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We welcome history major and film lover Taylor Anderson to the show to talk about the perennial and undeniably essential 1976 movie All the President’s Men. Of course, we recorded on the same day that a guilty plea and a conviction rocked the current president’s administration, so our conversation takes on a sudden urgency. The parallels are uncanny! But before we get to politics we discuss Robert Redford’s push to make the film, the historical accuracy of the script and set design, sound design and the mesmerizing shot construction. Let’s put our nose to the grindstone, shall we?
Clarifications:
We’ve got a larger than usual set of shownotes, so we don’t want to bury this plug for Tommy Oler’s show Let’s Write an Episode…! If you love 90’s television, writing, performance or are even just a fan of humor in general you need to check this show out!
There’s a lot in the Vanity Fair article that we mention in the show, and a lot we don’t! It’s really a fascinating read. Also, this article from The Washingtonian is a must. Some of our corrections are based on facts from those articles, so consider this our citation.
Robert Redford was considering other actors for the role of Bob Woodward, but Warner Bros chairman Ted Ashley insisted Redford star because, well, money.
It should also be noted that the library scene is indeed set in the real Library of Congress. They were begrudgingly given access to shoot in the Reading Room.
In the episode we suggest that it might be unusual for a movie to come out so quickly after historical events have transpired. EP Adam doesn’t agree and mentions that Zero Dark Thirty is an example – Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 and the film was released in 2012!
Not familiar with the Bay of Pigs fiasco? A primer.
And the definition of “Burglary 2” for those of you who are really diving into the weeds while listening to this episode.
We may have at some point said that Nixon was impeached. He wasn’t. It was a foregone conclusion when he resigned however. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton must be feeling pretty lonely (for now…)
BTW, Nixon’s approval ratings were still somehow at 24% when he resigned. Is 24% bottoming out…? And speaking of approval ratings, Robert Mueller’s jumped by 11 points… in a Fox News poll!
Towards the end of the show, Taylor confuses Michael Cohen’s guilty plea with Paul Manafort’s multiple convictions, though their roles/former jobs are correctly attributed.
Things We Reference:
The Apartment (1960)
The Post (2017)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Spy Game (2001)
“The West Wing” (1999-2006)
Dick (1999)