Anyone want to watch/discuss "All the Presidents's Men"?

Cafe Society
21

As one who lived in the DC area and watched the real stuff happening as it unfolded, I LOVED that film. It was dead on accurate in almost every detail, including especially how frightening it was gradually becoming back then, if you weren’t a Nixon supporter.

Comparing it all to Trump and the events today, I at least am not seeing the same stuff, as some have liked to imagine. Nixon was not a self-deluded prima donna with no concept of reality. He was an experienced and hardened international politician who knew exactly what he was doing and why at all times. The Watergate break in and the ensuing coverup wasn’t due to silly people doing things to make a few extra million bucks on the side, it was conceived of as a necessary part of winning control of the United States Government, in order to conduct a specific agenda.

22

Great movie! I first saw it in college and was mesmerized. Scrappy reporters take on the White House, and win. I love how it builds and builds and builds towards the end. Redford, when he did the Captain America movie a few years ago, said one of the things he liked about the script was that it had the same Seventies political-thriller quality of ATPM.

23

Great movie, one of my favorites. They don’t make films like this anymore. Come to think, they don’t make journalists like this anymore, either.

24

I went to journalism school and somehow have managed to miss this movie. I mean I know it exists, and the book, but haven’t done either.

I am queuing it up on Amazon right now. Be back in a bit :slight_smile:

25

VERY much looking forward to your comments! When did you go to journalism school?

26

Nice documentary about the making of the movie with interviews with the real people and a look back and how is it that a lot of lessons have been forgotten.

All the President's Men, Revisited

“Third rate burglary attempt”? When it was described like that is because they got caught, as Carl Bernstein put it, when the administration called it that, it was a big sign to him and Woodward that something there was rotten because early in their investigation there were clear signs that the plumbers were in the payroll of Nixon’s men at least.

27

Cinemax (or maybe Starz) just aired it last night. I am sure it was not a coincidence given the current situation.

28

Oooo, thanks for that link!

29

I urge everyone to watch this documentary. Just the opening shots of Nixon (for real) making his resignation speech…holy shit. Nixon was a crook, but Trump doesn’t have the character or gonads to make the gutsy, dignified speech that Nixon did.

The lessons have indeed been forgotten. Very timely.

30

I just remembered the ending, with Woodward and Bernstein writing the story as a TV in the background shows Nixon being sworn in for the second term. And then the sequence of teletype headlines showing the rest of the story.

31

This documentary is riveting. The snippets of Nixon that they play from the tapes he made of everything that was said in the Oval office sound a lot like Trump-- the paranoia, declaring everyone who is against him The Enemy and saying we’re “at war” with them. Nixon was not one to forgive and forget–he held long-term grudges.

They’re showing a good chunk of John Dean’s testimony. I remember watching that all four days. I was a newlywed (in my first marriage) and working part-time, so I was home and glued to my TV. With the easy and ready access to media now, it may be hard for some to picture people standing around the TV department at Sears watching John Dean’s testimony. His delivery was so precise and detailed and damning. It was high, real-life drama.

The Chairman of the Committee asked Dean how the committee is supposed to resolve the situation when Dean says one thing and Nixon says something different but Nixon is not there testifying or subject to cross-examination? Dean said he believed the truth would come out. But get this: it was unthinkable that the President-- even Nixon-- would lie. Unthinkable. Now the President lies every single time he opens his mouth.

Details of The Saturday Night Massacre: Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox asked Nixon to turn over eight tapes from the secret taping system. On Saturday, October 20, 1973, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox, and he refused and resigned. Then Nixon ordered the Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox and he refused and resigned. Then Nixon ordered Robert Bork, the number three person in the Justice Department, to fire Cox and he did it.

This is when the public outcry for impeachment and Nixon’s resignation began to gather steam. But at first Nixon refused to resign. Then the 18-minute gap in the tapes was discovered and Nixon’s secretary Rosemary Woods took the rap, claiming she did it, it was a mistake. Yeah. Sure. The conversation that was erased was one between Nixon and Haldeman three days after the Watergate burglary.

The public became more outraged at Nixon’s deceit. Got that? The public was furious that the President was getting away with lying. :rolleyes: The American people forced Congress into action, i.e., considering impeachment. Could that happen again? Is this Congress responsive enough? Does it possess enough independence and integrity?

After Nixon’s lies on the tapes came out in public, Congress abandoned him. Nixon was still in denial about what he was facing (THAT sounds like Trump).

Interview with British newsman David Frost long post-Watergate-- Nixon denies he participated in any cover-up of an illegal act. Words to remember: Frost says, "The key to Nixon really is his dislocated relationship to the truth."

Anyway… you get the idea. Watch it. Riveting.

32

For years afterwards, my dad - born and raised Republican - couldn’t see Nixon on TV without scoffing, “You lying bastard!”

33

God bless 'im.

Republicans felt that Nixon betrayed them. That isn’t happening this time. Yet.

34

I watched it! I started watching at midnight saturday then fell asleep during the last 20 mins, which I didn’t get around to finishing until 25 minutes to midnight on Sunday (when my rental ran out!)

Anyway - I went to journalism school at Kent State from 1997-2001. This was at the very beginning of digital news. My friends and I didn’t start a blog to do our comedy writing, we started a digital 'zine.

The movie was really good, and I thought the pacing was fantastic. There’s no build-up or establishing of anything. Just diving right in to the night of the burglary and we’re off from there.

The look at journalism was great. I still feel that print journalism is extremely important for uncovering truths and really just exposing the reality behind daily life. I mean for God’s sake - they had a Grand Jury and it couldn’t uncover anything, but the journalists did!!

We had a real newsroom in college, with a real daily paper. There were one or two big stories that broke during my time there (of course I forget them). Our photojournalists were friggin’ amazing too. Our whole team was really talented! It’s awesome to see what they are doing now (I didn’t really keep track of them, as I didn’t go in to journalism).

One thing that was really jarring about the movie was the editors’ room. Damn, old man convention there! I mean, no doubt it was absolutely true to the times but at my school the women were really up in there with the men. The best reporters were equally women and men. I was quite pleased to see that in the movie there were at least female reporters and not just female secretaries.

I’m sure this movie was shown at some point to our journalism class. I’m also sure I was such a social wuss that I skipped the opportunity to see it. We did take a class trip to Washington DC to visit USA Today and the Newseum. Unfortunately, not the Post.

Anyway, cool movie, thanks for urging me to watch it! It definitely goes to show how important the press is in keeping the government in check, because the government can’t do it itself. Sadly, I feel that “the press” is so diluted and so muddied with actual fake news that people don’t have easy access to the real, important news.

35

I had DVR’ed it even before this thread but the thread made me watch it right away and yeah it is still a good movie. I think there are indeed bad journalists and journalism has a lot of issues (especially TV Journalism) but the fact that Journalists get no respect and are not considered professionals anymore only benefits the entrenched and powerful. This movie shows what Journalism can do.

36

Nixon simply burst the bubble. At that time people actually believed that presidents had been honest men of great integrity, not many people hold such illusions any more. Lying to the public wouldn’t work well as grounds for impeachment, lying under oath didn’t work with Clinton, and with so many people believing the other side lies more then their own it’s not something that will lead to impeachment. Nixon was only heading in that direction because obstruction of justice was so evident, and I’m not sure even that would lead to removal from office anymore.

There was an enormous difference in those times though, people felt we were facing an existential threat from the Soviet Union and communism in general. People don’t feel that same kind of fear anymore, and I think as a result we don’t rely on our presidents as great leaders anymore. Domestic issues predominate and that makes people rather selfish. Even the threat of terrorism is more focused on the cases where it hits home instead of abroad.

As soon as I heard about the Watergate break-in I sensed that it would lead to Nixon’s downfall. I was young and had no real basis for that feeling except perhaps that a tipping point seemed evident in the turbulence of those times.

37

Thanks so much for your effervescent comments. :slight_smile:

Kent State was certainly a hot zone in 1970 (the year I graduated from college).

I can see that a movie like this might inspire someone to go into journalism.

Now for extra credit, watch that documentary about the making of the film and the details of Watergate. It’s almost as exciting as the movie. You’ll meet the real Deep Throat! (I’ll be sending over a bushel basket of popcorn for you.)

38

Yeah, I am looking forward to the documentary! Hoping to watch it tonight.

My senior year at school was the 40th anniversary of May 4 so we did a ton of work with the Task Force and the wounded victims and the victims’ families. I did the web site for the issue of the school magazine that year and won an award.

The shootings actually happened in the parking lot of the journalism building, and the national guard was all around the building, so the memorials were an ever-present piece of our education.

I have a feeling that the events of May 4 and being around the memorials every day is part of what drives the Journalism School there to be so top-notch.

39

FYI, the lead headline in The New York Times today is “G.O.P. Senators Pull Away From Trump, Alarmed at His Volatility”.

40

Bravo!

Are you still in journalism?

Hallelujah.