Both movies made heroes out of the dogged reporters who had uncovered earth-shaking scandals, and both films made the often tedious process of journalism into gripping drama without distorting it much. Indeed, until "Spotlight" came along, "All the President's Men" had been considered the best movie ever made about journalism throughout the 40 years since its release, on April 9, 1976.
Today, "All the President's Men" is remembered as one of the last landmark movies of Hollywood's 1970s renaissance, and a highlight in the careers of stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. To celebrate the film's 40th anniversary, here are ten things you probably didn't know about "ATPM."
2. Eventually, Redford did buy the rights, hired Alan J. Pakula to direct, and hired William Goldman to write the screenplay. No one much liked Goldman's first draft, so Bernstein wrote his own screenplay with his then-girlfriend, fellow journalist Nora Ephron. That version was deemed even worse, and ultimately, it was a new Goldman rewrite that Pakula shot. Still, we have "All the President's Men" to thank for launching Ephron's career as a screenwriter and, ultimately, the director of such films as "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail." (Of course, she also chronicled her disastrous marriage to Bernstein in the novel and movie "Heartburn.")
4. Frank Wills, the security guard who discovered the Watergate break-in, plays himself in "All the President's Men."
6. That famous overhead shot of Redford and Hoffman as two tiny figures poring over vast stacks of records at the Library of Congress lasts for 30 seconds and cost $90,000 to shoot.
8. "ATPM" cost $8.5 million to make. It earned back $70.6 million in North America, making it the third highest-grossing film of 1976.
10. "What I took away from watching the movie six years ago," Bernstein said in 2011, "was that most of the good work was done at night. I think, and there are certain exceptions, that you get the truth at night and lies during the day."
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