Entertainment News

Stop the presses! 'All the President's Men' and great journalism movies

By Todd Leopold, CNN

Updated 1252 GMT (1952 HKT) April 8, 2016

Behind the biggest break-in of the 1970s 01:13

Story highlights

• "All the President's Men," about reporters investigating the Watergate scandal, came out April 9, 1976
• Newspapers and journalism have been mainstays of many classic movies

CNN's Sweet '16 series celebrates 16 things we like in 2016 in such areas as entertainment, travel, food and culture.

(CNN)Follow the money.

That was the mantra that came out of "All the President's Men," released 40 years ago Saturday. In fact, those three words became such a common saying that, these days, people assume it was part of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book.

It wasn't. Screenwriter William Goldman essentially coined the phrase for the movie.

That wasn't the movie's only influence.

The 1976 film, which starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as the Watergate-exposing Washington Post reporters, was said to have inspired a generation of students to enter journalism (though some authors have doubted the claim). It was a box office success, the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year.

And it was widely praised. It garnered eight Oscar nominations, including best picture, though it lost to "Rocky."

Even today, it may be the gold standard of journalism movies, a rich genre in movie history.

"All the President's Men" certainly takes care of the checklist: dogged reporters in pursuit of a big story, slammed doors, painstaking research and even a little newsroom jocularity. In addition, It portrays investigative reporting as something noble, a quality it shares with the most recent best picture winner, "Spotlight."

Not every journalism movie does. In fact, some of the great ones cast a skeptical eye on what is supposed to be a skeptical job. But then, why should it be otherwise?

So stop the presses. In no particular order, here are 16 news-oriented films that are fit to print -- on film stock or digital. (Warning: Some of the clips contain adult language.)

'All the President's Men'

Forty years later, "President's Men's" crackling plot, excellent performances (including Jason Robards as editor Ben Bradlee, for which he won an Oscar) and as-it-happens immediacy still make the film one to watch.