Pressing on for victory
Steven Spielberg delivers another first-class parcel of entertainment with this real-life political thriller. A prelude to the 1972 Watergate scandal, it sees a newspaper uncover damning evidence that the US government knew from a very early stage the Vietnam War could not be won.
Known as the Pentagon Papers, President Richard Nixon demands the documents remain classified information and goes to war with the press.
Tom Hanks stars as Ben Bradlee, defiant editor of The Washington Post. He makes a great double act with Meryl Streep, who stars as Kay Graham, his inexperienced socialite publisher. Together they risk their careers, prison, and the newspaper to defend their constitutional rights.
And it’s Streep who owns the film, delicately essaying a woman slowly recognising the iron lady within herself.
Having won Oscars for lesser performances, such as her portrait of Margaret Thatcher, it’s astonishing the threetimes Academy Awards winner has missed out on the big gongs so far this season. With Spielberg’s 31st full theatrical feature being such a marvellously assured affair, it’s all too easy to take the maestro’s elegant filmmaking for granted.
Elevating a straightforward script and setting about his business with diligence and well-honed economy, the world’s greatest living director calls on his years of expertise and craftsmanship to create a timely call to arms against unaccountable governance.
And under the cover of the macho posturing between the White House and the press, Spielberg and his team smuggle in a quietly rousing and inspirational account of female empowerment and self-awareness.
A nomination for the Producers Guild of America for best film tells us this is still in the running for the biggest Academy Award, and on Oscar night there’s no reason why this thoroughbred can’t be first past the post.
Since 1949, no one has won the Best Director Oscar without first being nominated for the Directors Guild of America Best Director award. This is great news for Brits Christopher Nolan and Martin McDonagh – of Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri fame – two of five nominees for the DGA’s top gong this year.