Back on the red carpet in London, Meryle was one of a number of famous faces in the film spotted at the premiere, including Spielberg, Tom Hanks and his actress Rita Wilson. Her father had left control of the publication to her husband.
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Yes, I know the scene that shows staffers descending on Bradlee’s home in Georgetown to prepare the story is historically accurate, down to her daughter selling the staffers lemonade and his wife serving sandwiches. “She’s got her family’s legacy to think about”. Needless to say this could result in a catastrophe for the Nixon government, thus after the initial reports in the Times the United States government for the first time since its creation sought an injunction on the press from a federal court, and they got it.
The elephant in the room is Alan J. Pakula’s classic 1977 Watergate film All the President’s Men, which infamously reduced Graham’s integral role at the Post to an off-color joke. The news shocked people: that four successive US presidents (of both parties) kept from the American people the truth that the war in Viet Nam was unwinnable, all the while requiring more young men to go and fight, and often die, in that war. Alongside the story about journalistic heroes fighting for the freedom of the press is the story of Katherine Graham (played by Meryl Streep), publisher of The Washington Post.
“The Post” joins on the short list of great newspaper pictures 2014’s best picture victor “Spotlight”, the story of the Boston Globe’s investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church that was co-written by Josh Singer, who is one of the writers of “The Post”. (That all happens offscreen.) Something more fundamental is going on here: Bradlee and Graham have to decide whether, in this chilly environment, it’s worth taking the risk to publish in the first place.
When asked whether he believed that she was qualified to hold the highest office in the land despite her lack of political experience, the director replied, “Does our current president have the skill set to be president?”
The Post is without a doubt relevant at a time of attacks on the media and the #MeToo movement. It’s hard to disagree when Ben randomly turns to his secretary and says, “My God, the fun!” “He’s so interested in everything and is curious about everything”. The movie itself is a blunt reminder that everything in this story concerning a craven, paranoid president’s loathing of an aggressive free press did not exactly vanish with the Nixon administration.
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Hanks laughs about how Streep didn’t know that Spielberg doesn’t rehearse. “His process lives in the moment”. Graham had been a friend of both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, while the editor palled around with JFK. At worst, the paper ceases to exist and they spend the rest of their lives in federal prison. The clip of Nixon speaking about the Pentagon Papers is Nixon’s actual voice, which adds to the drama and realism. But after the Golden Globes, I don’t think it’s going to win almost as many awards as people first thought. Bob Odenkirk does particularly fine work as the reporter who tracks down Ellsberg and gets his hands on the papers. That backfired, causing the government’s case against Ellsberg to be thrown out. I haven’t seen it yet but I can imagine that the two of them put forth a stellar performance that will force their costars to knuckle up and bear down in an attempt to make their own roles seem just as good. The papers were most definitely not ever meant to be seen by the American public in their raw and unexpurgated form. NYT’s front page comes with the Pentagon Papers expose while The Post carries photos from the marriage. It’s not a conservative movie.
