The Post (2017)

"The Pentagon Papers" is a name popularly adopted in the press to a confidential report, commissioned in the mid 1960's by Defense Secret Robert McNamara, surveying American involvement in Vietnam, including the covert stuff, from the Truman administration on. Daniel Ellsberg, a participant in the complication of said report, leaked large sections from it to the New York Times in 1971. When a court order bared the Times from continuing its publication, The Washington Post was able to come by the martial and publish it. Doing so earned The Post a co-diffident position along with the Times before the U.S. Supreme Court,(the decision would ultimately come out in their favor), prompted other papers to also publish, and made The Washington Post a nationally significant paper, something it had not really been before. The movie The Post tells the story of how the paper came to the decision to publish "The Papers".

Meryl Streep (excellent as always) plays Post publisher Katharine Graham. Graham's father Eugene Meyer had purchased the bankrupt Post in 1933, he stepped down from the publisher position in 1946 and that job was taken over by Katherine's husband Philip, until his death (a suicide) in 1963. Having been principally a home maker running the paper was essentially Katharine's first job. As depicted in the film Katharine's was not a particularly combative personality, and  she was not taken seriously by many in the male dominated newspaper industry. Her decision to publish "The Papers", an action that could be seen as treasonous, had the added complication of coming on the heels of the The Posts initial public offering on The New York Stock Exchange, the papers financial security was in real danger.

Tom Hanks plays The Post's managing editor Ben Bradlee, a role that won Jason Robards a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in All The Presidents Men. There is a large and capable supporting cast here as well, with Bob Odenkirk the stand out as reporter Ben Bagdikian. While the film does not break any new ground, it is exceptionally well made and another fine entry in Spielberg's cinematic catalog of historical narratives about doing what one thinks is right, even when it is hard (Schindlers List, Amistad, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies). The film also works as a prequel to All The President's Men, featuring some of the same characters, and helping to cement the adversarial relationship between the Nixon administration and their local paper. In this, another era in which the White House and the press are in unusually strong tension, The Post has amplified resonance ****