, the acclaimed actor and Oscar-winning director, passed away on Sept. 16 at 89 years old.
Redford rose to become “the most sought-after actor in town,” as TIME noted in 1974, with the release of The Way We Were and The Sting while he was simultaneously shooting The Great Gatsby.
The successful film All the President’s Men premiered two years afterward, based on the real-life account of how Washington Post investigative journalists Bob Woodward (portrayed by Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) exposed the Nixon administration’s role in the Watergate scandal, which ultimately resulted in President Richard Nixon’s resignation as the first U.S. president to do so.
However, the movie nearly didn’t materialize. The Washington Post was initially reluctant to permit to recount its story. We explore how the film eventually came into existence.
Earning Confidence
A 1976 TIME report on the film’s production reveals that Redford was prompted to create the movie after hearing journalists at a promotional event for his film The Candidate discuss the botched 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s office in the Watergate apartment building and hypothesize Nixon’s potential awareness.
TIME documented his response: “ was taken aback: ‘I’ve always held cynicism in low esteem; I believe it signifies the onset of decline.’ His motivation for concentrating on the burglary was less philosophical. At his home in Van Nuys, Calif., when, then 13, had triumphed in a tennis tournament, Senator Richard Nixon presented him the trophy. The young Bob was unimpressed: ‘I considered him a nonperson! A fraudulent individual!’”
Having tracked their Watergate investigative journalism at the Post, contacted long before their 1974 nonfiction book All the President’s Men brought them renown. Actually, the duo was when Redford initially connected, but that was his intention, as he stated to TIME in 1976: “I wished to observe them at their lowest point. Individuals who take significant risks and fail pique my interest.”
was prepared to adapt All the President’s Men into a film, acquiring the rights for $450,000.
Initially, though, “they did not return my calls,” Redford the Washington Post magazine for a 2022 retrospective piece on the film.
“I recall Woodward approaching my desk, and I viewed him as insane,” Bernstein recounted. “I declared, ‘No, we absolutely cannot speak with him! What if the [Republican National Committee] discovered we were conversing with Hollywood?’”
For the script, hired William Goldman, writer of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—which TIME described as “the film that elevated Redford to superstardom”—but an initial version focused so heavily on coarse humor within the newsroom that it displeased Post executives. The paper’s Executive Editor Ben Bradlee, despite initially supporting the endeavor, grew concerned it rendered the newsroom a “caricature.” Bradlee informed TIME, “He continually insisted, ‘You must trust us.’ We didn’t grasp that. We wondered, ‘Why on earth should we trust Robert Redford? Why should we entrust our professional standing to him?’ ”
Redford observed the Post newsroom extensively to understand the journalists’ methods; he and the cast ultimately penned a significant portion of the script themselves, improvising during filming, while Redford telephoned Woodward and Bernstein multiple times daily to verify the precision of his alterations.
The Triumph of All the President’s Men
Despite their initial reluctance to engage, Woodward and Bernstein were exceedingly pleased with the final production.
“The film enlightened me about my profession, observing their approach and dedication to it,” Woodward shared with TIME in 1976. “The movie isn’t merely quite accurate, it is entirely truthful. I simply believe that if journalists watch it, they will remark, ‘This is precisely our process.’”
Bernstein further stated: “They executed an outstanding journalistic effort in creating this film. Effective reporters earn the confidence of their sources, and that is what they accomplished with us.”
The general public shared this sentiment. The movie earned $70 million in ticket sales and secured four Academy Awards, one of which was for its screenplay.
