All The President's Men

All The President's Men tells the story of how The Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) exposed the Watergate conspiracy. They brought down Nixon's presidency. The film had a profound effect on American journalism, encouraging many young people to take up the profession. It also had a major influence on the investigative dramas and political thrillers that followed it. Look at the similarity between Deep Throat and Cancer Man from the X-Files.

Newly released by Warner Brothers in 4K UHD, All The President's Men is by itself well worth watching. The higher resolution really benefits the scenes in The Washington Post's offices. The expansive newsroom with harsh fluorescent lighting, shot with a deep depth of field, has an added dynamism about it. Some of the darker scenes, such as the ones in which Woodward meets Deep Throat in the parking garage, I find overly grainy. 4K HDR does tend to bring that out in film. There is a balance between the authenticity of the reproduction and its watchability. To my mind some of those scenes need a little more noise reduction.

There are no new special features to go with this release. What there is mostly dates from 2006. These were all made at the same time and are mostly made up of the same talking head doing their pieces to camera, and as such get a little repetitious. the subject matter is the film and its influences on film and journalism. There is also discussion of the dangers that are facing the practice and integrity of journalism in the new millenium. Twenty years later journalism sits in the post truth landscape. Media companies operate in a wholly partisan fashion. The news cycle is dominated by spin and anyone stepping outside the accepted narratives is a kook. Political systems are collapsing and voter turnouts are dropping. The features from 2006 don't seem so relevant. Mainstream journalism hasn't guarded democracy.

Reviewed on: 22 Feb 2026