As reported in the 29 Mar 1976 Time, actor Robert Redford first became aware of the Watergate burglary while on a promotional tour for The Candidate (1972, see entry). He soon took notice of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and contacted them after they had implicated H. R. Haldeman in the conspiracy without corroboration, at a time when the team’s credibility was in question. Said Redford, “People who take wild shots and miss interest me.” Redford was also motivated by his personal dislike of President Richard Nixon, whom the actor had met at age thirteen when then-Senator Nixon presented Redford with a tennis trophy. A news item in Feb 1980 Los Angeles magazine mentioned a recent story in the LAT which revealed that All the President’s Men was written at Redford’s suggestion, although his name does not appear among the book’s acknowledgments. However, the item noted that Redford's involvement was mentioned in the book, Portrait of “All the President’s Men” by Jack Hirshberg.
       According to an item in the 7 Jul 1974 Parade, Redford purchased the rights to All the President’s Men with $450,000 supplied by Warner Bros. Pictures in exchange for the actor’s commitment to appear in two more films for the company. The 14 Jun 1975 Toronto Star, reported that actor Dustin Hoffman also intended to buy the rights to the book before realizing that Redford had already completed the deal.
       The 11 Apr 1975 Washington Post ran a detailed feature story on the making of the film and its impact on the newspaper. The article stated that the film was originally budgeted at $5 million, with shooting scheduled to begin 12 May 1975. William Goldman’s first draft of the screenplay was rejected, and when Redford solicited suggestions from Woodward and Bernstein, the latter submitted a screenplay co-written with Nora Ephron, which was also rejected. In the Post article, a proposed scene is described wherein Woodward and Bernstein witness one of their stories rolling off the printing press, which the Post derided. It did not appear in the final edit.
       Casting was still in progress at the time of the Post article, with several actors being considered to portray Ben Bradlee. Among them were Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Kirk Douglas and Gregory Peck. Under consideration for the role of publisher Katherine Graham were Patricia Neal, Alexis Smith and Dorothy McGuire. However, no portrayal of Graham appeared in the film.
       Redford and Hoffman spent several weeks in the company of Woodward and Bernstein, respectively, and also observed the workings of the Washington Post newsroom, according to the Washington Post. In the absence of Woodward and Bernstein, who were on leave to work on their second book, Redford and Hoffman continued their research with investigative reporters Seymour Hersh and Fred Barbash, respectively. Director Alan J. Pakula interviewed several Post editors and reporters as well.
       The Post denied permission to film in the newsroom, requiring a set to be built at the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, CA.
       At the time of the 11 Apr 1975 Washington Post article, producer Walter Coblenz only had permission to use the names of Woodward and Bernstein; there was some doubt that many other Post staff members would grant permission to use their names. However, District of Columbia Editor Barry Sussman, whose unofficial title had been “Watergate editor,” took issue with being omitted from the script; Goldman consolidated his character with that of Harry Rosenfeld. Redford stated that the finished script would be available to all involved Post staffers, who could grant or deny permission for their real names to be used. Graham and Bradlee both expressed concerns about the accuracy with which the film would portray the Post and its staff, and Bernstein remarked that he would give the finished script “a good, hard look.” Woodward, however, did not express a similar interest.
       Joyce Haber’s column in the 30 Apr 1975 LAT reported that Jason Robards had been cast as Ben Bradlee, in part because Lee Marvin was unavailable. Haber included Lauren Bacall (formerly married to Robards) as a possible candidate to be cast as Katherine Graham. According to the column, filming began in Washington, D.C., on 28 Apr 1975. However, a 22 May 1975 Washington Post story stated that the District of Columbia granted permission to film between 19 May and 14 Jun 1975. An interview with Robards in the 16 Apr 1976 LAT revealed that Robards had known Bradlee for many years and was somewhat uncomfortable with portraying him.
       An article in the 29 Jun 1975 Chicago Sun-Times included among the film’s Washington, D.C., locations the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the Sans Souci Restaurant, Woodward’s former apartment in the DuPont Circle district, and the Washington Post building, including the newsroom. This report conflicts with Washington Post article, which stated that no filming would be permitted in the newsroom. A news item in 26 May 1975 Box reported that Ron Nessen, press secretary for President Gerald Ford, gave Coblenz permission to film inside the White House, beginning early Jun 1975. The article also mentioned that the production would employ three hundred extras.
       According to an article in the 3 Jul 1975 DV, the completed newsroom set occupied 33,000 square feet of space, encompassing Stages 4 and 11 of the Warner lot, at a cost of $450,000. In an interview in the Mar/Apr 1980 Theatre Crafts, George Jenkins described the process of recreating a newsroom: 167 desks were built, with one ton of scrap paper from "the Government Printing Office" used to dress them; the 22,000-square-foot Styrofoam ceiling was suspended from catwalks, and the columns were on casters, allowing them to be moved to accommodate shooting; and 200 miles of wire were employed in ballasting the fluorescent ceiling lights to reduce noise. Sets for Woodward’s apartment and Democratic headquarters were built in Burbank and shipped to Washington, D.C. Jenkins was able to acquire the original furniture for the latter from the Democratic National Committee. The White House entrance and guard house were reproduced at the Columbia Studios Ranch in Burbank, and included a fence and gate that had been used in Kisses for My President (1964, see entry). The courtroom scene was filmed in an actual Washington, D.C., courtroom. According to the 15 Jun 1975 Washington Star, the sets for Democratic headquarters, Woodward’s apartment and Larry O’Brien’s office were assembled in a Gaithersburg, MD, warehouse.
       A feature article in the 14 Jun 1975 Toronto Star described an incident during filming at the Sans Souci Restaurant. A scene that involved Robards, Hoffman and Redford was interrupted when an overhead light fell onto the table at which they were seated; the fixture glanced off Redford’s head and right shoulder, but he was uninjured. Pakula was upset to the point of nausea and retired to his trailer for an hour. Bernstein commented, “Movies sure are dramatic. Nothing like that ever happened to us.” Coblenz rented the Sans Souci for $5,000 and flew the maitre d’ in from a European vacation for the day’s filming.
       According to the 3 Jul 1975 DV, filming was scheduled to conclude sometime in Sep 1975. A 6 Oct 1975 Box news item announced that filming had been completed in ninety-six days of shooting, though it did not give the exact date of completion.
       In 22 Oct 1975 DV, it was reported that the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), took issue with Warner Bros. for soliciting “blind bids” from exhibitors without making any part of All the President’s Men available for viewing. Redford did a presentation at the 1976 NATO convention in New Orleans with a five-minute clip from the film, but this was an exception. NATO held the view that a distributor could not solicit blind bids if any kind of presentation was made to some theater owners but not others. NATO planned to discuss the situation with Warner Bros.
       After receiving an initial 'R' rating, All the President’s Men was re-rated 'PG' by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), despite the presence of objectionable language throughout the film. According to a 3 Mar 1976 Var article, MPAA’s Jack Valenti stated that the film would have received a “G” rating, had it not been for “the language factor.” A related article from DV on the same date suggested that the film's PG rating might make it harder for the MPAA "to defend tougher ratings for [future] films" based on "language content alone."
       The film premiered 4 Apr 1976 at the Eisenhower Theatre of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, according to the 8 Mar 1976 Box. Woodward, Bernstein, Hoffman and Redford were set to attend. The premier committee included several famous journalists, such as Art Buchwald, Mary McGrory, Sarah McClendon, Jack Anderson, David Brinkley, and Eric Sevareid.
       According to the 6 Oct 1976 HR, Warner Bros. booked All the President’s Men in six hundred theaters throughout the United States in the two weeks prior to the 2 Nov 1976 presidential election. A company official insisted that this was not intended to influence the election’s outcome.
       An article in the 27 Jan 1977 DV reported that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) would allow All the President’s Men to compete for a Golden Globe award, even though Warner Bros. had mistakenly advertised the film as a “Golden Globe winner” in an advertisement in the 24 Jan 1977 DV.
       Reviews were mostly positive, though some criticized the lack of character development for Woodward and Bernstein. Hoffman addressed this aspect in production notes from AMPAS, stating that development of the characters would have been a distraction from the storyline. One of the most negative reviews appeared in the 26 Apr 1976 New West, which argued that the film missed an opportunity to explain the implications of the Watergate scandal, and the pathology that drove the conspirators. However, the 29 Mar 1976 Time reported that Woodward and Bernstein were pleased with the film.
       All the President's Men was ranked 77th on AFI's 2007 100 Years…100 Movies—10th Anniversary Edition list of the greatest American films. It won four Academy Awards: Supporting Actor (Jason Robards); Art Direction (George Jenkins); Sound (Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander and Jim Webb); and Screenplay based on material from another source (William Goldman). It was also nominated for Supporting Actress (Jane Alexander), Director (Alan J. Pakula), Film Editing (Robert L. Wolfe), and Best Picture. The film also received four Golden Globe award nominations in the following categories: Best Director; Best Motion Picture; Best Supporting Actor (Jason Robards); and Best Screenplay.
       Frank Wills, the security guard who first alerted police to the Watergate burglary, portrayed himself in the film, as reported in the 15 May 1975 Var.
       Deep Throat's identity, William Mark Felt, Sr., former FBI Deputy Director, was confirmed on 31 May 2005, and front-page articles in the LAT, NYT and The Washington Post reported the story 1 Jun 2005. Felt, Sr., died 18 Dec 2008, per various obituaries. He was the first name mentioned as the possible identity of Deep Throat in a 1976 press release from production files at the AMPAS library.
      End credits include the following written statements: "The producers wish to acknowledge the cooperation of The Washington Post"; "Filmed in Washington, D. C. and at The Burbank Studios, Burbank, California"; and "Various locations courtesy of the National Park Service."