***
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jane Alexander
A political drama following two journalists from the Washington Post (Redford and Hoffman) who slowly uncover the Watergate scandal. I was excited about this movie for two reasons:
1. I love Dustin Hoffman
2. I don't really know anything about Watergate other than it involved money laundering and lead to Nixon's resignation.
I wanted this movie to teach me more about what really happened with Watergate, and I wanted the excitement of Hollywood to mask the history lesson. Maybe I was asking too much. I enjoyed the film, but I truly had no idea (most of the time) what was going on. Names of people were flying, people were meeting in parking garages with information, and although I shared the excitement with the characters every time a new lead was uncovered, I rarely had any idea what sort of information was gained.
I think the movie focused far too much on the obstacles of the journalists. Though I realize the film comes from their perspective, it became very redundant watching them make phone calls, only to be hung up on over and over again for two hours. It would have been more exciting to see what unraveled as a result of their nosing about.
Also, the end of the film came extremely abruptly. The "epilogue" of the film was forced to make an enormous jump from the two journalists uncovering the name Haldeman... to Nixon's resignation-- and none of that was part of the actual film.
Overall, I truly did enjoy the movie, which is why it is getting 3 stars, but it certainly did nothing for me in terms of being any sort of history lesson.
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