In his latest film, Steven Spielberg takes on the retelling of how the journalists and the publisher of The Washington Postdefied the US government to publish the confidential Pentagon Papers, an exhaustive study of the US’s disastrous involvement in Vietnam, risking going to prison and having the paper closed down.
This film is all kinds of special. Not only is it directed by Steven Spielberg, one of the most successful directors of our time, it also brings together Hollywood’s crème-de-la-crème, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.
The Post isn’t a film about journalists being heroes. It is a masterful portrayal of the difficulties that all the journalists and the publisher of the newspaper faced in order to publish the story.
On the one hand, if they publish the story they risk going to prison and having the paper shut down. On the other hand, the role of journalists in a democracy is to hold people in positions of power accountable for what they do and it is their responsibility to inform the public.
The US involvement in the Vietnam War exposé has not often featured in films, despite journalistic films being so popular. This film is something truly special. All the president’s men is about The Washington Post reporting on the Watergate affair – which happened after.
This is a seriously serious film. Little details – like having to walk to a phone box to ensure that no one is listening in on a conversation, having to fly across the country to retrieve the confidential report or simply waiting around for one of their sources to have access to a phone – will have spectators of The Post hanging of the edge of their seats.
Meryl Streep, who plays Kay Grahame, the paper’s publisher, is once again truly spectacular. She has her own way of making sure the watcher is hanging onto every word she says and her performance is truly believable. She embodies the personal struggles of the character: not only is she risking her business but her friendship involved in the US intervention in Vietnam.
Tom Hanks is also incredible as The Washington Post’s editor Ben Bradlee. He pushes and pushes to have the story published even though he risks losing everything.
Culturity 