Mr. BP put this one on the Netflix list, and it's kind of silly that neither of us had seen it before now. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, respectively, the reporters at the Washington Post who broke the Watergate story. It is based on a book which I haven't yet read, written by said reporters. As somewhat of a politics and history junkie, this was fascinating to me. And for classics like these, I love to watch the "behind the scenes" footage of how they made the movie. And in this case, it had actual interviews with Woodward and Bernstein, all the actors, and a nice extended "making of" bit that showed how they recreated the WaPo offices down to the last detail - by stealing trash out of the trashbins! There is a nice discussion of what real investigative journalism is - at least, in 1974. Watching WaPo be presented as a vaunted institution, and seeing all the footwork involved in writing the story, it makes for an interesting comparison with today's electronic media. What I felt was that even though the institutions and mediums have changed, true reporting and true journalism will always require research and integrity. Today, it matters less where you work than WHY you work - and it's the same whether you're at the Washington Post or the Huffington Post. I think that in the digital age, it's easier to let your voice be heard - but more work to separate it and put it above the rest.
Anyway, now I'm rambling. Rent this if you haven't already.
More info: Wikipedia entry
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