The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Spielberg’s ‘The Post’ a terrific journalism tale
Spielberg’s ‘The Post’ a terrific journalism tale lifted by Streep, Hanks
“The Post” is set shortly before the events championed in “All the President’s Men.”
Steven Spielberg’s excellent new drama, “The Post,” begins with the sounds of helicopters and Creedence Clearwater Revival and with images of soldiers carrying rifles and men returning from battle with life-changing wounds. ¶ While this sounds like it could be the Vietnam companion piece to the filmmaker’s acclaimed 1998 World War II drama, “Saving Private Ryan,” “The Post” is more of a prequel of sorts to director Alan J. Pakula Oscar winner, “All the President’s Men.”
Another celebration of great journalism, “The Post” is set shortly before the events championed in “All the President’s Men,” when Washington reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and editor Ben Bradlee — immortalized, respectively, by Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Oscar winner Jason Robards — helped link the presidency of Richard M. Nixon to the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
“The Post,” which also makes a hero of Bradlee, is a dramatization of the efforts by the Post — and, to a lesser degree, The New York Times — to publish a massive and classified government document, “History of US. Decision-making in Vietnam, 1945-66,” which also would come to be known as the Pentagon Papers.
And it is an excellent if not-quite-perfect dramatization.
While Bradlee is a central figure in this story and is portrayed by Tom Hanks, “The Post” is as much or more about Katharine “Kay” Graham — played by the equally heavy-hitting Meryl Streep — the first female publisher of the Post.
Initially, however, “The Post” focuses on Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys of “The Americans”), a former Marine who spent two years working in Vietnam with the U.S. State Department and who had a hand in crafting the potentially explosive document. While working in 1971 as a military analyst at the RAND Corp. — an influential government-funded think tank — and after becoming frustrated with his country’s attitude toward the ongoing, seemingly stuck-inthe-mud military conflict, he begins sneaking parts of the document out of his office at night to be photocopied and returned.
Spielberg then shifts the spotlight to Graham, who is meeting with bankers in the hopes of getting an influx of money to help the newspaper company she has inherited from her father — a responsibility fallen to her only after the suicide of her husband, who had been tasked with running it.
We also see her meet with Bradlee, screenwriters Liz Hannah and Josh Singer looking to establish a dynamic between the two early on in “The Post.” Breakfasts such as this are Graham’s idea, and Bradlee seems to want to play nice — until she starts complaining that decisions he’s making are leading to a loss of female readership.
“Katharine,” he says, “keep your finger out of my eye.”
Meanwhile, Bradlee’s also frustrated his paper is being routinely beaten to scoops by The New York Times, specifically when it comes to matters pertaining to the Pentagon Papers and the Nixon presidency.
“Is anyone else sick of reading the news instead of reporting it,” he snarkily asks a group of colleagues after looking at the Times one morning.
The Post gets in the game — in a big way — thanks largely to the efforts of Assistant Managing Editor Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk of “Better Call Saul”), who had a past working relationship with Ellsberg and who works to get his old friend to trust him with this incredibly sensitive information.
“The Post” tells a story largely about the leveraging of personal relationships. Graham, for instance, is a longtime family friend of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood), who knows the release of much of the information in the Pentagon Papers would hurt him professionally. He wants her to protect him; she wants him to help her get to the truth.
However, when Bradlee pushes Graham to take a more journalistic tack in dealing with McNamara, she, quite understandably, throws in Bradlee’s face just how chummy he was with the late John F. Kennedy when the latter was president.
Ultimately, the film is about the efforts of the Post, as well as the Times, not just to acquire the information but to publish it — something the Nixon White House tries to stop through the courts. Even though we know how all of this will end up, it’s gripping stuff in “The Post.”
That’s largely thanks to Spielberg, who is near the top of his game. Sure, he overplays a few moments, going unbelievably heavy on the female-empowerment theme, giving a few scenes a false ring. Considering all the news of late involving women having been taken advantage of by powerful men, however, that choice feels entirely forgivable if not almost necessary.
And Spielberg and director of photography Janusz Kaminski — frequent collaborators dating back to 1993’s “Schindler’s List” — continue to be altogether too in love with distractingly over-the-top use of natural light to punch up certain scenes.
Yet, as Spielberg has shown the ability to do countless times, he grabs our attention early and never allows it to wane.
Streep (“Florence Foster Jenkins”) and Hanks (“Inferno”) are, unsurprisingly, a very good on-screen team, but neither is quite at the top of his or her game. Each gives extra juice to any scene he or she is in, however.
The rest of the cast is a terrific collection of talent, but it’s also — almost distractingly like a collection of performers from every prestige TV show of the last several years. Hey, there’s “Mr. Show” buddies Odenkirk and David Cross together in the newsroom! And, look, there’s Copley native Carrie Coon (“The Leftovers,” “Fargo”). Say, isn’t that her husband, Tracy Letts (“Homeland”)? Other minor but significant parts are played by Jesse Plemons (“Friday Night Lights,” “Breaking Bad,” “Fargo”), Alison Brie (“Community,” “GLOW”), Michael Stuhlbarg (“Boardwalk Empire,” “Fargo”), Bradley Whitford (“The West Wing”) and Sarah Paulson (“American Horror Story”). Nobody is miscast by any means, but you find yourself dying to jump into the film’s iMDB page to see if you’ve missed anybody.
Even the very small blemishes the movie has keep it from breathing the same rarefied journalismcinema air as “All the President’s Men” or 2015 best picture winner “Spotlight.” However, it is one of the year’s best films and one everyone should see to better understand a key moment in history, the continuing importance of a free media and, last but not least, simply to be highly entertained.