All the President's Men

<p>Alan J. Pakula's political thriller <i>All the President's Men</i> (1976) was met with immediate critical and commercial success upon its release finishing second at the box office and earning seven Academy Award nominations. <p/> Through a close reading of key scenes performances and stylistic decisions Christian Keathley and Robert B. Ray show how the film derives its narrative power through a series of controlled oppositions: silence vs. noise; stationary vs. moving camera; dark vs. well-lit scenes and shallow vs. deep focus tracing how these elements combine to create an underlying formal design crucial to the film's achievement. <p/>They argue that the film does not fit the auteurist model of New Hollywood film-makers such as Coppola and Scorsese. Instead <i>All the President's Men </i>more closely resembles a studio-era film the result of a collaboration between a producer (Robert Redford) multiple scriptwriters a skilful director important stars (Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) a distinctive cameraman (Gordon Willis) an imaginative art director (George Jenkins) and ingenious sound designers who together created an enduringly great film.</p>