Wouldn't you go to prison to stop this war? (The Post 2018)

169.

The Post

 

 

 

7/10

 

Another movie that is being nominated for a variety of awards, including picture of the year and best actress, with Meryl Streep in the main role. Steven Spielberg gives us a look into a true story of how the lies spouted by the American government's failings during the Vietnam war and deceptions, to keep the truth from the public. This follows the story behind one newspaper, The Washington Post and their battle with the government for the right to publish the findings. Could this be front page material or nothing more than a quick side story?

Our story begins on the front line, where a guy called Daniel Ellsberg, is in South Vietnam to observe the progress made in the battle, to report back to the Embassy. At night, the unit he is in, gets ambushed by unseen enemies and are nearly all wiped out. On his flight home, he speaks to the Secretary of Defence and the Chief of Staff, who he explains that nothing has changed, which could also mean that things are getting worse. Once landed, the Secretary is confronted by the press, who he instantly lies to and tells them that things are getting better on the front. Ellsberg is clearly shaken by this and during the night, he sneaks out of the Pentagon with files on the Vietnam War, meeting with his colleagues and making copies of everything. One reading over the files himself, he sees that four Presidents were involved in the cover-up regarding certain facts and allied to the press.

6 years later, we are into the time of our main bulk of the film. Meryl Streep is a publisher, who is set to take her company public. In her meeting, she freezes when asked questions, clearly showing that her character isn't exactly strong right now. At the same time, she also gets a call from the Chief of Staff, explaining that President Nixon doesn't want the paper to cover his daughter's wedding. She later meets with her managing editor, Ben Bradlee, who is played by Tom Hanks. She makes a suggestion about expanding their coverage to attract move of an audience, but is quickly shot down by Bradlee. After the meeting about going public, Kay Graham, Streep's character, is in her office and outside are two of the men from the meeting, discussing their concerns about the Post going public. They are bringing up negatives such as people may not be happy with a woman in charge and how she only inherited the company, after Graham's husband committed suicide. Later that evening, at Graham's home, she is visited by McNamara, who informs her that something bad may be printed about him in tomorrow's New York Times.

Once Bradlee has caught wind of the Times launching a major story, he sends an intern to their department, to find out what a journalist named, Sheehan, is about to write up. He comes back with a rough drawing on what the front page was going to look like, involving McNamara and they Post team aren't too pleased. The Times publishes a story about getting their hands on the Pentagon papers, which has news on the cover-ups that the White House has been involved in. While Graham sits down for a meal with the Times editor, his assistant comes over with news that Nixon wants to take them to court over the story. One of the journalists with the Post works endlessly to set up a meeting with Ellsberg, who finally meets him at a motel, with all of the printed papers laid out on the bed. Once he obtains them, he informs Bradlee and gathers his top workers to sit and arrange them all in the right order. In anticipation of all of the backlash, they hire lawyers, to find out their rights and what would happen. I don't know what went on with this at the time, but I'm going to guess that they published, mainly because it would be a waste of time to make this film and then they shit out.

Graham is clearly scared and sits with her daughter to discuss her feelings about running the story and managing the company by herself. She is mainly doing it to support her family and nothing more. Bradlee informs Graham that they will face legal action if they run the story and a huge debate erupts from the board members versus the journalists. Graham is left with the final decision and after a decent speech, she goes ahead with it all. The next day, it's published and the newspaper is on the streets. This starts a wave of all other publications running the same story, so that they cannot all be silenced. Graham is taken to the supreme court by the government, to which they win the case, as a judge rules in favour of the governed, not the governors.

The film ends with Bradlee talking to Graham in friendly conversation, as we are transported outside of the White House, where through the window, we see Nixon on the phone, banning anyone from The Post from ever going to the White House again. Later, we see a security guard at the Watergate Hotel, noticing that a break in is in progress....
A very historic event and interesting story that was behind it, was shown by so pretty average performances, in my opinion, from Streep and Hanks. I'm not sure it was their fault, but with the topic and people that they needed to portray, I doubt they had much to truly work with. The whole movie seems to follow the usual criteria but it never really reaches the 'WOW' factor for me. Being British, it is hard to keep trap on what happens in the US but this could be easily comparable to Trump's war on 'Fake News' right now and trying to cover-up any stories that are leaking about him. Although this is pretty much an enjoyable history lesson, don't expect to leave the cinema in shocked silence that had been created from other movies of this type.