Review of THE POST: A Pressing Predicament

February 21, 2018

There had been a number of newspaper-based historical drama films which had been critically-acclaimed in the past years.  "All the President's Men" (Allan Pakula,1976) dealt with a couple of reporters from the Washington Post investigating the Watergate scandal.  "Zodiac" (David Fincher, 2007) was about the reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle investigating the Zodiac serial killer. "Spotlight" (Tom McCarthy, 2015) finally brought home the Oscar for Best Picture, telling a story about reporters from the Boston Globe investigating child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. 

"The Post" (Steven Spielberg, 2017) joins this illustrious list. This new film follows management and editors of the Washington Post (again) as they decide whether to publish (or not) the very controversial Pentagon Papers (a study about the US involvement in the Vietnam War). These top secret documents had initially been exposed by their rival New York Times, which led them to major legal entanglements with the government. Should the Washington Post follow suit and risk their already unstable financial conditions?

For the editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee, they should just go ahead and publish their story, as freedom of the press should always be upheld. He had long been waiting for a story like this to boost the status of his paper. However, the final publication decision lay on the current owner and publisher of the Washington Post, the gentle and unconfident Katharine Graham. Ms. Graham had inherited her position following the death of her husband Philip in 1963, and was then the first female publisher of a major American newspaper. She had usually deferred to the decisions of the men around her. However, for this sensitive decision of great national, moral and financial significance, it was all up to her.

Tom Hanks played Ben Bradlee, who led the male-dominated newsroom of the Washington Post. Hanks is really a very comfortable actor in films like this, never felt like he was acting at all. Bob Odenkirk played Post national editor Ben Bagdikian who was able to track down the source of the leak. His showcase scene was when he was all jumpy and excited at the payphone as he learned some vital information. Tracy Letts was Fritz Beebe, Bradley Whitford was Arthur Parsons -- both holding influential positions at the Post but each with contrasting viewpoints.

Aside from Best Picture, the only other Oscar nomination nabbed by "The Post" is Best Actress for no less than Meryl Streep, her 21st Oscar nomination for acting overall. This was not a bombastic role like Miranda Priestly or Margaret Thatcher or Julia Child or Florence Foster Jenkins. Even if I did not know who the real Katherine Graham was, I can feel that this was a quiet performance of gracefully nuanced detail about a self-doubting woman who had to deal with tough issues of gender politics and press integrity. This role may not win her the Oscar, but this was yet another realistic portrayal that seems so natural for Streep. 

Other important supporting actors were Bruce Greenwood (who played embattled US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who commissioned the Vietnam study in the first place), Matthew Rhys (who played the disillusioned military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, the source of the leak) and "Call Me By Your Name" actor Michael Stuhlbarg (who played newsman A.M. Rosenthal from the New York Times which first broke the story). Sarah Paulson played Ben Bradlee's wife Toni, who made him realize some matters he had failed to see because of his hunger for sensational news. 

Even if I did not know anything about this controversy, nor any of the personalities involved, Steven Spielberg and his cast really had me engaged from beginning to end. For those like me who did not know the outcome, the whole film unfolded like a tightly-wound thriller without any action scenes. It first introduced us to the key personalities, and then proceeded to build up to that critical moment of the all-important decision. The fantastically authentic production design, the exciting editing of the scenes, the urgent musical score (by John Williams) all contributed to the effective storytelling. 

The release of this film now in the face of various issues of governmental control versus freedom of the press are very much in the news. When you learned at the end about how Nixon actually barred reporters from newspapers he considered offensive from covering him at the White House, a very current event of similar nature immediately came to mind. Such was the ever-volatile relationship between government and the press back then, and still is, apparently, up to now. 8/10.