All the President's Men. A Political thriller about the most scandalous affair in 20th century American history.
An event so massive and daunting that the shockwaves are still felt to this day. Everyone and their dog is trying to piggyback on this in one way or another. Novels, films, essays. All claiming to have their own unique angle and if they can't connect themselves to Watergate then they'll connect Watergate to their own Stories. The simple act of putting the word ''Gate'' on the end of any political problem can boast it accessibility to a general crowd.
The film has been something of an omage to other forms of Pop media; Within the last 30 years it has been adapted, acquired and possibly even stolen so often the people are more familiar with the proxies of this film than the actual product itself.
The film has been buried underneath an incoherent amount of copies and rip offs.
Which may be the greatest irony of all given the story is based around the film is a bunch of journalists trying to sift through the incoherent stories, documents and lies that have been implanted in front of them to cover up the affair of Watergate and those involved.
It's one of those unique stories in which you know the outcome and yet am still very much on the edge of your seat as it unfolds. Clearly just about everyone knows the outcome of Watergate.
But it's the destiny not the destination that matters. It's the suspense and mystery around the investigation that hold so much interest.
It's strange to think that the Watergate scandal wouldn't get rid of a modern president. Every president and every Administration after Nixon made it there National mission to make sure Watergate can never happen to them. Didn't matter if it was Bush, Reagan, Trump, Obama, Ford or whatever names you want. They all committed their own atrocities and none of them ever got touched.
All and all it's a fantastic film. Cinematography is good, the lighting is eerie. The set design is straightforward and simple. Yet oddly claustrophobic. Almost every scene (especially those involving the journalists) is just packed to the guild with papers. You almost feel as if you're going to suffocate if you stayed in anyone particular room for too long.
And the strangest thing of all is that gut feeling you get in your stomach while watching. The feeling of a disaster and incoming danger that's involved with it. You know the outcome, you know how everything is going to play out. But the film does such a fantastic job of convincing you that something might just go wrong. The Scandal won't be found out and bad administration's will continue on without the faintest sense of national knowledge.
If only national memory was longer.
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