ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, 1976, Warner Bros., 138 min. Dir. Alan Pakula. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman shine as Washington Post investigative reporters Woodward and Bernstein, the pair responsible for uncovering the shocking truth behind the Watergate break-in. A tense real-life detective saga demonstrating what a courageous free press can accomplish.
THE PARALLAX VIEW, 1974, Paramount, 102 min. Dir. Alan J. Pakula. Impetuous reporter Warren Beatty’s hunt for a political assassin turns more and more terrifying as each successive layer of corruption and right-wing insanity is unpeeled. When he enlists in a program to recruit social misfits as political killers-for-hire, the narrative assumes cosmically paranoid dimensions. A daringly downbeat, uncompromising speculation on how far the advocates of repression will go.