Welcome to the Next Picture Show, a movie of the week podcast devoted to a classic film inspired by a new release.

I'm Scott Tobias. I'm here with Tasha Robinson, Keith Phipps, and behind the scenes, producer Genevieve Koski.

Along with Rachel Handler, who will join us for a future episode, we were the editorial team at the Dissolve, the late lamented film site from Pitchfork Media.

We've designed the next picture show to carry some of the spirit of that site over to this podcast. Tasha, please explain. Well, one of the core principles that guided the Dissolve was the idea that no film exists in a vacuum. There's history and context in every new release, and part of the joy being a cinephile is making those connections. One signature feature at The Dissolve was the movie of the week, where we'd focus on a single film through a keynote essay, a group discussion forum, and a secondary essay. The next picture show is our attempt to combine movie of the week with the movies of the day. Each episode will look at a new movie through the prism of an old movie, which will give us a chance to see what those two films have in common and what they say about the cinematic landscape. Scott, tell us how we're doing that this episode. Well, Tom McCarthy's spotlight is getting lots of acclaim right now for its treatment of the Boston Globe's investigation into the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal in its victims. That inspired us to devote this week's The Next Picture Show to one of the Fourth Estate's finest couple of hours on celluloid. Alan J. Pekula's, 1976, All the President's Man. Yeah. Mayor? Mercy. I think I got a door. I've just, I got it. Right? I just talked to him. I just hung up from him. Bernstein, listen, it goes all the way to stands. What are you talking about? It goes all the way to stands. He gave the check to stands for the committee to re-elect.

Did he say that?

He said it. I've got it on my notes. It's down on record, Bernstein. That money winds up in the back of the Watergate Burglar? Yes. Fantastic! I'm coming home! Okay. The idea behind the next picture show is to break down each discussion into two parts,

one focusing primarily on the past and the other on how it relates to the present.

So in this episode, we'll break down the journalistic approach to all the president's men and the value of telling a story about finding a story.

Then in episode two, which will drop later this week,

we'll go deeper into all the president's men and how it relates to spotlight in our forum conversation, digging into its style, themes, politics, and lasting impact on the movies.

And finally, we'll end with your next picture show when we discuss some of our recent film-related experiences that should be on your radar.

So grab your notepad in a pack of smokes.

We're heading back to the Washington Post Newsroom circa 1972.

All the President's Men was released in April, 1976, two years after the publication of the book on which it's based by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

The book also came out the same year Richard Nixon resigned from office due to the fallout from Woodward and Bernstein's reporting.

The turnaround time was remarkably fast, which seems appropriate for a movie about journalists who are used to working on tight deadlines. Woodward and Bernstein surely had no idea that their investigation would bring down a president. They just started with an unusual burglary and kept tugging on threads until the whole operation unraveled. The movie, All the President's Men, like Spotlight, takes the same approach. By following Woodward and Bernstein's reporting, as one nugget led to the next, the film was justifiably confident

it would say something profound about the country without making any big statements.

It's the classic procedural. By following the characters as they're gathering information,

we get a feel for the world around them. And that world is the true subject to the film.

All the President's Men is an affirm subject of the film. All the President's

meant is an affirmation of the importance and vitality of the fourth estate, but more than that,

it's about the move that settled in over the country. None of us were alive to experience it,

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