Before Watergate, the White House was the focal point of all major newspapers in the United States regarding the leaked "Pentagon Papers," over 4,000 top secret pages that outlined the Vietnam War from Kennedy to Nixon. Where the White House fought to present the war as a clear victory for the country, these documents showed it to be a losing battle, continued year after year only to prevent the embarrassment of America having ever lost. As millions of soldiers continued to die, you can see how these documents were front page headlines waiting to happen.
What we have here is a story of two people: Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), the chief editor of the Washington Post, and Kay Graham (Meryl Streep), the paper's publisher. The two couldn't have been more different. Bradlee, on the newspaper floor, was brash, to the point, and eager to come out ahead. This contrasts to Kay Graham, the timid woman who inherited the paper after the death of her husband without a year's worth of work experience to her name. She is better suited to host parties, cater to others, and is reliant on her board member and allies for her business advice.
What follows is essentially the prequel to "All The President's Men," a news caper in which journalists run back and forth, answer telephones, and type furiously all in order to make the morning's deadline. I will say that unlike recent films like Spotlight, Spielberg really has an eye for capturing the kinetic energy of the Post. The camera is in a constant state of motion, oftentimes without reason, and we begin to feel the paranoia and stress that 1970's journalism must have been like.
The star is really Tom Hanks, one of the great actors and who never fails to deliver. His Ben Bradlee is the highlight of the movie - unpredictable and crass. We believe him as a fierce leader, and through the gravelly voice and constant pacing, I really admired Hanks all the more for how he was able to paint this man with such broad strokes. It's remarkable how much he contrasts to Streep in one of her most timid roles. This is no Iron Lady. Graham is a shy, fearful woman who carries the film's emotional arc and we can't help but cheer for her in the end. Streep has some of the best comedic punches here, and there are surely a couple lines that will make you cheer. Where Hanks is boisterous, Streep is oh so subtle. Her eyes, her gestures... This is a woman whose biggest fear is to fail her family and tarnish the Graham legacy.
The cast here is stellar, from Bob Odenkirk all the way to Sarah Paulson. I wished so much that more of the cast were present in the film, that each character might have one more scene to show us their real intentions. I get that the film needed to focus in on the drama, but for such a juicy cast, they all felt stupendously underplayed. As went with the ending, a climactic anti-climax in the Supreme Court that takes place off camera and wraps up in the blink of an eye. The film transitions from rising action to end credits in no fewer than 10 minutes, and it left me jarred to say the least. For such a late 2017 release, I sense Spielberg was speeding to a final deadline, and the result shows in the movie's hasty edits and abruptness. We grow to like these characters and this story... I wouldn't have minded a picture that were even 1 hour longer. If the story is good, why trim it down?
2017 has been an interesting year for films. Maybe THE POST is the most timely of them all. With the blatant echoes of President Trump and his "fake news," the implications of Richard Nixon's presidency seems all the more a bellwether for times to come. The film concludes on a fairly obvious "cliff-hanger" that added nothing to the story except a handful of audience members I overheard say "a-ha!" Oh well. For a film so finely staffed and expertly written, this movie might still be a letdown for many viewers. Just as many might still find it all the more crucial viewing in today's political climate.
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