"ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN" ALERT!!

[SCEditor]

I actually was strolling through Blockbuster last week, saw the movie and rented it again just for the heck of it.

 

[shockey]

just curious: how many of you were, like me, largely inspired to get into this biz by watergate and this book/movie? ??? ??? ???

 

[SCEditor]

Honestly, I wasn't. I'm 24 and that was well before my time. But, I did actually watch the movie and years later, while wandering around one of those big book fairs, buy the book just to read it word for word. I've probably seen the movie 3-4 times now.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

**** it, let's stand by the boys.

 

[21]

DAMN, I got on a phone call and missed the end! What happens??

 

[GB-Hack]

I love the way they end it with the wire ticker finishing the story. Brilliant.

 

[buckweaver]

To answer shockey, I wasn't, either. I was in this business for two years before I saw the film for the first time. (I'm 24, also.)

But I can't get enough of it.

(And it finally started on AMC four minutes ago. Left Coast Bias here.)

 

[shockey]

on AMC now, about halfway in. i always have to stop clicking. 8) 8) 8)

 

[Ellis Redding]

You filthy rat****er.

 

[21]

Same. Never get tired of this movie.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

just curious: how many of you were, like me, largely inspired to get into this biz by watergate and this book/movie? ??? ??? ???

Not really. But my high school gave "book prizes" to the top student in each discipline. As a junior in 1976 I won the journalism prize and the prize was Woodward and Bernstein's "The Final Days," with a sticker pasted in that the prize goes to me for journalism. I still have the book.

A lot of things combined to bring me into the business. There was no one factor. Saw the movie when it came out, have a copy on video. Mostly I wandered into journalism as a result of positive feedback from teachers and peers on stuff I wrote in English and history classes.

I was a high school freshman in 1973-74 and we had a required course in current events. We had to read The New York Times every day and discuss. Junior year in U.S. history we had to pick a current, ongoing topic and clip the NYT every day. I chose the NYC financial crisis (the one in which the NY Daily News would headline, FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD), which resulted in an avalanche of clippings. So my high school was very newspaper-centric and still is; every student is given the NYT every day.

 

[SF_Express]

First, I have to admit, this played a small part in the career direction I took.

But I have to ask if anybody has ever noticed how some cable versions of this movie SEVERELY screw up the ending. They cut the dialogue at the end, although I'm trying to remember where exactly:

"You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a ****. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up... 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys **** up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight."

I think they cut it after "Rest up ... 15 minutes." One of those edited for time deals.

I know I've seen that version without anything concerning "nothing's riding on this," and certainly "if you guys **** up again, I'm going to get mad."

Kills me every time.

 

[buckweaver]

One of the best monologues in history. I could recite that in my sleep.

 

[SF_Express]

One of the best monologues in history. I could recite that in my sleep.

Exactly, which is why it's simply awful that the people who edit these movies for time on networks like AMC couldn't figure out another place to find those 30-40 seconds or whatever.

 

[ServeItUp]

Another line butchered by our namby-pamby network censors:

"Woodward! Bernstein! You're on the story. Don't **** it up."

 

[JR]

Remember following the story from about the second week it broke. Riveting stuff.

Watergate would NOT happen today because the Rovians would go after Woodward & Bernstein's reputations in a heartbeat.

Then the story wouldn't be about Nixon and the break-ins, it would be about whether Woodward ****ed a dog in senior high. (For further insights, see Whitewater)

It was a great book if you haven't read it. And the movie does it justice.

 

[BTExpress]

Newsweek did an essay a couple of years ago on why Watergate couldn't happen today.

Sadly, the essay was dead on.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8101512/site/newsweek/

 

[JR]

Newsweek did an essay a couple of years ago on why Watergate couldn't happen today.

Sadly, the essay was dead on.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8101512/site/newsweek/

Nixon gave a TV interview to the British journalist David Frost in which he said, "When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." This explained why he felt comfortable approving the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. Ken Duberstein and a few other principled Republicans weighed in that Nixon was bad news, but they were drowned out by former aides like Pat Buchanan and G. Gordon Liddy, who wanted to firebomb the Brookings Institution.

Yup, pretty much.

 

[BTExpress]

I think it's wonderful that JR showed up in this thread to provide an enlightening and original rip on the president of the country he can't vote in.

We can't vote in Iran, either.

So can we rip their elected president?

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I think it's wonderful that JR showed up in this thread to provide an enlightening and original rip on the president of the country he can't vote in.

We can't vote in Iran, either.

So can we rip their elected president?

Absolutely. It would be even cooler if you can't go more than two or three posts without doing it.