That movie prompts the best memories for me, Barry! I saw it in August of 1990 with a fellow journalism student. We'd just arrived and were staggered by the heat and humidity. (August in mid-Missouri is brutal.) Neither of us were used to the heat, me being from NY and him from PA. So we stayed inside the first Saturday watching this movie. A perfect way to start journalism school.
Woodward and Bernstein excelled in the art of the interview. They knew how to get the sensitive information they wanted by carefully wording their questions and conversing in a friendly way with those they interviewed. All The President's Men should be required reading and viewing for journalism courses.
I took journalism in high school and was on my high school and college newspapers. As a senior in high school, I had to interview the "Homecoming Queen." I've met yams with more going on upstairs than that girl. After five minutes, I walked away from her. "You can't walk away," she exclaimed. "Watch me," I answered.
In college, I interviewed John Sebastian, David Bromberg, Ricky Nelson, and Jorma Kaukonen. The interviews were ten to fifteen minutes of friendly conversation. I was at ease with all of them especially Jorma Kaukonen. I was taking blues guitar lessons from Ian Buchanan at the time who was was Jorma Kaukonen's roommate at Antioch College ten years before. He handed me his guitar and said "Let's see what Ian taught you."
My 1971 Linda Ronstadt interview did not go as well. I couldn't get a coherent sentence out of my mouth because she was so pretty. She giggled and gave me another chance after the concert. I was tongue-tied then too. She laughed, tousled my hair and said "You're cute."