40 must-watch movies to consider yourself a film buff

All the President’s Men (1976)

The political drama never felt as timely as it did when Alan J. Pakula’s All the President’s Men was released into theaters in 1976. It’s important to know this movie came out just two years after its subject, President Richard Nixon, resigned from office after being accused of being involved in a conspiracy and cover-up involving a robbery of the Democratic National Convention in the Watergate building. No movie had actively attacked a president so openly, and done it with such flair.

The film follows dogged Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) as they learn from an unknown source that the President was involved in the Watergate scandal. The film presents an in-depth knowledge of events in a way that’s slick and polished, an aesthetic that would permeate many films of the 1970s.

Redford and Hoffman make a fine team, interviewing people and having their lives threatened as they get too close to uncovering the most massive scandal in U.S. history at that time. It’s a film heavily steeped in dialogue and politics, so those looking for action and thrills might have a slow time with this one. If you can stick with it, though, you’ll be rewarded with one of the landmark films that shaped the decade.

Where to Watch It: It’s available to stream on FilmStruck. Rent it on Amazon, Google Play, PlayStation, YouTube, Apple, and Vudu.