The Post – A Movie Review

When American military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, realizes to his disgust the depths of the US government’s deceptions about the futility of the Vietnam War, he takes action by copying top-secret documents that would become the Pentagon Papers. Later, Washington Post owner, Kay Graham, is still adjusting to taking over her late husband’s business when editor Ben Bradlee discovers the New York Times has scooped them with an explosive expose on those papers. Determined to compete, Post reporters find Ellsberg himself and a complete copy of those papers. However, the Post’s plans to publish their findings are put in jeopardy with a Federal restraining order that could get them all indicted for Contempt. Now, Kay Graham must decide whether to back down for the safety of her paper or publish and fight for the Freedom of the Press. In doing so, Graham and her staff join a fight that would have America’s democratic ideals in the balance. -IMDB

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer
Stars: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys

Genres: Biography, Drama, History, Thriller; Runtime: 116 minutes; Rating: Rated PG-13 for language and brief war violence

We’d not seen it in the theaters, though we wanted to, so we streamed it from Amazon last night. What an amazing movie. Lay liked it, and I loved it. I think having more memories of the time and the key players made it more interesting for me than it was for Lay, but you don’t have to have that background to get the tension and potentially world-shaking events you see playing out in the film.

I suppose pretty much everyone watching knows the basic story. By the mid-1960s, most Americans were losing faith in the nation’s prospects of an honorable conclusion to three decades of conflict in Vietnam. While various Presidents told Americans that success was assured, the top-secret Pentagon Papers revealed that national policy was based on a litany of lies. Former military analyst Daniel Ellsberg notoriously leaked the Papers to the New York Times, but publication was suppressed by court order. The rival Washington Post acquired a copy and had to decide whether to publish and risk the paper’s future, or not publish and lose the respect of its journalists.

Tom Hanks gives a thorough and enjoyable performance as Ben Bradlee, but it is Meryl Streep who truly stands out in the cast here through her role as Kay Graham. One of the miracles that Meryl Streep manages to perform again and again is that one forgets that it is her a second after she appears on the screen. Bob Odenkirk’s supporting role is also noteworthy in a very positive sense.

There is a high-strung tension between the Streep’s uncertain Post heiress and Hanks Bradless as the hard-core editor. We also see the tension and uncertainty of Kay Graham trying to navigate world ruled by dismissive men and navigate her carefully cultured social circles. I guess the one takeaway I had was the close social circles that Washington players moved in during those days. I never realized how tightly intertwined so many of these people were with one another.

The film’s set design is brilliant: the reporter’s room is a galley of buzzing typewriters and the printing press a mechanical maze of oiled steel grinding out papers in the deadline intense world. Spielberg does an amazing job of taking us inside and bringing that part of the world of newspapers into the story. At the end is a scene of Hanks and Streep walking through the printing room, and as the camera pulled back Lay commented about how beautiful it was.

I think the third act may have been a bit rushed, but on the other hand…there was a deadline to meet (the printing deadline of the paper), and maybe Spielberg was just trying to impart that sense of urgency. I also loved how they used Nixon tapes showing Nixon as a ghostly apparition through Oval Office windows talking on the phone. I won’t give away the very last scene, but it was a brilliant finale for the film. It was a great movie, and if you haven’t seen it, given today’s world, it is worth a watch.

(1 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)

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