder that this film is of Bob Woodward’s humble beginnings. Even more amusing is to see where co-writer at the time Carl Bernstein now languishes, i.e. nowhere. One wonders how bothered he is that his former partner has now been elevated to the position of governmental historian of record, while he apparently sits around growing fat. The other interesting thing that I drew from this screening is that we now know that Deep Throat was W. Mark Felt, and it was interesting to see how the FBI was so often the first agency mentioned when Woodward was talking about what Deep Throat had told him to others, and how the FBI friend of Bernstein’s got angry that their reports were ending up in the papers verbatim. There were many other such similar references, though i suppose i could just be reading into things.
Survey says: excellent film. Worth watching every time. Fine holiday fun.
All The President’s Men
This is a classic film that I have watched any number of times. I own the video somewhere, and have read both the original book, and the sequel that followed, Final Days. Both are naturally important books, but one should be wary of leaping into them expecting some sort of action-packed jamboree. The truth is that they are both very telegraphic in their style, very good, but at times they read like overlong newspaper articles (note, I say newspaper rather than magazine, a very different kettle of fish. If you don’t know what I mean, go pick up the New Yorker and the Washington Post and tell me if they are written in the same way. Go ahead. I dare you).
But I digress; the film is excellent and you should see it if you have not. Not only is it a tense thriller, but the story is also real. It keeps you excited until the very end, which is impressive considering that it is simply about a couple of guys running around talking to people.
One thing that did strike me as amusing about the whole enterprise, is the reminder that this film is of Bob Woodward’s humble beginnings. Even more amusing is to see where co-writer at the time Carl Bernstein now languishes, i.e. nowhere. One wonders how bothered he is that his former partner has now been elevated to the position of governmental historian of record, while he apparently sits around growing fat. The other interesting thing that I drew from this screening is that we now know that Deep Throat was W. Mark Felt, and it was interesting to see how the FBI was so often the first agency mentioned when Woodward was talking about what Deep Throat had told him to others, and how the FBI friend of Bernstein’s got angry that their reports were ending up in the papers verbatim. There were many other such similar references, though i suppose i could just be reading into things.
Survey says: excellent film. Worth watching every time. Fine holiday fun.
posted by Raff @ 9:18 AM
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