The Post (2017)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Written by: Liz Hannah & Josh Singer

Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson

It feels obvious that The Post was made to parallel the current political climate in the US. One in which the press feels under attack by the President of the United States and sees it as their duty to inform the public when their government lies to them. There's a coy line near the end of the film after The Post has won their Supreme Court case that this decision and what they've been through will help for "next time". It was difficult not to roll my eyes. Then the film ends with a bizarre tonal shift. Nixon railing against The Post before a security guard discovers that the Democratic National Committee is being broken into at the Watergate Hotel. It wouldn't feel out of place to have an announcer exclaim "Next time on: Spielberg makes a movie about history - Watergate".

It took a while for me to get invested. The opening was rather dry and I didn't feel I had the proper context. The film kicked in once The New York Times ran their story about the Pentagon Papers. Then the film was off like a runaway train that didn't slow down until its closing moments. I think it was so effective because the stakes involved were so important. The freedom of the press being attacked by a White House administration when the truth shows that the White House has been lying to the American public about the Vietnam war for 3 administrations. That despite knowing the war was unwinnable very early on, they kept sending American troops to die based on a sense of pride, and to avoid humiliation by withdrawing and admitting defeat. I see parallels in US foreign policy in my lifetime, especially with Iraq and Afghanistan after 2001.

The character arc of the movie was Meryl Streep as Mrs. Graham learning to accept her role as owner of The Washington Post, and what she wants the paper to be. To stop listening to her advisers and learn to make a decision for herself. What I like about the final moment when she changes and decides to run the story is how quiet a moment it is. It has no triumphant musical swell. There's been a lot of arguing. She feels overwhelmed. She starts to make her decision. There's push back. She becomes assertive, decides her fate, and then goes to bed. The scene just ends. I found it refreshing for such a moment.

Another scene that stood out to me is earlier on when Tom Hanks' Ben Bradlee crashes a party Mrs. Graham is hosting, to tell her that he has the papers, and she needs to make a decision about whether she will allow The Post to publish them. There's discussion of how Ben was friends with the Kennedys and how when you have friendship with people in power, it affects how you cover their power when you work in journalism. How it's difficult if not impossible to be objective about friendship, especially when that friendship holds benefits such as White House dinners and presidential access.

It's a movie that's important for the time we live in. It examines the press' duty and relationship to the power it covers. It apparently came together very quickly, and perhaps that's why the opening is so dry and the last scene feels so campy. Everything else breezed by with captivating performances and a lot of the camera work that has become noticeable to me after watching that Every Frame a Painting episode on 'The Spielberg Oner'.

Personal enjoyment: ★★★