All the President's Men - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

I think I’ll forever be grateful for growing up in a household that not only loved movies but also didn’t withhold anything from me. Obviously, there were content exceptions for films that were too intense or too “adult,” but largely, I had free rein over anything in our own library or at the rental shop. So it went that my parents showed me All the President’s Men at a young and impressionable age without telling me anything about it. I don’t recall how old I was the first time I sat down to watch this film, but I remember that, from the title alone, I assumed it was some kind of action-packed spy movie. Sounds like a spy film, doesn’t it? Like some kind of Americanized version of James Bond. Little did I know…

Born well after the events that brought the Nixon Administration to its shocking and sudden end, I didn’t live through that era of paranoia and governmental distrust firsthand; I experienced it through the films I was exposed to. All the President’s Men was the movie that drove me down that rabbit hole of political conspiracy theory thrillers. Only this wasn’t a conspiracy theory, it was conspiracy fact - and it’s an incredible story! 

Now, our own David Krauss previously reviewed this film twice before on Blu-ray, and I’ll include his review shortly (some sudden scheduling hangups left me to take this on, but don’t worry, David will return for the Ben-Hur 4K Review shortly). For my sake, this film was the gateway drug into a small manageable addiction of Nixon-era content. I needed to know all about it; as much as I could get my hands on, I read or watched. I lost countless hours of my life trying to piece together the answers to questions that still have no firm answers. While I’ve largely set aside that exhausting obsession, this film still hits as hard as it did that first time I saw it. I have no idea how many times I’ve seen this film over the years, but to this day, it still grabs me as if it were a first-time viewing. As soon as I started watching this new 4K release, I was aware that my heart rate was gradually increasing as the story moved along. At the start, I was lounging comfortably deep back on my couch, and by the end, I was sitting on the edge of the cushion. And this was just a small piece of the conspiracy that brought down Nixon!

In the last few years, I’ve come to watch All the President’s Men alongside 2017’s The Post as complementary viewing. I might not double-feature them in a single sitting, but now that I’ve finished Pakula’s film, I’m compelled to pull my copy of Spielberg’s effort. Chronologically, it’s probably better to start with The Post and finish with All the President’s Men, but, speaking from bias and overall quality, I'm always compelled to revisit Pakula’s ‘70s paranoia classic first. Anyway, enough of my blithering about, here’s what Mr. Krauss had to say in his previous Blu-ray reviews: 

Like many of my generation, 'All the President's Men' was the film that inspired me to become a journalist. Though Alan J. Pakula's chronicle of the dogged reporting that ultimately blew the lid off the Watergate incident and brought down our nation's Commander-in-Chief never glamorizes the profession, it makes even the drudgery of endless phone calls, exhausting legwork, and constant pressure seem thrilling. Of course, there's a huge difference between covering what would become one of the biggest stories of the 20th century and a local school board meeting, but 'All the President's Men' depicts the pursuit of the truth as a noble, vital calling that yields tremendous satisfaction and potentially great rewards. It also provides hands-down the most realistic look at the newspaper business and all the myriad elements that go into producing solid journalism than any other movie in history.

The saga of the botched break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters in the summer of 1972 during President Richard Nixon's reelection campaign is well known, and we're all aware of the direct, if circuitous, link between the thugs who tried unsuccessfully to plant surveillance devices in the committee's offices and White House bigwigs. The ensuing cover-up eventually forced Nixon's unprecedented resignation, but were it not for a couple of young, hungry, green, and stubbornly tenacious Washington Post reporters, such an act might never have occurred, and our government and society might be far different than they are today.

Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) are now household names, but back then they were unheralded scribes who merely fell into what seemed on the surface to be a run-of-the-mill burglary-gone-wrong story. But when Woodward learns one of the defendants has CIA ties, he knows he's on to something, and begins the arduous process of tracking down leads and unearthing pieces of evidence that soon form a troubling picture of high-level government corruption. Bernstein, a chain-smoking Jewish liberal who's a bit of a loose cannon, is the polar opposite of the conservative, WASP-ish, by-the-book Woodward, but the two make a dynamic team, even as they initially butt heads personally and professionally. The Post's crew of crusty editors, led by the charismatic Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards in an Oscar-winning portrayal), nurture and browbeat them along, continually pushing for more facts, while a mysterious anonymous source (Hal Holbrook) nicknamed Deep Throat drops Woodward cryptic clues and corroborates information as the story starts to pick up steam.

Much like a mystery featuring Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes, 'All the President's Men' is first and foremost a detective yarn. We see how Woodward and Bernstein methodically investigate their subject, pick up on subtle slip-ups and offhand comments, and try to wring morsels of pertinent information from reluctant, often frightened interviewees. It's the roll-up-your-sleeves, pound-the-pavement, get-your-hands-dirty kind of journalism that's practically obsolete in our current technological age, where rumor and innuendo all too often eclipse solid, factual reporting. And yet there's an intoxicating edge to the grunginess and tedium, even the mounting paranoia and fear that consume Woodward and Bernstein as they inch ever closer to igniting the fatal fuse that would eventually implode the Nixon administration.

Since we all know the outcome of Woodward and Bernstein's investigation, the film's fascination stems from how the duo uncovers the facts and overcomes the obstacles in their path, and Pakula masterfully depicts the slow, steady, frustrating journey. Like the ever-present deadlines hanging over the reporters' heads, there's a quiet sense of urgency running through the movie that keeps it taut even as the pair performs mundane tasks, and some cloak-and-dagger suspense swirling around Deep Throat also ramps up tension. For me personally, though, just watching and absorbing the inner workings of a large national daily consumes the bulk of my interest. It's obvious the filmmakers paid a great deal of attention to properly recreating the newsroom atmosphere, editorial meetings, and closed-door conferences about sensitive matters, and the result is a high degree of authenticity few other journalism films come close to matching.

'All the President's Men' holds up well 37 years later, but unfortunately the lack of topicality slightly dulls its impact. I remember seeing the film as a wide-eyed 13-year-old during its initial theatrical run, just two years after Nixon's resignation, when the Watergate wounds were still fresh and the names of the participants - Hunt, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Colson, Segretti - were still on the tips of everyone's tongues. The mixture of immediacy and notoriety added an extra layer of heady excitement to the action. Yet for those just discovering the movie today, I can't help but think the unfamiliarity of most of the figures tempers that buzz just a tad.

Still, 'All the President's Men' never fails to win our respect and admiration. Pakula's first-rate direction, the believable performances of Redford and Hoffman, the absorbing subject matter, Gordon Willis' stellar cinematography, and excellent supporting work from such fine actors as Robards, Jack Weston, Martin Balsam, Ned Beatty, and Jane Alexander all contribute to a film that's as important for what it says as it is for how it's presented. As long as there's democracy, a free press, and a news industry, 'All the President's Men' will remain relevant and stand as an example of how to attack a story with purpose, vigor, and integrity.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
All the President’s Men breaks into the headquarters of 2160p home video and makes off with a single-disc 4K UHD + Digital release from Warner Bros. No 1080p Blu-ray is included (more on that in a moment). The 4K is pressed on a BD100 disc and housed in a standard black case with identical slipcover artwork. The disc loads to a static image main menu with standard navigation options.

What a difference a decade and change makes between releases! Now, to be fair to the initial Blu-ray offering, I didn’t think it was all that bad, but it wasn’t a blow your hair back event either. The image looked to be of the same vintage as the HD master utilized for the special edition DVD, and it generally looked pretty good. Not amazing, but suitable. I don’t fully have all the details registered for this new restoration beyond it being from a new 4K scan, but as they say, the devil’s in the details, and those details are sharper and cleaner looking on the screen in 2160p Dolby Vision. The great Gordon Willis, who also shot The Parallax View and Klute for Pakula (among many other 1970s classics), made finding facts and reporting the news look exciting. Of course, when one of your main characters is clandestinely meeting with a government snitch in dark parking structures, you do get to deliver some visual excitement outside of the interiors of a news office. 

Fine details are cleaner and sharper than I’ve known them, letting us fully appreciate those late ‘60s, early ‘70s fashions and haircuts. Fine film grain is readily apparent, but also naturally cinematic for this film (Or for most Gordon Willis-shot films, for that matter). Colors are much more stable than those of the previous Blu-ray disc. The past disc had a strange skew into orange, and skin tones could look too peachy for my preference, so it’s nice to see the cast looking healthy but in a naturally human way. Primaries are bright and bold without looking oversaturated. Whites are brilliantly crisp without blooming. But then you get down into that dark shadowy parking structure, when the real drama and suspense enter the film, and those meetings between Woodward and Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook, who conveniently looked like Mark Felt) look terrific. Black levels are deep and inky, but not crushed out. Shadows are perfectly balanced, letting small visible details shine while also giving the image an impressive sense of depth. Front to back, an excellent transfer. 

Once again, the film relies on an excellent DTS-HD MA 2.0 track - and only that 2.0 track. Doing some disc flippies, my feel this is the same mix as before, and I’m not at all upset about that. I thought that 2.0 track from a dozen years ago was great then, and I think it’s great today. This isn’t a film that would need a flashy, big surround soundscape to be impactful. It rests on dialogue exchanges, incidental sound effects for atmosphere, and a brilliantly ominous and unsettling David Shire score to accent the visuals and heighten tension. Without the need to fix what wasn’t broken, this is a perfectly moody and atmospheric mix for a very suspenseful and engrossing flick.

Alrighty, this is where you may want to hold onto your old 2013 Blu-ray. What Warner Bros. brings to the table here is a modest mix of new and archival extras, but not all of the archival extras. Some big pieces are missing. Of importance, the Redford audio commentary is no longer included; one of the archival making-of featurettes is missing. Also missing is the feature-length All The President’s Men Revisited from the 2013 set, which is a real kick in the pants. It was released on the second disc of the 2013 Blu-ray, and aside from a rights issue, I can’t figure onwhy it wasn’t included. Granted, it is a bit of a puff piece, but at the same time, it does offer a lot of insight into the production and how this film was made so quickly after the events that led to Nixon’s downfall. While we might lose some great content, WB does bring two new featurettes that, admittedly, are just okay. We have two interviews with Dana Bash and Jake Tapper of CNN that barely run for 16 minutes total - and given those personalities, your mileage for what they have to contribute may vary. The archival featurettes on this disc were previously available, albeit grouped together as one event. Not a terrible selection of extras, not amazing, it’d just been nice if all previously offered materials made it to this set, even if that meant delivering another disc just for extra content. 

• NEW All the President's Men: The Film and Its Influence (HD 7:56)
• NEW Woodward and Bernstein: A Journalism Masterclass (HD 7:36)
• Woodward and Bernstein: Lighting the Fire (SD 17:53)
• Telling the Truth About Lies (SD 28:21)
• Out of the Shadows: The Man Who Was Deep Throat (SD 16:21)
• Jason Robards on Dinah! (SD 7:09)

At its core, All the President’s Men plays out like a police procedural with all of the suspense and tension of the best in the genre. Only in this case, the cops and detectives are reporters, and the crime isn’t a murder, but a cover-up of corruption that reaches all the way to the highest office of the land. And while it’s certainly an entertaining and engrossing film, it’s also a celebration of when good, thorough, and ethically-driven journalism reigned supreme, and the populace could trust in the fourth estate. Sadly, in our cable news-driven cult-of-personality infotainment era, that public trust has eroded significantly. But, as it’s celebrating its 50th Anniversary, there’s no better time to revisit Alan Pakula’s dynamite adaptation of All the President’s Men with a stunning new 4K Dolby Vision transfer with the same excellent audio package. Complicating matters is that this set is missing out on a fair number of important bonus features from past releases. So hold onto that old 2013 Blu-ray if you love all of your extras and aim to check them out again. As is, if you need this film for the collection, this 4K release is Highly Recommended. I'd be compelled to call it a Must Own release if it weren't for the missing extras.