YMMV / All the President's Men

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• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Most audiences in the '70s assumed that Deep Throat was a Composite Character who pulled elements from multiple anonymous dissidents that Woodward and Bernstein were in contact with. The idea of one man knowing so much incriminating information and hiding in the shadows while disseminating it felt too unrealistic to be true, especially given the meticulous lengths that Richard Nixon went to in order to whet his paranoia. In 2005, former FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt revealed that he was indeed the real Deep Throat and that he really did act alone in helping Woodward and Bernstein's investigation; Woodward readily confirmed Felt's statements, noting that he vowed not to reveal Deep Throat's identity until Deep Throat died or revealed his identity himself.
• Award Snub:
  • At the Academy Awards, the film just happened to be up against the likes of Taxi Driver, Bound for Glory, Network and the eventual winner, Rocky. Not so much a snub as it was up against some of the best films of The '70s and perhaps ever.
  • And taking this into account, the film actually managed to do quite well come Oscar time, winning four awards (including one for Jason Robards' supporting performance and William Goldman's screenplay).
  • That said, Gordon Willis' cinematography wasn't even nominated.
• Awesome Music: David Shire's score is one of his best. It's so quiet that it's almost subliminal, but if you listen it starts out with a strong noir flavour as if to emphasise the ubiquitous corruption, and as the reporters get closer and closer to the truth, it changes slowly and subtly into an equally quiet Theme Music Power-Up, without ever getting obtrusive. When we first hear the music, it sounds almost like the theme from The Twilight Zone, fitting with the bizarre events to come.
• Genius Bonus: It's certainly not a requirement for enjoying the movie, but having a working knowledge of Watergate and the Nixon Administration will make it much easier to navigate the barrage of names, dates and events covered in the movie. Explaining these details was probably seen at the time as less important, as it was only 4 years before the film was made that the scandal had broken.
• Memetic Mutation: Everything involving Deep Throat. The garage, the outfit, "Follow the money", as the Trope Codifier for the Mysterious Informant it's all been homaged and parodied. Especially amazing is that other than the "follow the money" line, all the other stuff to do with Deep Throat was completely true.
• One-Scene Wonder: Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat only appears in three scenes of the film, but his menacing, cynical performance casts a shadow over the entire rest of the film and his performance was so iconic that arguably every example of the Mysterious Informant trope since has been influenced if not directly inspired by him.
• Retroactive Recognition: F. Murray Abraham as Sgt. Paul Leeper.
  • Lindsay Crouse as Kay Eddy (the co-worker of Bernstein and Woodward who reluctantly provides the list of those who work for the Committee to Re-Elect the President).
  • Uncle Junior is one of the Watergate burglars.

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