Why you Might Want to Watch "The Post" Again (or for the first time)
It's a ripping good story, it really happened, and it's a lot about what's going on now
I re-watched the film The Post this week, and was reminded that major parts of the script are right out of today’s headlines.
It’s about the real-life struggles of The Washington Post’s owner, Katherine (Kay) Graham (portrayed by Meryl Streep), still mourning the loss of her husband, while attempting along with editor Bill Bradlee (Tom Hanks) to keep the Post afloat. Their problems are overwhelming as the paper tries to publish the truth, collected with great effort by journalist Daniel Ellsberg about the war in Viet Nam (the copied notes became The Pentagon Papers). President Richard Nixon—no fan of a free press—is determined that they never will be revealed to the American public. Because of Nixon’s restraining order forbidding the notes to be published, Graham and Bradlee know they and their staff could end up indicted for contempt.
Watch for an amazing scene (though there are many) in which numerous reporters spend an entire night in Bradlee’s living room trying to put in order the hundreds of pages of now-scattered, un-numbered notes in an effort to get the top-secret report published by the next morning.
Streep and Banks melt into their characters, and the rest of the cast is completely believable as well. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg.
A few other major characters and the actors portraying them: Bob Odenkirk (Ben Babdykian), Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood), and Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys).
A nice surprise for me since I didn’t realize it before, is that the music was composed by John Williams of Star Wars fame along with many other amazing film scores.
Two quotes from the movie that still resonate:
Said by Meg Greenfield, editorial writer for The Post at that time: "The founding fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors."
Said by Kay Graham: “Do you know what my husband said about the news? He called it the first rough draft of history.”
Notes:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6294822/The Post