Post 5: In Class Write

1.         All the President’s Men was a very informative film on the history of the Watergate scandal with President Nixon. This movie showed how many details went into this investigation to solve the mystery. It also presented the fact of how President Nixon used the power he had illegally. It showed the marvelous work that two investigative journalists performed named Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. This movie is a great example to show the importance of this event and the amount of work and time it took to figure out the crime.

            Carl and Bob worked on this investigation for over a year. They stopped by many houses to question people, went through thousands of library cards to see what books a person checked out, drove for hours, and risked their jobs on Watergate. This process used so much of their time that they barely slept and only ate fast food. There were a lot of late nights where they were at the office typing as much information they had so that they could be published on the Washington Post. Their countless hours on this investigation helped the viewer see every event that led up to this. The Watergate break-in happened by five burglars who were Cuban and lived in Miami. According to the Washington Post Article on Frank Sturgis and Watergate.info, each of these burglars had a few hundred dollars in their pocket when they were found. These burglars were all connected to CIA agents, FBI agents, and the committee to re-elect for Nixon’s Campaign. This led Carl and Bob to question people who were on the Committee to re-elect and other people involved with Nixon. The nitty gritty details shown in this film help the viewer to see how the whole Watergate scandal happened and who was involved in it. It also showed how each higher power authorities in the White House were lying. No one could be trusted and no one knew who to trust. Everyone who worked with Nixon denied all that was told to them. I found a speech made by Nixon in an Oxford Journal where he continuously states he was innocent, “Watergate investigations… misleading both of my own role and to certain unrelated activities involving national security.” The President declared that he and FBI and CIA officials had nothing to do with this scandal, even thought they were the main cause of it. This is so important because it shows the abuse of power the President used. He took full possession of authority over the CIA and FBI. These two groups of agents are the main people who are allowed to investigate the president. He took away their right as an agent and took away their right of freedom of speech since they had to hide all the information they knew.

2.         Although All the President’s Men was very informative on showing the facts of the allegation, they did not show the roles people had and the huge effect it created on the American population. In the movie many people are named and interviewed but I had no clue who those characters were and why they were so important. The movie was not very specific on who the burglars were. They mentioned their names, but not the role they played very well. As I did further research on the burglars and who they were I recognized the names they used in the movie so commonly. Until I read an article on History.com on Watergate called “Where are they Now?” I had no clue the five burglar’s names were: James McCord, Virgilio Gonzales, Frank A. Sturgis, Eugenio R. Martinez, and Bernard L. Baker. These were five men who were vital to the Watergate investigation and led Carl and Bob to the committee to re-elect. While I was watching the entire movie I had no clue who Carl and Bob were talking about and assumed they were a part of Nixon’s team.

            This film also did not show how it affected the American Population very well. It did show how some of the evidence did not align and how it led people to be confused. But those people were the reporters at the Washington Post and New York Times. It did not show how much the effects of the Watergate Scandal caused the U.S. to mistrust officials. The U.S. citizens had no clue who to trust anymore since the highest position in the government was lying to the people for so many years. The citizens of the U.S. were a huge part of this scandal because their lives were being affected by the President’s actions. The people in the workforce of the CIA and FBI had to hide their families and themselves from being questioned by reporters. They were taken away their right of freedom of speech because they could not say a word about what they knew. These employees lost freedom and time from the Watergate scandal and they deserve to be seen more in the movie.

3.         If I could add twenty more minutes to the movie I would suggest for the filmmaker to add more scenes of American citizens because this whole scandal was a big emotional time for the citizens as well as the reporters and officials. Not only that but I would also add more of the speeches by Nixon, and the speeches made by the people who were sent to jail. I want to add these scenes to add the importance of how many people were involved and to see how all of them thought of themselves as innocent. I read an article from the Washington Post about Frank Sturgis. Sturgis was one of the burglars involved and he claims he was innocent because he thought he was receiving evidence on how Castro was helping the 1972 democratic presidential campaign. The five burglars declare that they were only helping the United States from Castro by breaking into Watergate Hotel. These stories from the burglars and other officials needed to be seen in the movie because it shows how much the FBI and CIA only knew so much information about the scandal because of how Nixon hid it. This is so important because the film does not completely show how much of a part the burglars were, and some of the officials were in the scandal. The movie portrays these characters as of little importance and only the committee to re-elect were vital for the investigation.

            Not only would I add more time on the characters involved, but more scenes on U.S. citizens to show their reaction to the whole scandal. I would add more scenes of the faces made when watching the whole Watergate investigation on the news. Also maybe add scenes of people’s reactions when Nixon resigned and see what they had to say on it. I did not know that it affected the trust of the government until reading a History.com article on the summary of the Watergate incident. The American people questioned authority and did not know if they were making the right decisions. If the movie added more scenes of citizens and their reaction to the scandal, I think it would add more tension, seriousness, and importance to Watergate in the movie.