Director: Alan J. Pakula
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Jason Robards
Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure.
Did I Like It: There’s a genre of storytelling that is really starting to piss me off. Siskel often lamented that it was being depicted with less and less frequency in American cinema, as it was quickly—post Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)—committing all of its A-level resources to material which in the past would have been relegated to b-pictures*. Sorkin almost exclusively trucks in it. This movie is an absolute master’s survey of it (to the point where I’m thinking it almost has to be one of the pillars of influence for Mr. Sorkin) .
It is a type of story that involves very real heroism, but of a cerebral sort. Here, it’s framed as a detective story. Although we already know whodunit, and rather notably so, the tension is maintained. How? It lies almost exclusively in the fact that this is a story about people—adults, even when some of their flaws come into full bloom—who are passionate about their work, and their work is objectively important.
It makes one want to feel passionately about their own work. In truth, it makes one long for work that might actually matter. I’m so sick to death of it, and I can’t get enough of it.
*One can only wonder what—had he lived—the tall, skinny one might have thought about the current condition of the movies. You, dear reader, might be heartened by some recent failures in the superhero genre and think that things are going to go back to normal. I would imagine it won’t. The superhero is going nowhere, it’s just that studios will stop green-lighting movies which will balloon in costs to 300 million. Not every release can be The Avengers (2012).