All the President's Men: Two-Disc Special Edition (1976)
Warner Home Video

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Reporting on a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee, low-rung Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover possible links to the Nixon White House. The real-life typewriter-and-telephone detective story starring Robert Redford as buttoned-down Republican Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as rumpled radical Bernstein is as tense and taut as any modern legal thriller.

With their knack for disarming reluctant sources, some good old shoe leather and tips from a shadowy informant known as Deep Throat, the twosome reluctantly pools resources to unravel the biggest political scandal in U.S. history. Now that the real-life "Deep Throat" Mark Felt has stepped out of the shadows, and with the current controversy surrounding domestic wiretapping, the 1975 Best Picture nominee has as much resonance today as it did upon its initial release 30 years ago, shortly after President Nixon's resignation.

As producer and star of the movie, Robert Redford provides the feature-length commentary recounting his experiences working alongside the real-life journalists collectively called "Woodstein." The prerequisite Deep Throat featurette suffers from the absence of any interview with the real-life Mark Felt, but the cautionary documentary "Woodward & Bernstein: Lighting the Fire" -- in which news veterans from Walter Cronkite to Ben Bradleee explain the noble role of the press as guardians of the American government -- makes up for its deficiency. But their colleagues lament that city newspapers have been replaced as Americans' primary source for news by corporate-owned television networks that have to play nice with the federal government to keep their FCC licenses. Jonathan Alter, senior editor of Newsweek, warns, "If Watergate happened now, Woodward & Bernstein, I'm convinced, would be subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury and asked to reveal their sources. They would not have done so, they would have gone to jail to protect Deep Throat and they would be out of action and that scandal probably wouldn't have come out." All the President's Men on DVD illuminates how our nation's regard for the press has waned since the days when America's first superhero, Superman, fought crime by day as a reporter.

by Rob. Walton