All The President’s Men

Year of release: 1976

Screenwriter: William Goldman

Key awards: BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay

One of the most successful and admired screenwriters in the history of Hollywood, Goldman based the script for All The President’s Men on a book of the same name by two Washington Post journalists chronicling their investigation into the infamous Watergate scandal.

The film follows what initially appears to be a minor event (a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters) and sees it evolve, through the perseverance of the two journalists, into a tangled story of secret service subterfuge and government dirty-tricks.

The (continued) success of the film helped ensure the Watergate scandal became viewed as one of the most significant events in US history and created a linguistic short-hand for corruption of all kinds.

William Golding (REX)
Other notable screenplays by William Goldman:

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Marathon Man
The Princess Bride
Misery