Movie review: The Post

INSPIRING and uplifting, The Post manages to hold the audience’s attention in this retelling of one of history’s most shocking political scandals.
The 116-minute-long Spielberg movie, set in the 1970s, depicts how press freedom was challenged when the Pentagon Papers regarding the US involvement in Vietnam were leaked.
The US military’s role in the devastating war was grossly understated to the public, and the leaked papers – a case study by former secretary of defence Robert McNamara – disturbingly shows that it, in fact, goes back multiple presidencies.
The Washington Post at that time was overshadowed by The New York Times, which was first to create headlines with the scandal, but was issued a court order to stop reporting on it.
Against a government hoping to stifle press freedom, the Post – headed by Kay Graham (Meryl Streep), the first female publisher of a major publication, and executive editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) – obtain the secret papers and decide to report the truth anyway.
Both Streep and Hanks do a brilliant job of portraying their characters.
The former captures Kay’s certain but evasive attitude when it comes to voicing out her opinions in board meetings, while the latter perfectly portrays Ben and his determination in “reporting the news and not reading the news”, a reference to the Times outshining them.
You can see from this movie that the Post’s newsroom and editorial members moved in incredible unison, albeit with fear of repercussions, if they did indeed go through with the publication of the papers.
The film also captures the intricate relationship between the media and government officials, giving viewers a peek into the dynamics of how the industry at that time worked, especially after news broke of the scandal.
It’s one of those movies where even if you already know the story, you’d still want to watch it because all aspects of the film, from cast to production team, deliver in quality, making it an impactful tale.
And if you didn’t know about the Pentagon Papers, be prepared to go down a Wikipedia-rabbit hole after watching the movie, because your curiosity will be piqued.
The ending is emotional but in a good way. Personally, it affected me more than I thought it would, serving as a great reminder of the need to do the right thing.
In this case, the message is clear: “the duty of the press is to serve the governed, not the governors”.