Bob Woodward Movies
- 2003
This two-hour PBS documentary details not only the 1972 "third-rate burglary" that brought down an American president, but also the unprecedented gavel-to-gavel live TV coverage of the official Watergate hearings. In the summer of 1973, all three commercial networks were offered the opportunity to provide this coverage, and all three took a pass. Only PBS was willing to devote the time, money, and energy to broadcasting the entire procedure, and it is from that network's miles and miles of archival tapes that this special is gleaned. In addition to recalling such once-familiar catchwords as "To the best of my recollection" and "Expletive deleted," the special includes contemporary comments from many of the participants and eyewitnesses of the courtroom spectacle, including former Nixon associates John Dean and Jeb Magruder, journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (co-authors of All the President's Men and The Final Days), and government investigator Sam Dash. Either by accident or design, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History was originally telecast in late July 2003, just when certain provocative questions were being raised about the credibility of President George W. Bush's official reasons for invading Iraq. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Dean, Jeb Magruder, (more)
- 1986
Under Siege was first telecast in February 1986, a time when the notion of foreign terrorists in America was still speculative fiction. A militant group sets off explosives at US Army bases, then branches out to such civilian targets as crowded shopping centers. FBI director Peter Strauss discovers that these outrages are possibly being orchestrated by Iranian extremists. Despite pressure to take retaliatory action, US President Hal Holbrook continues to preach moderation, until he can be certain of the true source of the attacks. Under Siege was cowritten by Bob Woodward, of All the President's Men fame. Little Rock, Arkansas substitutes for Washington DC in several scenes, including one startling sequence set in the Capitol Building. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
This film, loosely-based on the book by Bob Woodward, follows the career of comedian John Belushi (Michael Chiklis) as his spirit is guided through the past by the Angel Velasquez (Ray Sharkey). ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Chiklis, Ray Sharkey, (more)
- 1989
- PG
The three-hour TV docudrama The Final Days was based on the Bob Woodward/Carl Bernstein chronicle of President Richard M. Nixon's last months in the White House. Given his behavior during the entire Watergate imbroglio, Nixon cannot help but come off as a paranoid power-abuser. As played by Lane Smith, however, Nixon also seems all too human--a confused, pathetic individual who cannot fully comprehend how, in less than one year, he can lose everything he has worked for in life. Theodore Bikel co-stars as Henry Kissinger, while other participants in the events of August 1973 through August 1974 are played by David Ogden Stiers (as Alexander Haig), Gregg Henry (John Dean), Susan Brown (Pat Nixon), Ann Hearn (Julie), Amanda Wyss (Tricia), Ramon Bieri (John Sirica), Diana Bellamy (Rose Mary Woods) and Alan Fudge (Gerald Ford). Adapted for television by Hugh Whitemore, The Final Days premiered on October 29, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula turned journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling account of their Watergate investigation into one of the hit films of Bicentennial year 1976. While researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex, green Washington Post reporters/rivals Woodward (Robert Redford, who also exec produced) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) stumble on a possible connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. With the circumspect approval of executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), the pair digs deeper. Aided by a guilt-ridden turncoat bookkeeper (Jane Alexander) and the vital if cryptic guidance of Woodward's mystery source, Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" all the way to the top of the Nixon administration. Despite Deep Throat's warnings that their lives are in danger, and the reluctance of older Post editors, Woodward and Bernstein are determined to get out the story of the crime and its presidential cover-up. Once Bradlee is convinced, the final teletype impassively taps out the historically explosive results. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, (more)
