See Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in Rare Set Photos From 1976’s ‘All the President’s Men,’ 50 Years Later

Few films captured the political urgency of their time better than All the President’s Men. The movie, which starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the intrepid Washington Post reporters who broke the story of the Watergate scandal, leading to the end of Richard Nixon’s presidency, was a critical and commercial hit, earning eight Academy Award nominations and winning Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Sound.

All the President’s Men was released in April 1976—just a year and a half after Nixon’s resignation—and as it celebrates its 50th anniversary, it remains incredibly relevant. With the big anniversary coming up and Redford’s sad passing at 89 last year, we’re taking a look back at the film with rare photos from the set of the ripped-from-the-headlines political thriller.

Entertainment

Robert Redford Was More Than Just an Actor: The 9 Films He Directed

During the course of an impressive career that spanned over six decades, Robert Redford, who just died at age 89, was known as one of the film industry’s most charismatic and multitalented figures. Of course, Redford was the handsome leading man in classic ’60s and ’70s films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The […]

1. Listening to the director

Here, Robert Redford listens intently as the film’s director, Alan J. Pakula, guides him through a scene. All the President’s Men was the last film in Pakula’s “Paranoia Trilogy,” as his previous two films, Klute (1971) and The Parallax View (1974), dealt with similar themes.

2. Shaggy on set

Dustin Hoffman’s shaggy hairdo and wide striped tie in this set photo with Pakula are peak ’70s! Surprisingly, Hoffman wasn’t Redford’s original pick to play Carl Bernstein, as he initially wanted Al Pacino to play the part.

3. Reporters on the run

This image of Redford and Hoffman being filmed running from their desk perfectly captures the movie’s edge-of-your-seat vibe. Redford knew the story of All the President’s Men was one that had to be told, and said, “I was so proud and so happy to make a film that celebrates how important journalism is and how it proved itself by hard work. Hard, truthful work by these two lowly journalists was able to undermine the top level of the U.S.: the president.”

4. An office chat

Here, Redford chats with Pakula on set. Redford was actively involved in the production of All the President’s Men, as he bought the rights to Woodward and Bernstein’s book of the same name, and had a hand in the film’s casting process, as well as making edits to the screenplay.

5. Woodward and Redford

In this candid, Redford talks to Bob Woodward, the Washington Post journalist he played in the film. Redford and Woodward became friends, and they were close until the actor died in 2025. Following his passing, Woodward called Redford “genuine, a noble and principled force for good who fought successfully to find and communicate the truth,” and said, “I loved him, and admired him—for his friendship, his fiery independence and the way he used any platform he had to help make the world better, fairer, brighter for others.”

6. Out on the town

While most of the drama in All the President’s Men takes place inside the offices of The Washington Post (which were recreated on a Hollywood soundstage), the film was also shot on location in D.C. Here, Hoffman and Redford work with Pakula against a backdrop of D.C. architecture.

7. Typing and talking

It’s hard to imagine today, but Woodward and Bernstein wrote their game-changing articles on typewriters. Here, Hoffman sits at his typewriter while Redford talks to him and various crew members look on. They’re being filmed by cinematographer Gordon Willis, who previously worked with Pakula on Klute and The Parallax View and was best known for shooting The Godfather and its sequels. Willis was called “the Prince of Darkness” due to his expertise at shooting shadowy, atmospheric scenes.

8. The gang’s all here

Here, Redford and Hoffman congregate with their costars Jason Robards (who played Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and won an Oscar for his performance), Jack Warden (who played Post editor Harry M. Rosenfeld) and Martin Balsam (who played Post editor Howard Simons) and the director.

9. Library lurking

One of the film’s most memorable scenes takes place at the Library of Congress, where the reporters search through piles of checkout cards. Pakula shot the scene on location, and the grandeur of the library building added considerable drama. It wasn’t an easy scene to shoot—the Library of Congress didn’t want them to film there, and after All the President’s Men, the building refused filming requests for many years.

10. Dynamic duo

Redford and Hoffman made for an iconic pair, and here, they strike serious poses as Pakula looks on. After Redford’s death, Hoffman said, “Working with Redford on All the President’s Men was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. He was that rare person where what you see is what you get: the decency he projected in his movies was genuine.”

11. Where it all went down

Deal of the Day

This Deep Conditioning Collagen Hair Mask for Has 4.9 Stars and Is 80% Off — Get It for $20! View Deal

You might think this is a photo of The Washington Post’s office, but you’d be mistaken! Redford and Hoffman spent months visiting the office and talking to journalists to prepare for their roles, but the newspaper refused to let them film the movie there. The production designers went to painstaking lengths to recreate the office, as they measured the real office, ordered desks from the same company that provided the furniture used by The Post and obtained a brick from the paper’s lobby so that they could replicate the architecture as closely as possible. They even took boxes of trash from the real newsroom and replicated outdated phonebooks, and all of this work behind the scenes made All the President’s Men feel deeply authentic. As Redford put it, “Accuracy was the big, big objective in making the film. We had to be accurate, otherwise we would fall under that perception that Hollywood was messing around with a very vital event.”

12. The leading man

Robert Redford was always one of Hollywood’s most handsome leading men. Here, he looks dashing as he’s interviewed by multiple reporters on set. All the President’s Men remained close to his heart for decades, and he later recalled, “I don’t think anybody expected Watergate to get as big as it did. The movie followed that trend. It got a lot of attention. Probably too much. People entered journalism school thinking, ‘Hey, maybe a movie could be made about us, too.’ What these two reporters did was a moment in time. Can that moment ever come back? I don’t think so.”