All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward – another look at this marvelous story is here https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/all-presidents-men-by-william-goldman.html for now, the focus might be on the difference between the Nixon age and the decay and fall represented by the current republican nominee, Orange Jesus - 10 out of 10

 

All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward – another look at this marvelous story is here https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/all-presidents-men-by-william-goldman.html for now, the focus might be on the difference between the Nixon age and the decay and fall represented by the current republican nominee, Orange Jesus

10 out of 10

 

 

Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward have achieved the status of legends, demi gods of journalism, they are the resilient, brave, intrepid, creative, determined investigators and reporters that have exposed the Watergate scandal that would lead to the resignation of president Richard Nixon, at a time when honor, decency forced one to such an act

 

These days, the world has a big chance (if we can use that word for such a calamity) to see America choosing a Confidence Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/confidence-man-making-of-donald-trump.html again as the leader, which is such a contrast with Nixon, who did only a fraction of what Orange Jesus has been up to

Richard Nixon has had a team of former CIA agents, Cuban exiles trying to spy on the opposition, at the Democratic Headquarters located in the Watergate building – ergo the name of the scandal – an outrageous endeavor, but if we look at what Trump has done, it looks like children’s playing and erring slightly

 

Orange Jesus (that is what republican representatives have called the demon) has blackmailed Volodymyr Zelenski, president of the Ukraine, saying if he wants American weapons, then he has to deliver dirt on Hunter Biden, the son of his adversary in the 2020 elections, a gangster move that lead to the first impeachment

Then he fired up the mob, and thousands of members of the Orange Jesus cult would occupy the Capitol Hill, with the intention of hanging the Vice President, steal the elections and have their chief moron as tyrant, which could happen next year, in 2025, if elections would take place today, the ghoul would win

 

The story of the making of All The President’s Men was more than interesting, and you can read the details in the glorious Adventures in The Screen Trade https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/adventures-in-screen-trade-by-william.html gospel of cinema by William Goldman, who has won two Academy Awards for screenplays

The first win was for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, on which he had worked with Robert Redford – who is now a titan of motion pictures – the latter talking Goldman into working together on a project, which the actor would abandon, because his fans have an image of him as a lead in Butch Cassidy and it looks to me he was vain

 

However, Robert Redford does something even worse, he gets the rights for All The President’s Men and has William Goldman sweat over it – we find from Adventures in The Screen Trade how difficult it was to get all this Watergate Scandal adapted for the big screen, with all the twists, the immense amount of talking, false leads

Redford would use an intermediary, calling from Utah – where The Sundance Film Festival, launched by him might be – through a secretary, and the script writer could not call the producer directly, it was secretary, she would make this difficult transition between one and the the other, which came to climax

 

Robert Redford calls William Goldman after some months, to meet in his apartment in New York, and when the writer arrives, the host says ‘this is Carl Bernstein, who is working at the screenplay’, or words to that effect, which made the guest say that it ‘was the worst day in his life’ after all that struggle and pain, it is blown up in a second

So it was not enough to cancel one project, after Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/butch-cassidy-and-sundance-kid-by.html opened, but after making life so hard for William Goldman, Redford makes him feel all the trauma had been in vain, and the suffering futile

 

He is not the only one to show such traits, Dustin Hoffman had shown lamentable selfishness on the set of Marathon Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-marathon-man-screenplay-by-william.html script by the same magnificent William Goldman – Dustin Hoffman made his partner in the film, Roy Scheider stand to watch idiosyncrasies

Hoffman debated over some insignificant light, just because he wanted his fans to maintain their image of him as tough, strong, while Scheider stood, with the rest of the crew, so that nonsense would end…worse still, they had the divine Laurence Olivier playing the villain, while the Magister Ludi was very ill

 

Perhaps intimated, vainglorious and willing to show he has the leading role, Hoffman would keep Sir Laurence Olivier – William Goldman has all the praise for him, also for Richard Attenborough, the latter was the director for A Bridge Too Far, written by Goldman – walking for too long, when Olivier could hardly stand the pain

Intellectuals https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html is a phenomenal master work by Paul Johnson, who exposes some of the greatest minds of humanity – Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway. Jean- Jacques Rousseau, Henrik Ibsen and others are shown with aspects of their lives that were very dark

Jean-Jacques Rousseau has abandoned his children at the door of an orphanage, in a period when nine out of ten children in this situation would die…the point being that maybe we should be tolerant with Redford, Hoffman and some other talented humans, they have incredible skills, but lack in some character strengths

 

  Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”