Steven Spielberg’s drama about The Washington Post’s fight to publish the Pentagon Papers. Starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.
Burg?
I just caught this one. It was like much of Spielbergs recent work, serviceable but unremarkable. The history is interesting and Tom Hanks puts in a solid performance (as always) but the stand out here was Meryl Streep who put in some fine work as the newspaper owner. I felt the first act dragged somewhat whilst they set the stage but things liven up in the second and third acts.
My main problem with this movie is that it’s hopelessly overshadowed by (1976) All The Presidents Men which is superior in every conceivable way. Still, it was a mildly enjoyable and interesting way to spend an afternoon. If you haven’t heard of or seen All The Presidents Men. Do yourself a favor and remedy this ASAP. One of the best procedural movies of all time.
My bad - corrected.
I thought the Post was terrific. Interestingly enough, I re-watched the All the President Men’s just a couple of months. No question that “All the President Men” is classic probably the best movie about journalism .
Meryl Streep performance as Katherine Graham was superb, Oscar calibre without a doubt. I think Hank’s performance as Ben Bradlees was close to Jason Robards. I also recently saw HBO document and I think Hank may have captured the man better. There was inherently more journalism in tracking the truth about Watergate, than in WaPo deciding to publish the Pentagon Papers. As some of the reviews of the Post pointed out, it was the NY Times not the Post that deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize for the Pentagon Papers.
But, Streep’s performance as Graham as the socialite housewife reluctantly thrust into making immensely important decisions is not to be missed.
Plus as feel good movie it totally worked for me. Richard Nixon was far more capable and every bit as vindictive as Donald Trump. The media survived Nixon and they’ll survive Trump also. It helps that Bezo is richer than God.
This was very watchable ‘journalism porn’ and I really enjoyed Meryl Streep’s performance, her display of Graham’s initial insecurity, her inner conflict about being too cozy with Macnamara and then subsequently confronting him - which was a terrific scene.
It’s not up there with All The President’s Men though, and if you’re looking at more recent movies, I’d consider Spotlight the superior movie. Both have really great ensemble casts, both are about the worth of good and independent journalism, both have central characters coming to realize that they had turned a blind eye to the respective problem - but I prefer Spotlight’s somewhat more sober and straightforward way of telling its story.
The Post feels a bit preachy at times since Spielberg isn’t the best at being subtle and has characters directly utter a message (We may screw up occasionally, but it’s important to have us around to do our job!) or tries to hit some emotional beats a bit too hard, e.g. Carrie Coon’s character reading the judge’s statement as the music swells or Graham walking past all the women who look in awe at her at the end. IMO, the scene in which Graham talks to her daughter aout how she’s afraid of being the one who might ruin the WaPo and thus her husband’s and his family’s legacy - to me it would have been far more powerful without any kind of music underscoring everything. A wonderfully quiet moment. But it’s not meant to be and gets drowned in music instead.
Actor note 1: Michael Stuhlbarg keeps on being a delight no matter how small his role is. Actor note 2: funny that Bruce Greenwood has now played JFK and McNamara. Who’s next? Actor note 3: it’s night impossible for me not to see and hear Silicon Valley’s Jared whenever Zach Woods shows up.
Jared
I finally saw this. While I thought Spotlight had more momentum, this was a lot of fun. Less about the craft of journalism and more about, heh, the ethics of journalism. “My decision stands, and I’m going to bed” is such a great line, though, and so marvelously delivered.