The Post

THE POST

Director : Steven Spielberg

Year : 2018

Genre : Drama

Rating : ****

"The Fake News media is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people!" -

Donald Trump, 2017

It is suitably fitting that in the same month the President of the United States announces his inaugural and frankly terrrifying Fake News awards, a movie has been released that highlights the power, the importance and, most importantly, the necessity of a free press. Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, 'The Post' is an immensely engrossing and surprisingly thrilling political drama that faithfully recounts one of the most turbulent times in the history of American journalism while also injecting a fiercely potent thread of contemporary subtext. Set predominantly in 1971, the film depicts the difficulties newspapers had in publishing The Pentagon Papers; a shocking expose of America's 30 year involvement in the Vietnam war. At the centre of the media maelstrom is Katherine 'Kay' Graham (Streep), the proprietor of the then-struggling Washington Post who must choose to either not publish the information and face inevitable financial ruin or run the story and face a potential injunction from Richard Nixon himself who views the publication of the leaked documents as an act of treason. 

As is to be expected, Streep is absolutely brilliant in the lead role of the embattled Graham who tranforms from beleaguered widower to fearless tycoon while Hanks delivers an uncharacteristically gruff performance as the Post's editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee whose eagerness to publish the dossier spits in the face of the wholly unconstitutional injunction already handed out to other newspapers ("We can't have an administration dictating to us our coverage just because they don't like what we print about them"). Great too is the supporting work by 'Breaking Bad's Bob Odenkirk whose understated turn as the Washington Post journalist Ben Bagdikian deserves as much recognition and praise as those of his Oscar-laden co-stars.  But above the fine performances, what really stands out here is Spielberg's minimalistic yet methodical direction and Janusz Jaminski's evocative 35mm photography, with sweeping panning shots of bustling newspaper rooms and a sonic ocean of clicking typewriters keys both visually and thematically calling to mind 'All The Presidents Men' - a wonderfully executed final sequence serves as a perfect prelude to Alan J. Pakula's 1976 masterpiece - as well as Tom McCarthy's unforgettable 2015 award winner 'Spotlight'.

Powerful, shocking, funny and unnervingly prescient, Steven Spielberg has managed to craft a deftly efficient drama that deals with its complex subject matter with surprising ease while never diluting the ground-breaking importance and pertinence of the story it tells. 'The Post' may not be the most inventive or adventurous film to be nominated for Best Picture this year but it is certainly one of, if not the most relevant.