Plot: The Post tells the story of the Washington Post’s decision in 1971 whether to publish certain US government papers about the Vietnam War. It focusses on the rivalry between the Post and the NY Times, the financially precarious state of The Post and the journalistic excitement of a major story.
Comment: Great historic reconstruction: it all looks like the early 1970s (which isn’t altogether a good thing, with stripey shirts and smoke-filled meeting rooms).
Tom Hanks is the driven, energetic editor (Ben Bradlee) of The Washington Post. Meryl Streep is the paper’s owner Katherine Graham, but a rather uncertain and inexperienced one, since she has become the owner by default, on the death of her husband. Great performances from both, but Streep has a slightly more complex role, as she is on a steep learning curve and having to make a huge decision about the paper – and most likely for this reason, Meryl has an Oscar nomination, but Tom doesn’t.
What you learn: More insight into the journalistic and newsroom culture. More about late 60s-early 70s US politics.
Interesting fact: Tom Hanks loves typewriters. He collects them and writes with them. In the newsroom on the set, he test-typed all the typewriters and kept one afterwards.
Awards: Nominated for Best Film Oscar.
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_(film)
IMdb: 7.2/10 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6294822/
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 83% https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-post
Verdict: 4.5/5 Excellent. Thoughtful, insightful, eventful feature drama. 8 Feb 2018, revised 14 March 2019
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