Ben Bradlee: A Legend After 'All the President's Men'

"Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, First Amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country."

That sentence was uttered by actor Jason Robards playing Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee in what is arguably the best performance of his career in "All the President's Men," one of the 100 greatest films of all time, according to the American Film Institute.

Oh, the glory days of newspapers!

What with Quinn Bradlee, son of Bradlee and columnist Sally Quinn, in the news (as reported by my Politics Daily colleague Annie Groer here and here) and last week a journalism award going to an anonymous bystander, I got to thinking about this movie about a bygone era.


The film, directed by Alan J. Pakula, was released in April 1976. The topic was the who, what, when, where, why and how of the Nixon White House Watergate scandal of 1972, as uncovered by reporters Bob Woodward, played by Robert Redford, and Carl Bernstein, played by Dustin Hoffman.

No pedantic civics lesson, "All the President's Men" could have been directed by Alfred Hitchcock with all the tension it generates, even though we know how the story – the Watergate break-in, the cover-up and the two dogged reporters who kept plugging away even as door after door slammed in their faces – will end.

Robert Redford bought the movie rights in 1974, paying $450,000 before the book was even written.

Note the lack of a "love interest" in this tightly written script, despite the fact that the lead actors were in their prime. You don't need a love interest when the narrative itself grips the audience from start to finish.

The set alone earns the buck you'll cough up. According to wikipedia:

Dustin Hoffman and Redford hung out in the Post offices for months...Set designers took measurements of the newspaper's offices, photographed everything, and boxes of trash were gathered and transported to sets recreating the newsroom on two soundstages in Hollywood's Burbank Studios...The filmmakers went to great lengths for accuracy and authenticity, including making replicas of phone books that were no longer in existence. Nearly 200 desks at $500 apiece were purchased from the same firm that sold desks to the Post in 1971. The desks were also colored the same precise shade of paint.

You can't get much more authentic than having actual Washington Post trash trucked into the studio. Legend has it that Ben Bradlee gasped when he first walked on to the set.

Jason Robards, as Ben Bradlee, has the memorable quote: "Goddammit, when is somebody going to go on the record in this story? You guys are about to write a story that says the former attorney general, the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in this country, is a crook!"

Oh yeah! Are they ever!

You can watch Robards and other highlights from this film in the video below (fyi: contains adult language).


Little-known fact: The famous phrase "follow the money" did not originate with Watergate source Deep Throat. Bob Woodward could not find the phrase in his notes, and he had no memory of Deep Throat saying it. Woodward told Daniel Schorr that he believed screenwriter William Goldman must have invented it.

Join us in revisiting the people who brought down a sitting president with nothing more than shoe leather, determination, guts and a passion for the truth.