The Post

Plot: The Post is about the leaking and publishing of the "Pentagon Papers," a history of the Vietnam war that had embarrassing government's secrets and bleak military assessments. We see the Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) give the papers to the NY Times, and the later to the Washington Post. Brash editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) pushes to obtain the papers, and then owner Mrs Graham (Meryl Streep) agonizes about whether to publish them because of the risk of being sued by President Nixon.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: I'm never excited to see a movie starring 69 year old Meryl Streep, but time I see her I get sucked in because she is that good an actress. I am less sick of Tom Hanks, but he good too. Noisy and strutting, but never over the top.

The story of the Pentagon papers is old and well-trodden, and we already know the end. The script takes an offbeat angle by focussing on the editors and publishers. This gave the story more movement, and the content of the papers gets in by osmosis.

The best part is the analogy between Nixon and Trump. Trump is attacking Post owner Bezos today, just like Nixon swears vengeance on the Post in the final scene. The movie was written and shot before the election of Donald Trump. Strange but true.

I liked Don McNamara, who had the Pentagon Papers written for his successors and future historians. Government secrecy & manipulation of the populous reminds me of Machiavelli. McNamara's situation is an interesting example of whether the end justified the means. One takeaway is that states  have a different morality than individuals. As Wikipedia says:

Machiavelli believed that public and private morality had to be understood as two different things in order to rule well. As a result, a ruler must be concerned not only with reputation, but also must be positively willing to act immorally at the right times.

The Post was entertaining. The acting was great. The script kept moving despite the potentially dry subject matter. It was not super-fun, and the story of Kay Graham's bravery in publishing I had heard before. 

Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Bruce Greenwood

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Written by: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer

The Music: Orchestrial Score by John Williams; This score is better than his other recent work. I liked The Presses Roll. 

The Visuals: Mostly talking and Tom Hanks scowling. I liked the scenes of the type setting machines and the letterpress printing machine. 

Rating: 2.5 stars: Good acting, but it just an average movie. Because it is tired subject matter, no extra points for social awareness.

 

More: I wonder if rich people really wandered around in the pajamas so much in 1972; makes me think of Charlie Rose who at home with female CBS colleagues in his pajamas.

Even More: Here is the real Katherine Graham. Meryl looked a bit like her in the movie make-up.

.

.

SaveSave