Summary
The film opens on President Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, arriving triumphantly at the House of Representatives in a helicopter on June 1, 1972. The president walks into the chamber to applause, seemingly at the height of popularity. There is a sense that he is an unstoppable figure.
The film then cuts a security guard at the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. discovering that a door from the parking garage is taped open. He calls for security to come investigate. The five burglars break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters and are quickly warned on their walkie-talkie that there is activity outside of the Watergate Complex. They turn it off to avoid making noise and are soon caught by the Watergate Security force.
The film cuts to the offices of the Washington Post newspaper offices, where Harry Rosenfeld, an editor, is briefed on the break-in. He calls up reporter Bob Woodward and tells him about the break-in: each of the burglars had many hundred dollar bills with sequential serial numbers in their bags when they were apprehended. Reporter Carl Bernstein comes into the office and offers to call up a contact at the Watergate Building. Harry chastises him for not finishing his other stories.
Woodward goes to court and asks about the prosecutions of the buglers. He is told that the burglars have their own counsel, which is "unusual for burglars." Woodward goes into the courtroom and begins talking to lawyers watching the case, learning that the buglers were four Cuban Americans and a white man named James W. McCord. Woodward continues to interrogate one of the lawyers about his involvement, but he is cagey about information, revealing that he is not the primary lawyer and met his client at a social occasion. The big bomb is dropped when Woodward hears that James W. McCord used to work for the CIA.
Back at the Washington Post, Woodward discusses his findings with Harry Rosenfeld and Carl Bernstein. The CIA won't confirm that James McCord ever worked for them and Rosenfeld emphasizes that he's only interested in facts, not speculation. "It could be a story or it could just be crazy Cubans," he says.
At home, Woodward gets a phone call with a tip: one of the burglars had a piece of paper with a phone number and the initials H.H. and W.H. as well as the name Howard Hunt. Woodward calls the number and it connects him to the White House. He asks for Howard Hunt and the receptionist connects him to Mr. Colson's office. Howard Hunt isn't there either. Woodward asks Rosenfeld who Colson is, and Rosenfeld reprimands him for not knowing. Charles Colson is a special advisor to President Nixon.
Through phone calls, Woodward discovers that Howard Hunt also written spy novels and worked as a writer, as well as worked for the CIA. Woodward reports that Hunt worked at the CIA since the 1940s and is currently being looked into by the FBI. Woodward tells the room that when he asked a White House member of staff about Hunt's involvement, they denied any association with the Watergate break-ins—answering a question that he hadn't asked.
Howard, one of the Post's editors, wants the story to go someone more experienced. Rosenfeld goes to bat for Woodward and Bernstein, even though it's revealed that he was considering firing Bernstein earlier in the year. Rosenfeld defends them both. "Howard they're hungry. Do you remember when you were hungry?"
Analysis
The juxtaposition of Richard Nixon's triumphant State of the Union address with the seediness of the Watergate break-in, with its rudimentary tape and walkie-talkies, captures the essence of the Watergate scandal: the seemingly small-time burglary was in fact tied to the highest levels of government. In a city that has all the pomp and circumstance of politics, there are secret aspects of the machinery that makes Washington tick. The real story lies in the unglamorousness of the press, the glossed over court cases, and the midnight robberies. Behind the scenes is where the story is made.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are two non-entities in the cutthroat world of Washington D.C. politics, and so they are soon positioned as the very definition of underdogs trying to buck the system. The story begins with a surprisingly bungled burglary inside the Watergate complex. As it becomes clear that it was the National Democratic Headquarters that being burglarized and that the burglars were well-dressed middle-aged men with an unusual amount of cash in their possession, the focus quickly shifts from the break-in itself to the vortex of political corruption that Woodward and Bernstein realize is swirling around it. Nobody takes their interest in pursuing the burglary seriously. All the President’s Men is a classic tale of the underestimated coming up against the overestimated.
All the President’s Men offers a glimpse into the meticulous techniques required by Woodward and Bernstein to get from an early Saturday morning phone call about a break-in at a local landmark to the toppling of a President. The bulk of the reportorial work done by both Woodward and Bernstein—separately or together—involves conversations taking place over rotary dial phones, notes from face-to-face interviews taken with pen and paper, tracking down second and third sources to confirm information initially supplied by a completely separate source…all of which is put together in final publishable form on a typewriter. If there is one thing that All the President’s Men cannot possibly be accused of it, it is glamorizing the work of an investigative reporter working for a metropolitan newspaper in the early 1970s.
The directorial decision to include real news footage from the early 1970s roots the film specifically in a time and a place. These events really happened, and many viewers were alive to see the events unfolding on their living room televisions. The film offers a glimpse into what work went on behind the scenes, the side of the story no one knew.
The major villain in the piece from the opening seems to be Richard Nixon. However, the film begins with the missteps of the president's men. At this point, we don't know if the burglars had malicious intent and woeful ignorance in relation to the crimes. Who are they serving, if not themselves? Who is paying them this money? And if someone if paying these thugs––what is their ultimate goal?
