Overview: Directed by Alan J. Pakula and written by William Goldman, the film is based on the 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. All the President’s Men stars Academy Award winners Robert Redford (Ordinary People) and Dustin Hoffman (Kramer vs Kramer, Rain Man), along with Academy Award nominee Jack Warden (Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait), Academy Award winner Martin Balsam (A Thousand Clowns), Academy Award nominee Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild), and Academy Award Winner Jason Robards (Julia).

Academy Award winners Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star in this true story as Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, whose investigation of a seemingly minor hotel room break-in uncovers the greatest political scandal in United States history and leads to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

This Academy Award winning film - and biographical political thriller masterpiece - All the President’s Men, will be available for the first time for purchase Digitally in 4K Ultra HD and on 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc on February 17th, 2026.

The film will also be available to purchase on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc online and in-store at major retailers and available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Fandango at Home and more.

4K UHD Blu-ray Verdict: Warner Bros. Entertainment is expanding their 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray catalog offerings this month with the release of the Award-winning All the President’s Men (4K Ultra HD + Digital) in the expansive 4K Ultra HD video format this February 17th, 2026.

For my money, this All the President’s Men (4K Ultra HD + Digital) sharpness takes a fairly large step forward from others in their 4K Ultra HD catalog and even comes with HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the complete 4K Ultra HD experience, of course.

So, what we have is All the President’s Men presented to us as a one-disc with a sheet for a Digital HD Copy. Other stand out points you should know are: Codec: HEVC / H.265 (72.61 Mbps), Resolution: Native 4K (2160p), HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10, Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 and Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1.

Featuring Dolby Vision and HDR10 for brighter, deeper, and way more lifelike colors, as with most all 4K UHDs, everything that we watch features these qualities - but somehow, this film gloriously shines within them all.

Noticeably crisp with the overall clarity receiving an obvious boost here on this release, what is more is that it is enjoyably noticeable. For as well as some new nuances to the somewhat drab palette courtesy of Dolby Vision, we also get to witness sudden bright pops of color, which makes the eyes draw in, for sure.

One of those moments - and not to give too much away here - is a six minute scene where Redford is in a busy newsroom, making phone calls while his co-worker Carl Bernstein is out pounding the pavement. The two are trying to pin down a connection between Nixon’s re-election campaign and one of the Watergate burglars. It’s a relatively minor story, but one of the building blocks of the bigger picture that the president was directly involved in the crime.

As the scene begins, a TV in the background is blaring the day’s top story — that Democratic vice-presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton was dropping out of the race — and director Alan J. Pakula does something of a head fake to make the viewer wonder if that will be important. But Redford-as-Woodward pays no attention as he keeps making calls, trying to find someone who can help him break the story.

His acting is understated but precise. At one point, the source says, “I shouldn’t be telling you this,” and Redford makes a silent two-second prayer with his eyes closed that every reporter recognizes. After the source gives him the information he’s been looking for, Redford breaks into a tightly restrained joy, trying so hard not to betray his emotions that he calls the source by the wrong name and quickly apologizes. The phone call ends and he immediately begins banging out the article on his typewriter.

As for the audio, well we get the choice of: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono, French: Dolby Digital Mono, German: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono and Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono (Spain).

Overall, this is a very strong 4K HDR Blu-ray presentation, and, for the most part, the audio track remains fairly similar to its DTS-HD counterpart; with much of the action occupying the surrounds with outstanding directionality and placement where effects flawlessly pan between the sides and rears.

As for the film itself, well, based on the 1974 book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, this is an absolutely brilliant political thriller. The film is a largely historically accurate depiction of the two Washington Post journalists’ investigation into the Watergate scandal and the surrounding conspiracy. The film has a wonderful script by William Goldman, whose name is synonymous with quality in my book. It throws a great deal of information our way, but it is such a taut, well-paced, well-thought-out script that it never runs the risk of overwhelming the audience with exposition.

I also have to praise the sterling direction of Alan J. Pakula, who is able to maintain a high level of tension and suspense throughout the film. It is never less than gripping from beginning to end. I liked the fact that music is used sparingly as it added to the sheer sense of realism on display. The film was nominated for Best Picture but it lost to Rocky. [No comment].

As we all know, the film stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in a pair of fantastic performances as Woodward and Bernstein respectively. Hoffman is marginally better than Redford but both men deserved Oscar nominations for Best Actor and it is a shame that the Academy was not forthcoming in either case. I wish that they had made other films together as they have such great chemistry.

Following the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972, Woodward, a rookie reporter who has only been with The Washington Post for nine months, is assigned to cover the matter as it is not considered to be worth the attention of anyone higher up in the paper. He soon discovers that the five burglars have all had prior involvement with the CIA and is able to establish a link between them and former CIA agent E. Howard Hunt and Nixon’s Special Counsel Charles Colson.

The more experienced Bernstein, who has a tendency to ruffle people’s feathers, inveigles himself into the investigation and the two reporters are assigned to work on the story together. Neither of them are particularly thrilled about it but they develop a strong, if occasionally a little combative, working relationship. They’re not exactly best friends but they spark off each other and give each other ideas.

Bernstein is depicted as being a little obnoxious with a bull in a china shop mentality when it comes to asking questions of reluctant interviewees, which is almost all of them. It serves as a very effective contrast to the more amiable Woodward’s softly, softly approach. Bernstein tends to go with gut feelings far more than Woodward. However, they are able to procure many results working together that they may not have been able to get alone.

Much of the investigation concerns the illegal and unconstitutional activities of the Committee to Re-elect the President, otherwise known as CREEP. If this film were pure fiction, I would mock the use of an organization with the acronym CREEP as laughable since no one in their right mind would pick a name like that. It just goes to show that sometimes fact is stranger than fiction!

While some of them are heard over the phone, none of the senior members of the conspiracy such as G. Gordon Liddy, the former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, the White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman (regularly referred to as being the second most powerful man in the country) and Jeb Stuart Magruder are seen on screen. This was a brilliant move on Goldman’s part as it served the emphasize the existence of a shadowy conspiracy which involved the entire US intelligence community.

Nixon himself is only seen in archive footage. One of the best illustrations of this is his renomination at the 1972 Republican Convention, which was announced by his eventual successor Gerald Ford. The events surrounding Ford’s elevation to the presidency just shy of two years later could not have been predicted at the time, so it was merely a stroke of good fortune for the filmmakers that it was Ford who chaired the Convention.

Another very effective use of archive footage is the depiction of Nixon being sworn in for his second term in the final scene on January 20th, 1973, in which he swears, as part of the oath of office, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Jason Robards is very good in the role of the newspaper’s executive editor Ben Bradlee, for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Jack Warden as the local editor Harry M. Rosenfeld, Martin Balsam as the managing editor Howard Simons and/or the suitably enigmatic Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat, who was revealed to be former FBI Associate Director W. Mark Felt in 2005, also deserved nominations for the same award. Jane Alexander is excellent in the small role of the bookkeeper Judy Hoback Miller, who was vital in unravelling the conspiracy.

Her Best Supporting Actress nomination was well deserved. She is really the closest thing that the film has to a female lead. The film also features nice small appearances from Ned Beatty, F. Murray Abraham, Lindsay Crouse and Meredith Baxter. In a great moment of art imitating life, Frank Wills, the security guard who secured a place in history for himself when he told the police about the break-in, plays himself at the beginning of the film.

Overall, this is a superb film which serves as a powerful reminder of the vital role that the Fourth Estate plays in society and as a damning indictment of the worst excesses of political corruption in a democratic state. [G.F.]

All the President’s Men Digital release and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc contains the following new and previously released special features:

All the President’s Men: The Film and its Influence (NEW)
Woodward and Bernstein: A Journalism Masterclass (NEW)
Woodward and Bernstein: Lighting the Fire
Telling the Truth About Lies
Out of the Shadows: The Man who was Deep Throat
Jason Robards on “Dinah!”

The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 4 for Best Supporting Actor (Robards), Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium (Goldman), Best Art Direction (George C. Jenkins & George Gaines), and Best Sound (Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholz, Dick Alexander, and James E. Webb).

In 2010, All the President’s Men was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”