--- description: Robert Redford, who died on Sept. 16 at the age of 89, was determined to turn 'All the President's Men' into a movie title: How Robert Redford Made 'All The President's Men' Happen image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e595aaabba52ee3/6998c9cfd32e936e75cd7569/GettyImages-2170295070.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How One of Robert Redford's Landmark Films Nearly Fell Apart ## Video: Robert Redford, Oscar Winning Actor, Director and Indie Patriarch, Dies at 89 [Watch (HLS stream): Robert Redford, Oscar Winning Actor, Director and Indie Patriarch, Dies at 89](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WdLB5dnX.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2025-09-16. Robert Redford, the Hollywood golden boy who became an Oscar-winning director, liberal activist and godfather for independent cinema under the name of one of his best-loved characters, died Tuesday at 89._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Sep 16, 2025 6:31 PM CUT  Robert Redford in All the President's Men Robert Redford in All the President's MenCourtesy of Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Sep 16, 2025 6:31 PM CUT [Robert Redford](https://time.com/7317630/robert-redford-climate-activism/ "undefined"), the actor and Academy Award-winning director, died Sept. 16 at the age of 89\. Redford became “the most sought-after actor in town” when _The Way We Were_ and _The Sting_ were released while he was filming _The Great Gatsby_, TIME [reported](https://time.com/vault/issue/1974-03-18/page/1/ "undefined") in 1974\. Two years later, the hit film _All the President’s Men_ came out, inspired by the true story of how Washington _Post_ investigative reporters Bob Woodward (played by Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) uncovered details about the Nixon administration’s involvement in the Watergate scandal, leading President Richard Nixon to become the first U.S. president to resign. But the movie almost didn’t happen. It took a long time for The Washington _Post_ to trust [Redford](https://time.com/5574056/earth-day-2019-climate-change-politics/ "undefined") to tell its story. Here’s a look at how the film came to be. ## **Gaining trust** According to a 1976 TIME [cover story](https://time.com/vault/issue/1976-03-29/page/1/ "undefined") on the making of the film, Redford was inspired to make the movie after overhearing a group of journalists at a junket for his movie _The Candidate_ discuss the bungled break-in of the Democratic National Committee’s office in the Watergate apartment building in 1972 and speculating that Nixon must have known about it. As TIME reported on his reaction: “[Redford](https://time.com/5058932/robert-redford-arctic-trump-taxes/ "undefined") was shocked: ‘I’ve always had a very low regard for cynicism; I think it is the beginning of dying.’ He had a less philosophical reason for focusing on the burglary. Back home in Van Nuys, Calif., when[ Redford](https://time.com/4590837/robert-redford-solar-power-must-continue-to-be-affordable/ "undefined"), then 13, had won a tennis tournament, Senator Richard Nixon had awarded him the trophy. Young Bob was not impressed: ‘I thought, what a nonperson! This fake human!’” After following their investigative reporting on Watergate at the _Post_, [Redford](https://time.com/4865265/climate-change-paris-accord-g20-summit-president-donald-trump-robert-redford/ "undefined") reached out to [Woodward and Bernstein](https://time.com/4760743/white-house-correspondents-dinner-woodward-bernstein-speech-2017/ "undefined") well before they became known for their 1974 nonfiction book on the topic _All the President’s Men_. In fact, the pair was [facing a major setback on the story](https://time.com/archive/6876719/the-press-woodstein-meets-deep-throat/ "undefined") when Redford first got in touch, but that's why he did it, telling TIME in 1976: “I wanted to see them when they had bottomed out. People who take wild shots and miss interest me.” [Redford](https://time.com/4995744/robert-redford-scott-pruitt/ "undefined") was ready to turn _All the President’s Men_ into a movie, buying the rights for $450,000\. However, at first, “they didn’t return my calls,” Redford [told](https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/interactive/2022/all-the-presidents-men-robert-redford-woodward-bernstein/ "undefined") the Washington _Post_ magazine for a 2022 retrospective on the movie. “I can remember Woodward coming over to my desk, and I looked at him like he was crazy," Bernstein added. "I said, ‘No, we cannot talk to him! Suppose the \[Republican National Committee\] found out we were talking to Hollywood?’” For the screenplay, [Redford ](https://time.com/5415035/robert-redford-interview/ "undefined")hired William Goldman, who wrote _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_—“the film that made Redford a superstar,” as TIME put it—but an early draft put so much emphasis on crude humor in the newsroom that it turned _Post_ bigwigs off. The paper’s Executive Editor Ben Bradlee, while initially all for the project, was worried that it made a “caricature” out of the newsroom. Bradlee told TIME, “He kept saying, ‘You’ve got to trust us.’ We didn’t understand that. We were thinking, ‘Why the hell should we trust Robert Redford? Why should we turn our reputations over to him?’ ” Redford shadowed _Post_ newsroom to see how the journalists worked and he and the actors ended up writing much of the script themselves and improvising it during film production, while Redford called Woodward and Bernstein five or six times a day to make sure his additions were accurate.  The director and cast members of All The President's Men outside the offices of the Washington Post, 1976. Courtesy of Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images ## **The success of** **_All the President’s Men_** After being hesitant to participate, Woodward and Bernstein were very happy with the finished product. “The film taught me something about my business, seeing how they treated it and how they cared for it,” Woodward told TIME in 1976\. “The movie’s not just pretty damned true, it is true. I just think, if reporters see it, they’ll say, ‘This is how we do it.’” Bernstein added: “They did a spectacular reporting job to do this movie. Good reporters get their sources to trust them, and that’s what they did with us.” The public felt the same way. The film grossed $70 million at the box office, and it won four Academy Awards, including one for the screenplay. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7317680/robert-redford-all-the-presidents-men-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7317680/robert-redford-all-the-presidents-men-history/"},"headline":"How One of Robert Redford's Landmark Films Nearly Fell Apart","datePublished":"2025-09-16T18:31:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:51:26.705Z","description":"Robert Redford, who died on Sept. 16 at the age of 89, was determined to turn 'All the President's Men' into a movie","url":"https://time.com/7317680/robert-redford-all-the-presidents-men-history/","keywords":["movies","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e595aaabba52ee3/6998c9cfd32e936e75cd7569/GettyImages-2170295070.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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