Vijay Stephen reviews enjoys journalistic film

The Post directed by Steven Spielberg highlights some of the important events leading up to the Watergate Scandal and the influential people that were part of it. The movie showcases some of the major people who worked for The Washington Post that helped expose unknown facts about the Vietnam War.

The Post features some big stars such as Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and David Cross but also features some lesser-known actors who were equally phenomenal in their roles.

The movie focuses on the events that happened before Watergate Scandal. It centers around Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep), who owns the newspaper, Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), the newspaper’s executive editor and Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk), the man who locates the Pentagon Papers.

The Pentagon Papers were a study of the Vietnam War that was ordered by Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood). Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys), who conducted the case study was responsible for leaking the papers to the Washington Post and the New York Times. The Pentagon Papers mainly focused on the political and military involvement in the Vietnam War.

The movie starts off with Daniel Ellsberg and others getting ready to enter a Vietnam War battlefield as part of their report. As they are waiting in a forest they start getting shot at, suffering many casualties. The scene cuts to Daniel on a plane where he is asked by Bob McNamara if the war has changed, and Daniel proceeds to say that nothing has progressed.

As the plane lands, Bob is stormed by reporters and asked about how the war is going. He proceeds to encourage the reporters that everything is fine and that the U.S. is winning. As Daniel gets off the plane behind Bob, he notices this and is disturbed.

Daniel, who works at the Rand Corporation, has the highest clearance and access to the Pentagon Papers. As he gets ready to leave the building, he opens a safe and takes out some thick files. He quickly goes to an office and copies the papers while somebody else cuts off the ‘Classified’ sign. During this time, Daniel leaks the copied papers to Neil Sheehan (Justin Swain), a reporter from the New York Times.

Later, Katherine and Ben meet for their usual breakfast together, where Katherine pushes an idea for the paper too hard, prompting Ben to snap at her. This helps us to understand the dynamics between Ben and Katherine. Obviously Ben doesn’t consider Katherine as much of a threat. He values her opinion to some extent, but treats her as inferior.

At a board meeting, Katherine tells the board that she has decided to open the company to the public in order to keep it afloat. A random character delivers a box to one of the writer’s desk in the newsroom. He opens it and finds part of the Pentagon Papers which he shows to Ben Bradlee and his associates. They become ecstatic, but then realize that the New York Times has already published the same papers. Soon after, the New York Times is suspended from publishing and is sued by the Nixon Administration.

The story continues until Ben Bagdikian calls Daniel who has the Pentagon Papers and takes them back to Ben Bradlee’s house. They realize that the papers are out of order so they, with the help of a few other writers from The Post, organize the papers which total over 4,000. They frantically rush to meet the deadline for printing. Ben Bradlee calls Katherine, who, with the help of her advisors, decides to print the papers without thinking if the Post would be suspended.

Then, both the New York Times and The Washington Post are sued by the Nixon administration and appear before the Supreme Court. The film continues to reveal the court’s ruling on the case. 

The movie was exceptionally simplistic. It had enough content to make it a good movie without making it too heavy. It covered a lot of what people don’t know about the events leading up to the Watergate scandal. All the mistrust and suspicions culminated by events in the movie helped to expose the scandal and show it for what it really was.

All the actors played to their strengths and really delved into their characters. Meryl Streep conveyed the struggle of being a female in a world that tended to prefer men. She helped to show how women were treated professionally and socially. She stayed true to her part and conveyed how Katherine was subtly strong, but brave in the face of challenges. Tom Hanks was exceptional in his role as someone who could be tough but still keep the paper running and operating.

The story can be hard to follow sometimes, since the movie switches between The Post combined with Ben Bradlee’s story and Katherine’s story. It also may be hard to understand if you don’t have some understanding of what is basically happened during this time.  

All the aspects of the film helped contribute to the setting. From the wardrobe to the newsroom it echoed the time period and theme of being in the 1970s. The clothes that Katherine wore were very original and something you don’t usually see.

When compared to the real-life events the movie falls short in some places, doesn’t show some of the character background and also hypes up the publication of the Pentagon Papers. The movie is mainly based around Katherine Graham’s autobiography which helped form and inspire the movie.   

The Post has two Oscar nominations for best picture and best actress. Merryl Streep discusses her performance with Tribeca featured in the tweet below.

“The arc of history may be long, but women’s memories are longer, and the justice coming is long overdue.” Meryl Streep discusses her Oscar-nominated performance in @ThePostMovie: https://t.co/AX06g0JgqS pic.twitter.com/wU0UhuDjfv

— Tribeca (@Tribeca) January 29, 2018

In reality when the Post published the Pentagon Papers it wasn’t as big of a deal as it was in the movie. The New York Times had already published all of the papers not just some of them as shown in the movie. The only reason it was a big deal was because it was in defiance of the government since The New York Times was already being sued.

Also in the movie it merely mentions the fact that Katherine’s husband killed himself. When in reality the situation was much more intricate. Her husband was having an affair and was planning to divorce Katherine to be with his mistress. The stress and pressure caused him to have a nervous breakdown and then he checked into a psychiatric facility. After being released he killed himself with a gun.

Overall the post was an interesting movie and a good watch. Although there are some inaccuracies it’s a good starting point for information about that time period. The cast played their parts extremely well and painted a realistic picture of what life was like back then. The movie also showed us how these events had a large impact on the U.S and what The Watergate Scandal did to America

The Post tweeted a teaser video out, Jan. 12 of the film. 

Steven Spielberg’s #ThePost is now playing in theaters everywhere. Get your tickets here: https://t.co/puTD4aLdks pic.twitter.com/pojnt82dAq

— The Post (@ThePostMovie) January 12, 2018

For another movie review, read Jumanji features all-star cast, humorous plot. For more articles, read View from the outside: Jenny King.

This author can be reached via twitter @vijays3242 and via email.