All the President's Men (1976) Audio Commentary

Robert Redford discusses strategy for the staring contest he's about to have with the camera

RC-2013-114: All the President's Men (1976)




Perhaps the greatest typewriter fetishist movie ever! Focusing on storytelling, I describe how Goldman's script hinges on scene-by-scene conflict and speculate about the mysterious Ephron-Bernstein draft. I argue that Woodstein's reporting was unbiased, then revel in my own bias by audibly scoffing at the idea that Nixon was a "complicated" figure who "also did some good things." Amid analysis of the actual movie, I explain why Nixon was a racist, astonishingly petty, and hopelessly corrupt scoundrel who got off easy. Gordy Willis and John Dean get praised. G. Gordon Liddy and the Intelligent Design-promoting crybaby known as Ben Stein get criticized. I screened the Blu-Ray. To sync, hit "pause" when the Warner Bros. logo fades to black.

Show Notes

• Redford's documentary
• Goldman's script
• Woodstein reflect on Watergate
• The breathtaking inanity of Ben Stein
• Mary McCarthy's book 
• The Nixon tapes are here and here

When I said Nixon was "a horrible human being," I was referring to him doing things like...

• Ordering break-ins
• Suggesting that black people make bad spies because they're stupid 
• Saying Jews "own the media"
• Using the IRS to "pound" his critics

Listen to the mp3, or prolong our long national nightmare about Apple by getting it on iTunes.