The untold story of ‘All the President’s Men’
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2022
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fifty years ago today, five men broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, located in the posh Watergate building in D.C. Nobody knew it at the time, but the break-in was the first in a series of events that spiraled into the Watergate scandal, and eventually, the downfall of President Richard M. Nixon.
For many people, their memories of this event have become encapsulated in a movie: the iconic 1976 film “All the President’s Men.” Based on the book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the film follows the pair as they dig into the break-in and crack open the scandal, tracing the source of the burglary back to the White House.
Ann Hornaday, The Post’s film critic, calls the movie a metonym for Watergate — a stand-in for this entire period in history — “that from the moment it opened seemed to fuse seamlessly with private memory and collective myth.”
Today, guest host and media reporter Elahe Izadi talks with Ann about what it means for a film to function in this way. And, we hear a dramatization of a deleted scene from an early draft of the screenplay, as Ann reveals that the classic we know almost didn’t exist.
Read more:
Film critic Ann Hornaday explains how “All the President’s Men” went from buddy flick to masterpiece in her Washington Post Magazine story.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | But evening, we have a mystery story out of Washington. |
| 0:07.0 | Fifty years ago today, a break-in went awry. |
| 0:11.0 | Five people have been arrested and charged with breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic |
| 0:14.4 | National Committee in the middle of the night. |
| 0:16.8 | Those headquarters were located in the Watergate building. |
| 0:19.7 | The bird was forced to steer well door, then taped its latch open. |
| 0:23.5 | At first the police found nothing, then they spied five men crouching behind some desks. |
| 0:29.0 | They were caught red-handed, photographing documents and trying to bug the offices. |
| 0:34.7 | Nobody knew it at the time, but this break-in was the first in a series of events that |
| 0:39.2 | spiraled into the Watergate scandal, and eventually the downfall of an American president. |
| 0:49.8 | If you're like me, your mental image of this moment comes from a movie. |
| 0:55.8 | The first time I saw all the presidents' men, I was in journalism school. |
| 1:15.0 | I remember feeling like, wow, this is how journalism really works at the highest levels. |
| 1:20.6 | It can hold the most powerful people in the world accountable. |
| 1:24.4 | And today, my dad is proud that I work at the Washington Post. |
| 1:28.2 | In part because of how this movie shaped his perception of this place. |
| 1:33.4 | And so over the years, like you said, it's been used in journalism schools everywhere |
| 1:40.8 | to teach the practice of daily journalism, but it's also sort of turned into almost |
| 1:47.0 | a metonym for Watergate. |
| 1:50.7 | Once and Hornet Day, the Washington Post's chief film critic, and what she means is that |
| 1:55.5 | this movie has become a stand-in for this entire period in history. |
| 2:07.3 | All the presidents' men is considered one of the greatest films ever made, but it's also |
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