The Post

Steven Spielberg just turned 71 last month, and if his new film The Post is any indication, he has a lot of great movies left in him.  There are directors over half his age who can't turn out a movie this tightly paced and ingeniously edited so that we get all the details we need, yet the pace seems to literally fly by.  There are still some big films from late last year that I have yet to see, but at the moment, this sits on the top of my personal list.

This is not the rough and shocking Spielberg of Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List.  This movie is a melodrama, and a soft one at that.  Where the greatness comes from is from the performances, and the way that Spielberg frames the story kind of like a great 1930s drama, filled with great actors in just about every role, and whip-smart writing that not only offers killer lines and monologues, but also fills in all the details we need, without giving us any unnecessary subplots or scenes.  Everything is connected beautifully, and though some cynics may complain about the light touch the film occasionally uses (there is a lot of Spielberg's stylistic soft lighting here), no one can deny what an effortlessly crowd-pleasing movie this is.  It's a great entertainment that manages to tell the story swiftly without losing any of the power of the story.

It is also probably one of the more timely movies I have seen lately.  Despite being set in 1971 (and there are a lot of great period details here), the movie could be set in any time period, and will likely join other great films about journalism such as All the President's Men and Spotlight.  This is a story about the Washington Post before it became the nationally respected paper it is known as today, and long before Watergate.  Lead editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks, getting his best role in a while) is forced to watch as the New York Times scoops the Post on just about every story.  The Post is mostly regarded as a second-tier newspaper, and is not taken very seriously within the industry.  And things do not look better for the paper now that Kay Graham (Meryl Streep, certain to get another nomination for this) is in charge of things.

Kay is not a confident woman at this point in time.  She is unsure of herself, as well as her ability to run the paper that has been left to her.  Not only that, but the all-male board of directors that she has to deal with do not make it much of a secret that they do not like the idea of taking orders from a woman, much less her.  It seems that the paper may collapse under her watch, but then something happens.  Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys), a former top aide to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood), exposes the government’s decades-long history of lies about Vietnam when he sent dozens of volumes of government documents known as the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.  This would seem to be yet another automatic victory for the Times, until the White House issues a court order to stop the Times from printing any of the Pentagon Papers.

With the Times stopped by the potential legal case, the Post sees its opportunity to print the Papers themselves.  This brings about an internal war within the post.  Should they print the information that they have, not only could both Ben and Kay wind up going to jail, but it might destroy the paper.  There is also the issue of Kay being close friends with McNamara and many other people who have positions of power.  If she has her paper print the information, it could destroy many dearly-held friendships.  Ben understands this, as he was close friends with the Kennedys, and often sacrificed his journalistic integrity when they were in the White House in order to protect his friendship with them.

It's this kind of internal drama that makes The Post so fascinating and compelling.  Hanks and Streep are not playing strong people here.  Yes, they know that they need to get ahead and that this could be their chance to make their paper something, but they are also held back by personal doubts.  Streep, in particular, seems the most tormented internally.  There's a wonderful scene where she recounts a memory to a family member, and the way that Streep delivers the monologue is truly something to remember.  Likewise, Hanks is playing an everyman here like usual, but he has a bit more edge than in some of his performances.  He wants to get ahead, and knows what it takes to do it.  Everybody in this film, including all the supporting players, are delivering memorable performances here.  This is probably the best acted film overall I've seen in 2017.

It's impossible not to think of the current war going on between the current Administration and the Press while you watch this, and no matter what your thoughts on that situation may be, The Post gives a lot of food for thought.  This is a film to be remembered, and I highly doubt anything will be able to diminish the power that it holds.

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