2016 Blind Spot Series: All The President's Men

-

What I knew going in: That it's a very popular journalism movie.

 Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) take on a story about the break in at the Watergate Hotel only for it to blow up into a massive conspiracy where no one wants to talk. Despite being told several times to essentially "let it go." They keep asking questions and use some very creative ways of getting people to confirm their questions.

 With Spotlight and Truth being so strong this year. (for me anyways) I knew I had to place this film on my Blind Spot list. So many compared both of those films to this one. I find films like this endlessly fascinating. I love watching journalists work. How they do their research, ask their questions, and put up with so much shit, I have so much respect for them.

 This film is brilliant all around. The pacing is great, the actors are very natural, though admittedly I'm not really sure how Jane Alexander managed to score an Oscar nomination out of this. Jason Robards certainly deserved his win. 2016 is off to a good start Blindspot wise!

 Recommended: Yes

 Grade: A

 Memorable Quote: "When is someone going to go on the record about this story?" - Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards)

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 20, 2016 at 7:49 AM

    Ooh I'm glad you enjoyed this one! It was a really popular pick for one of the Thursday Movie Picks and I've been thinking about watching it ever since :)
    - Allie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJanuary 20, 2016 at 8:11 AM

      That's what kind of pushed me towards it too. A lot of people talked about it that week.

      Delete
  2. VanishedFrontierJanuary 20, 2016 at 9:56 AM

    One of my favourite ever! Love it. I dig journalism movies too, but nothing beat this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJanuary 20, 2016 at 10:54 AM

      Journalism movies are great. I think Spotlight is still my favorite but this is right up there as well.

      Delete
  3. DellJanuary 20, 2016 at 12:18 PM

    This is also on my Blind Spot list tgis year. You've made me look forward to it even more!

    ReplyDelete
  4. KhalidJanuary 20, 2016 at 12:22 PM

    I guess Im just not a big fan of procedurals or movies about journalism which is why I could never really get into this. Not to say that it's bad, just not particularly memorable. But yeah, Jason Robards is fantastic in this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJanuary 21, 2016 at 7:27 AM

      I find journalism movies very interesting. I hope to see more, though I can understand how they might not seem exciting on paper.

      Delete
  5. RuthJanuary 20, 2016 at 2:48 PM

    Yay, I'm glad you love this one! This was one of my fave Blindspot films from last year and I had such a high expectation for it, glad it delivered. I thought Spotlight has some similarities to this, that's another terrific journalism film.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamJanuary 21, 2016 at 6:46 AM

      Spotlight and Truth were both great this year. I'm glad you liked it too.

      Delete
  6. thevoid99January 20, 2016 at 11:16 PM

    I saw this when I was in high school and I thought it was fucking great then. I still think it's fucking great now.

    ReplyDelete
  7. JoshFebruary 3, 2016 at 3:51 AM

    YAASSS!! It's one of my all-time favorites. Such a tense procedural, with great performances from its ensemble. I'm also a fan of Spotlight and Truth. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. joel65913February 25, 2016 at 9:01 PM

    So glad you liked this so much, it's one of my absolute favorites. It kills me still that it didn't win Best Picture in its year. Redford and Hoffman are so perfect together even more so because they are so different.

    I loved Jason Robards in the film and don't really have any problem with him winning for it but what I want to know is how Hal Holbrook's brilliant work as Deep Throat went totally unrewarded. I think his is the linchpin performance of the film.

    The film is just about perfect in every way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamFebruary 26, 2016 at 6:51 AM

      It a good film to have as a favorite. It works so well. I'm a bit ashamed it took me so long to see it.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But...
Read more