Graham was paper’s pillar in ‘The Post’
fat wringer if that’s published.”
The Stephen Spielberg movie in essence is not so much about the Pentagon Papers revealing of the deceptions and mistakes of officialdom as it is about the gutsy decisiveness of the woman who unexpectedly inherited The Post, and made the call to publish the papers.
When her husband, Philip Graham, the paper’s previous publisher, committed suicide in 1963, Katharine, as daughter of the previous Post owner, took over amid deep doubts about doing so. From the start, she leaned heavily on the male board members, including executive editor Bradlee, the tough but fun-loving and charismatic leader she had brought over from the Post-owned Newsweek.
In her memoir she wrote that although “I was still the newcomer” in Post top management, “Ben and I, however, were partners, very much together in focusing on our common goals.” A scene in “The Post,” in which the Bradlee character waits silently and deferentially as she gives the final word to publish, says it all.
Graham, portrayed with verve by lookalike Meryl Streep, is seen as uncertain at first but steadily growing into and accepting her heavy responsibilities to the family enterprise and to real-world journalism.
Bradlee, for all his brusque and dominant manner, is presented by Tom Hanks as Katharine’s confidence-building right arm and respectful friend, who in every scene makes clear it’s her call on whether or not to publish, despite the strong disinclinations of other Post board members.
In her memoir, she wrote that after the Pentagon Papers case: “I gained even more confidence in Ben. He and I had a true understanding between us, as well as a respect and admiration for each other, but until the Pentagon Papers we had never been tested publicly in any way.”
In a sense, the scenes that demonstrated her transition from early insecurity in the presence of the elder, seasoned but more cautionary advisers of her late husband, to the Kay Graham confidently emerging as true partner of her executive editor, shows why film’s short title, “The Post,” might justly be better called, simply, “Katharine.”