Alan J. Pakula directed All The President's Men as a suspenseful thriller, similar to his other films in the "Paranoia Trilogy." Pakula said he achieved this by putting the emphasis on the two main characters and their achievements as they struggle against two institutions: first the Washington Post, then the White House itself. He said in an interview that "the essence of the film is what was it like to be Woodward and Bernstein?" The suspense in the film is counterintuitive because as Pakula points out, "most people know the facts about Watergate, but they don't know how they were obtained." Pakula sought to give the emotional, exciting part of the history-making scandal and to focus making the Washington D.C. setting realistic, even though most of the filming was done in Burbank, California.
A stylistic choice that Pakula made to tether the film to the era was the inclusion of well-selected newsreels and television footage. This not only roots the film in the 1970s, but also shows how the very specific local work of Woodward and Bernstein connects with a broader sweep of events happening the entire country. In an article on the film, The A.V. Club also notes how Pakula makes a conscious choice to fill "the screen with Woodward and Bernstein’s handwritten notes and doodles, making it clear how many bewildering details had to be juggled in order to arrive at each new level of intrigue." There's a sense of confusion and fumbling around in the dark amidst the huge conspiracy that we today know to be the Watergate scandal.
The film also plays with the dramatic irony of the audience knowing exactly how the Watergate Scandal will unravel, discreetly acknowledging this dramatic irony rather than making it explicit. The opening of the film with President Nixon being called a "happy president" contrasts sharply with what we know will happen to the administration. There are Easter eggs that Pakula chooses to include, such as showing then-Representative Gerald R. Ford nominating Nixon for the presidency, which he himself will be stepping into only two years later. Pukula manages to make the film feel tethered to real life, even though there are aspects of a thriller at every turn. He reminds us that this is an event that is s too important to forget.
