All the President's Men (dir. Alan J. Pakula)

1976, 139 minutes
w/ Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards
[The best film about journalism I've ever seen and a blueprint for great movies of late (c) Zodiac and Shattered Glass, Alan J. Pakula's self-removed direction successfully treats the viewers as privileged voyeurs of one of America's most infamous scandals. Loaded with information and respecting the audience's intelligence, President's seems to sprawl as if an epic although it takes place in a short period of time. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford are perfect in their lead roles and either of them could have been thrown an Oscar nom instead of, say, Sylvester Stallone. Moving on. The ensemble cast disappear into their roles selflessly, and Robards and Jane Alexander at least got supporting nominations (the former winning) for what would seem like thankless perfs. Pakula daringly chooses to go completely without a musical score and often provides a bird's eye view with a few impressive crane/helicopter shots, promoting the documentary feel. Extra applause for Pakula making a pic so soon after the events occurred, before things really got a chance to cool off.]

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