Today, the Internet, 24 hour cable news and smartphones have eroded attention spans, but the need for honest, truthful reporting remains as important as ever.
That’s why The Post, Steven Spielberg’s story of how The Washington Post risked everything in 1971 to publish The Pentagon Papers is important for modern audiences to understand the role of a free press. Spielberg knows how to grab your attention with great storytelling in a straightforward portrayal of this moment in history. The Pentagon Papers showed that the government was sending young men and women to serve and die in a war that they knew could not be won.
Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks team up to tell a story with implications for today’s headlines. Written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer (Spotlight) with a good sense how reporters talk in the rough and tumble newsroom atmosphere, the pace never stalls.
Spielberg and cinematographer Januz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) set the time and place exactly with lavish, colorful party scenes inside Graham’s mansion contrasted with more granular, cooler tones in the paper’s offices down to the blue haze of cigarette smoke which was omnipresent in 70’s newsrooms.This is a journalist-as-hero story before Watergate brought down the Nixon White House.
Streep plays Katherine Graham, the first woman publisher of a major American newspaper who finds the strength to stand up to the male hierarchy at her own newspaper along with the President to go with the story. Streep is completely understated in the role of a woman whose husband used to make all the business decisions.
Katherine Graham is the lynchpin to the story. She took control of the paper after her husband, Philip Graham, committed suicide 8 years earlier. Running the news side is editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) who cajoles, growls and yells at his staff just the way you’d expect a longtime newsman to act. This is the first time they’rve ever worked together.
Hanks is no Ben Bradlee who was brash and bigger than life as the cantankerous boss of the newsroom. We found his portrayal to be adequate, but more imitation than authentic. His relationship to Katherine is central to the emotional element of the story. They have a wary view of each other. Katherine, after all, is a rich socialite and Bradlee doesn’t particularly enjoy courting her approval for news decisions. At one point he verbally jabs her, “Katherine, keep your finger out of my eye.” The way Streep plays the moment, showing deference without backing down is her way of showing how hard she has to work to be taken seriously by men.
Going back to the Viet Nam era, Daniel Ellsberg, a Defense Department analyst, gave the New York Times leaked documents detailing how the U.S. Government knew the war was a lost cause for over three decades. Nixon got a court order against the Times to prevent publishing any more of The Papers. This movie shows how the Washington Post picked up the story and blew it wide open despite Nixon’s threats. The future of the Post itself was in jeopardy since this all was happening while preparations for an IPO (Initial public offering) to raise money to operate were in the final stages.
The movie gets rolling when Bradlee goes ballistic when they’re beaten when The Times’ Pentagon Papers bombshell drops before he can get it to press. The leaker, Daniel Ellsberg (played with quiet, stone-faced intensity by Matthew Rhys) is still unknown. Bradlee challenges his newsroom to get the rest of the story with a memorable line, “Anyone else tired of reading the news instead of reporting it?”
Reporter Ben Bagdikian is the one who digs the deepest and comes up with Ellsberg and the entire trove of papers. Bob Odenkirk is a stand-out as Bagdikian. He has that unkempt look that just screams “Reporter.” He also gets some of the most dramatic and funny moments as he makes contact with Ellsberg throwing loose change into payphone and taking down phone numbers.
Katherine Graham’s clothes make strong statements. Costume designer Ann Roth dressed Streep in prim and proper suits that try to send a message of power, but also keep a sense of femininity which she needs to get men to listen to her. At parties In her home, however, she’s all couture and flash, especially in one scene where she has to make the ultimate decision while wearing a white formal caftan. She’s not yet comfortable in her own role nor sure of her own talent to lead.
Fritz Beebe (Tracy Letts) is the Post’s chairman, is close adviser and friend to Katherine. He starts out more of a coach, prompting Katherine what to do and say in the boardroom as preparations for the IPO come closer. She leans on him, especially when she has to deal with a room full of men looking down on her intelligence and ability. Even her friend, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood) tries to bend her away from publishing the Papers that will certainly put him in a bad light. Nixon is only seen in silhouette, but he is a menacing presence as he tries to bully her as well.
When the reporters have finished the Herculean task of going through thousands of pages and are ready to go to press it’s up to Katherine to put her paper, and herself, at risk. That moment when she finally makes her decision is Spielberg through and through, as you cheer through the tears. The scene where she calls to give the ok to run the story and the presses begin rolling is monumentally inspiring. It’s a call for truth.
In today’s America The News is a moving target. At any given moment it is a mix of ranting opinions, silly entertainment or actual reporting of real events that is then characterized as “fake.” But, back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s there was a trusted record every day in a newspaper. Journalism was a calling as much as it was a job and getting the story right was priority #1. That’s what this film is all about. It is a rallying call for journalism to stand tall once again.
20th Century Fox 115 Minutes PG-13
