The five would-be burglars have unusual profiles and when Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) attends their hearing he finds that they are better represented than expected and one admits to being a former CIA agent.
Smelling something off he begins to collaborate with fellow reporter Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) on the story.
It felt timely to rewatch this given what has happened to the Washington Post this week.
Sadly I think this revered movie has aged poorly when much of that reverence should really directed at the earth-shaking real-world story it is based on and not from its merit as a dramatic account of it.
While the actual investigation will have consisted of repeatedly doorstepping and calling various political figures, administrators and volunteers teasing the tiniest non-denial from them then playing that off against the next this makes for repetitive viewing.
There is even a tacit admission of this in that it ends with the production of the main knockout Post story and its effect as montage. It's a two hour movie in an era of ninety minute ones and it shows.
Modern tellings of this kind of thing get derided for simplifying or 'glamming up' events but I think we've genuinely learned to shift the line further from documentary towards drama and get better dramas as a result. I should perhaps now watch "The Post" or something similar for comparison.
Not as good as you remember it being, 7/10.