Despite the amazing cast, the movie is what it is. It's a story. Is it great? meh. Was it average? You bet. Was glad to see Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in a movie together.
What I did take away from this movie though, Is that people can really make change happen in our world. For those people who risk everything, to get the truth out there .. you rock!
[8.3/10] The Post anchors itself around one central decision – whether or not to publish the Pentagon Papers. The sharpest thing that director Steven Spielberg and company pull of in the film is setting up the different, opposing arguments and impulses and considerations that hinge on that decision. Ninety percent of the movie is establishing each of those, from what’s at stake personally for the main characters, to what’s at stake for the country, to what’s at stake for high minded journalistic and political and American ideals. The rest is about the aftermath, and the vindication, that cements the film’s protagonists as noble for setting on this course, when there were so many easier alternate paths available, and so many competing considerations on either side.
That decision ultimately rests in the hands of Kay Graham, the owner of the Washington Post newspaper. Graham inherited ownership of the paper, which had been in her family for generations, after her father passed it on to her husband, and her husband committed suicide. It is a position that, given her gender and upbringing, she never expected to be in, a point which The Post repeatedly emphasizes.
That provides the film with its key theme, arc, and point. Make no mistake, Spielberg and his team are interested in the hard-knuckled challenges to Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War and the intersection of journalism and commerce and political convenience. But the movie’s chief interest is in Kay and her arc of quiet strength.
She goes from being the person who psyches herself up to speak to the men in suits who outnumber her twenty to one, and yet shrinks when the spotlight is on her, to being the person who tells her board members to get in line or get out, albeit with well-mannered grace. She goes from being the person who defers to her (exclusively male) advisors about what to do because she’s unsure of her own instincts and concerned about contradicting them, to being the person who tells her team “let’s go” when the tension is high and it’s her call.
It’s a canny choice, because it puts the film on Meryl Streep’s shoulders. The Post is a fairly standard prestige picture, that allows its performers to go nuts with local dialects and bouts of staring off into the middle distance and big monologues about What All This Means:tm:. It’s rife with the tics and tropes that help position seasoned actors for plaudits come awards season.
Streep contends with her fair share of those things but makes them work better than anyone else in the film’s stacked cast. (Seriously, in addition to headliners Streep and Tom Hanks, The Post rounds out its cast with a representative from nearly every great T.V. show of the last twenty years.) Streep finds the uncertain humanity in Graham, giving her speeches stops and starts, freezing up in the right moment, evincing vulnerability and strength in equal measure when she has to that makes her character feel real and three-dimensional beyond the film’s typical Oscar season affect. For a film that hinges on a grand decision, Streep imbues the character making it with enough dimension, enough truth in her performance, to make us care about the person, and not just about the larger consequences.
That’s also how The Post earns its feminist bona fides. As much as it centers on Graham’s personal arc from vacillation to conviction, it also takes pains to note the ways in which she is marginalized, made invisible, talked over and condescended to because of her gender. The trajectory of the film is one of people constantly pushing her aside with barely-veiled sexist subtext, until she grabs onto her principles and pushes back, in a victory that is not just a personal one for her, but which inspires others in her circle and far beyond it.
The problem with this, and frankly, with all the film’s messaging, is that The Post sets up these turns and ideas nicely through action, but then becomes very heavy-handed in making sure the audience gets the point. It’s not enough for Streep’s performance and Graham’s decision to convey that Kay showed particular courage given her gender; her editor’s wife has to give an on-the-nose monologue outright stating it. It’s not enough for the interactions between journalists and politicians to communicate an uncomfortable, longstanding coziness between them Tom Hanks has to give an Oscar reel speech about it. It’s not enough for a coy line of dialogue to suggest that this effort laid the groundwork for the journalistic investigations that brought down Nixon; The Post has to end with what feels like a full-on, Marvel-style tease for All the President’s Men.
Even if The Post gilds the lily a bit too in that regard, it still succeeds by taking the time (in ways subtle and equally thundering) to establish all the interests and threats and risks that rest with the choice to publish these documents or not. If the movie has a key secondary theme beyond Kay’s personal, feminist journey, it’s one of access politics.
It makes the argument, through Kay’s friendship with the former Secretary who commissioned the report at issue, and her and her editor’s relationships with LBJ and JFK, that these cocktail party/vacation house relationships in polite society dampened the newspaper’s appetite for genuinely raking muck and pursuing the public good. Again, it’s not subtle, but Kay’s choice is as much one to do what’s right despite her personal friendship with the political figure at issue, in a way that stands in for a larger principled (if semi-imagined) sea-change for journalists to draw a sharper line between their friends and their sources.
Throughout the film, it touches on the other opposing forces on either side of this decision. Kay wants to honor the journalistic mission of the Post but doesn’t want to do anything that would spook investors and ruin the newspaper financially. There’s a desire to serve the public by reporting what it has a right to know, with the risk that this news could result in severe legal sanctions, or heaven forbid, threaten American lives.
There is a hope to be able to compete and make a name for the paper against the Behemoth at the New York Times, while hoping for journalistic unity when the Nixon Administration threatens the foundations of the First Amendment Freedom of the Press (replete with a Tricky Dick stand-in gesticulating while ominous music plays). There is an impulse from Kay to stand up for her newsmen and reporters, while also a concern about not doing anything to hurt this institution that she wants to exist for her children and grandchildren. For a movie that places so much importance on a single decision, it earns that by freighting Kay’s dilemma with so many factors on so many sides.
Despite that good setup, The Post verges on the usual Awards Season hagiography and back-patting at times. The good guys win; they make the correct, principled decisions despite ample pressures to take the easy way out, and the universe rewards them for it with teary-eyed monologues and smiling victory laps. It’s also a film that speaks to the current political moment, to the importance of a probing, inquisitive, independent press, without ever making the commentary explicit.
But even apart from that high-principled point, it is a love letter to newspapers. Spielberg’s camera follows the franticness of the newsroom, tracking characters from room to room and argument to argument as the controlled chaos of breaking the story is allowed to unfold. As in Schindler’s List, he follows the machinery of the institution he’s shining his light on, with plenty of moments spent on the typesetting, the organization and production, the many hands typing and printing and delivering that make the broadsheets that changed the tenor of a war and maybe a country into the finished products casually tossed into the streets.
It’s a machine overseen by a woman who rose to the moment before her, balanced and measured the points and pressures on either side of the equation, and found the strength to do what was right. That’s a familiar type of story come Oscar season, but under Spielberg’s direction and led by Streep’s performance, it’s still a damn good one.
A good and worthy film, but not a Spielberg classic. Still, the Hollywood triptych of Spielberg, Hanks, and Streep elevate a fairly talky film into something that's far more cinematic than it could have been.
So...Anyone else think The Post could be set today instead of 1971?
Very good actors, working with a very good script, directed by a good director makes for a good historical drama. No doubt about that!!
The Post works on so many levels. It's not only telling the story of the Washington Post from back in Nixons 1971, but you can also draw parallels to the situation you got going in the States right now with Trump and the media. Although...we haven't seen how that situation turns out yet...
Anyway...The Post is a very good watch!! So if you haven't...
Watch It!!!
This should've been called "The Cast", so many familiar faces.
Everytime a government is threatened by information to get out they cry "National Security" and try to supress it. And it's still happening today. Trying to twist facts, calling it alternate facts or fake news or labeling journalists to be terrorists. Those guys back then drew a line and said "Enough !" The public has a right to know.
Extremely well made movie with a great cast that doesn't need anything but the story to grab your attention.
Entertaining docudrama about an event that changed America. Back when news actually mattered and newsmen actually had integrity. The cast does a bang up job.
Solid movie, as one might expect from Spielberg. Quite intriguing after it gets started, but the first act is really boring. I feel that the first hour of the movie could have been condensed in about 30-40 minutes without the audience losing much.
The cast was good, especially the two leads. Tom Hanks plays his character, Ben Bradlee, well and convincingly. Meryl Streep does a great job portraying the insecurities of Mrs Graham in deciding the role of her newspaper and the risk to take.
I was surprised to see John Williams' name in the credit. The score was nothing special.
Overall, I definitely recommend this movie. Probably not gonna see it again, though.
The not so subtle reference to All the president's men was nice.
8/10
I thought this was a superb film,great acting as to be expected
For a Steven Spielberg film starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks... Boring.
Great acting, great directing, and a timely story. Nobody makes a movie quite like Steven Spielberg. He makes people just talking interesting and entertaining.
I love seeing so many great tv actors on the big screen. Carrie Coon from The Leftovers is fantastic and needs to be in more movies.
A rather enjoyable flick with some great performances by Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, as it to be expected, with some great chemistry between the two leads. The story takes a while to get into the main crux of the Pentagon Papers but is rather captivating once this section begins. John Williams was underused though which is a bit upsetting.
I love Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks too.
But I am not a fan of this movie.
I don't know, I felt like they need to show more, do something more exciting.
Don't get me wrong, the actors did a good job, but the way they told the story was not interesting. At least for me.
I really didn’t know about this happening - being way too young. It’s nice that Hollywood decided to go for more true and recent history recently. Of course you cannot believe all the facts and especially drama but I rather enjoyed the movie - even though at some points it was kind of hard to follow.
Acting was quite good even though Meryl Streep kind of reminded us of her role as the Iron Lady - I hope it was only the wig though!
Sinopsis Film The Post (2018)
Film The Post akan menceritakan Sebuah pekerja cover-up yang membentang empat Presiden AS mendorong penerbit dari surat kabar, wanita pertama negara itu dan editor penggerak keras untuk bergabung dalam pertempuran yang belum pernah terjadi sebelumnya antara wartawan dan pemerintah. Terinspirasi oleh kejadian nyata. Saksikan hanya dibioskop kesayangan anda.
Film The Post ini sudah tayang diserial televisi, dan akan tayang juga pada tahun 2018 dibioskop kesayangan anda. Film ini juga dikenal dibeberapa negara seperti Spain Los archivos del Pentágono, Hungary A Pentagon titkai, Poland Czwarta wladza, dan Russia Секретное досье.
In this case, reality overwhelms and bests fiction. This is far too overblown in terms of the dramatically. In the end, its good that people know of the events.
Does Meryl Streep make it look easy, or is it just easy? The Post is Steven Spielberg's newspaper editorial denouncing the current U.S. administration's claims of fake news and restricted access to the press, with an added sidebar about feminism. The film touches all the right points and elicits all the right emotions, but does it deserve all the headlines? If The Post had been released by an unknown director, I'm not convinced it would've received all the Oscar attention it has. It's a solid effort, but we're a long way from Jaws.
As expected, it's fine, and Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep very good
Journalism is the “first rough draft of history" so said The Washington Post President and Publisher Philip L. Graham. Anyone If you care about freedom of the press, the right to know, you can't help but be thrilled by this film. Not to mention the great performances by Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.
IF I had seen this in my late teens, I may have been so inspired to become a reporter!! Such a fantastic movie with a fabulous message!
There are three scenes, three scenes that made it obvious it wasn't an accident and, that Spielberg was, in fact trying to show the sexism Streep's character suffers. Well, there are more, but all those obvious ones are when we see a bunch of women looking at her. One at the end of the trial, another when she's about to join the shareholders reunion, and she passes all the women to enter a room full of men, and when she follows the women after dinner because the men are going to discuss politics. So, we know there was an intention and this is not me reading Spielberg pointing out sexism where there is none.
And this is why I believe the seek for representation that is occurring is being done the worst way possible. Because those scenes where the most bland, horrible and even cringy of the whole movie. We certainly need new people in front of the cameras, more diverse, but that's meaningless, and it will never be done properly until we don't get different people BEHIND the cameras. The majority of the movies are done by a cishet white male, and that's a fact. Let's let aside the facts of sexuality and race to focus on gender, because this movie intends to tell the story of a woman...told by a man. And now we can't see Spielberg cannot, in fact, do that. He has terrific movies, and all his terrific movies are from male perspectives. Cool, he's a man, keep doing that, I don't mind. The problem is, there are not enough women filmmakers out there. I don't know if a woman would had make a better movie, but I'd be willing to bet that at least those three scenes would have been done much more powerfully than how bland they turned out here.
For me, this movie can be synthesized on the scene where the woman gets the phone call, tell everyone to shut up because she' has the result, and when she's waiting to get them on the phone, a random guy comes and tells the results out loud for everyone to cheer. That scene is what this movie is, and maybe I'd go as far as to say it is a perfect metaphor of the current way Hollywood is handling diversity. In the end, is the same people who are taking all the cheers, who are taking all the credit and who are doing the same movies. And that is why we keep watching the same movie over and over. How could we expect different movies when they're all being done by cishet white male?
Slightly wordy and therefore lengthy. But it's not an action movie, so it's forgivable.
The story is interesting but the end result has not convinced me. In my opinion, the script does not reflect at all the anxiety that journalists experienced, staying many times in presumptuous and pedantic dialogues. On the other hand, the film lacks a notable soundtrack; It only has the typical orchestra that is in the background for typical pro-America soliloquy. A true topic. And finally, what could have been an interesting outcome, ends quickly, without explanation, with a scene jump. I mean, the monologues last longer than the ending itself.
This was work to get through.
I mean, great performances all around, except for Tom Hanks which I will explain later. Meryl Streep, Bob Odenkirk, and Sarah Paulson were fantastic, having standout moments through out as all three carry the film on their shoulders. With Tom Hanks, not saying he was bad, just easily the weak link and failed to impress me. Nothing about his performance felt natural and came across too forced in certain scenes.
"The Post" tackles a serious subject matter and easily sheds light on relevant topics of today, hence why it was rushed into production - too bad it's not that memorable for any future discussion, which is unfortunate .
At the moment, Spielberg makes factor type films. While not a hack, but lost his prime. I will continue to watch his movies, old or new, because even Spielberg's worse movies are not poorly made, at least. Now lets see about "Ready Player One".
Another journalistic thriller from one of Spotlight’s screenwriters, another Oscar nomination. This time we're investigating the pre-Watergate struggle between the government and the free press, a fight that went all the way to the supreme court and drew the personal ire of President Nixon. So loaded with parallels to the current social climate that director Steven Spielberg sprinted it through production, it's well-made but rushed, straightforward and more than a little familiar.
Most impressive is Meryl Streep, who conveys vast inner turmoil as Kay Graham, marginalized publisher of the Washington Post, as she labors to balance her writers' integrity with an impending IPO that could potentially sink the paper. Kay's growth is what really drives the chariot, a compelling counterpoint to the journalistic sleuthing and boardroom/courtroom decisions that don't directly involve her. We see her resigned to the sitting room with the other ladies so the boys can talk politics, willingly accepting her preordained role in society, then slowly grow bolder and more outspoken as the waters grow dicier. She's never completely confident, especially in the one pressure-packed phone call that signifies her pivot, but that makes her all the more interesting and sympathetic.
Where the antagonistic relationship between President and press signifies an obvious complement to Trump's war on fake news, Graham's battle is an equally appropriate nod to the recent push for women's rights. Rich and pertinent, it's an engaging watch, but the workmanlike, by-the-numbers production and hollow, lackluster climax left me feeling a little flat.
Honestly, after having watched Official Secrets, I found this movie to be quite slow and boring. Too much talk, too little actions. Also, a movie involving well off people, accustomed to rubbing elbows with presidents simply isn't as compelling as the story of an everyday woman risking everything to expose the shameful actions of a frankly corrupt government.
I'm not sure if this was conceived having in mind that everyone who watched it would have a background knowledge and basic understanding of these events. As someone not from the US and whose parents were toddlers during the Vietnam war, I was thoroughly lost by the amount of characters. There were way too many people and names thrown around and little setting up of who was whom.
Tom Hanks' character was great. I found Meryl to be overly meek. She would have been more interesting as a woman being confident and forceful and taking charge in a male dominated world. Guess those weren't the times yet, though.
Just watch All the President's Men (1976) instead.
From the times when the press and newspapers meant something.
I did not expect this film to be as good as it was. For a while I thought that Hanks may have been miscast as it felt like he brought a little too much levity to a very serious story. The core issue in the film is as important today as it was then.
This was work to get through.
I mean, great performances all around, except for Tom Hanks which I will explain later. Meryl Streep, Bob Odenkirk, and Sarah Paulson were fantastic, having standout moments through out as all three carry the film on their shoulders. With Tom Hanks, not saying he was bad, just easily the weak link and failed to impress me. Nothing about his performance felt natural and came across too forced in certain scenes.
"The Post" tackles a serious subject matter and easily sheds light on relevant topics of today, hence why it was rushed into production - too bad it's not that memorable for any future discussion, which is unfortunate .
At the moment, Spielberg makes factor type films. While not a hack, but lost his prime. I will continue to watch his movies, old or new, because even Spielberg's worser movies are not poorly made, at least. Now lets see about "Ready Player One".
A story, good to be told. But the way it's been told is standard routine. No risks, nothing special. Seen thousand times. Not bad, not brilliant, a fair solid movie.
Outstanding is the performance of Streep though. Her hesitation, her uncertainty is so well played! I see and understand her situation. She is the only one I could really empathise with. It does not mean the acting of the others are poor. No, all did very good, but Streep got me, I felt her.
Great cast and good story, yet it's far from the best movie I saw from 2017. They need to take a break from nominating Meryl Streep every year too. Tom Hanks hasn't been nominated in years and I think he stood out more.
It's always a risk when having lots of stars in your cast when trying to tell a good story. But the names do not distract you from the fact what this movie is about. The acting was great and the story adaption was amazing too. Although this is a drama movie it doesn't bore at all and it has you on the edge of your seat. I really think the oscar for best picture will be between the Post and the Darkest Hour. A must see movie!
You can tell how much you enjoyed a movie sometimes, by the amount of popcorn you ate during the viewing. I'm not one for eating much anymore, and I ate all of mine.
Getting back to my habbits because this movie made be both stress eat and also for the excuse that I was purely having a blast with the well written dialogue. And fantastic performances by all of the cast.
Powerful and timely with two of the greatest actors ever lived.
Nothing spectacular but worth watching once.
The Post is a movie that uses some real events that took place in the Washington Post to explain us about of the importance of a system of Check and Balances for the well-being of US Democracy and the requisite of healthy and independent Fourth Power [press in general] for that to be true. A Fourth Power that honors its tradition of courage, integrity and credibility.
Health and independence that have gradually faded away with the advent of what it have came to know as “The Informacion age”.
Almost 10 years ago I told Jesse Plemons on the set of Friday Night Lights that one day he will be in a Steven Spielberg movie because he was just that good. He thought I was crazy. Yet here we are. Congrats, Jesse!
Okay movie. Less about the journalistic exploit like you saw in all the presidents men and more about the personal challenges of a few folks realizing the role they play as the fourth estate
Review by WiseBlockedParent2018-04-06T13:58:34Z
As a male person born in 1995, there is a somewhat familiar but alienating taste in my mouth after having watched The Post.
It talks about a cover-up that spanned across 4 U.S. administrations on the Vietnam War from 1955 to 1975.
But it isn’t quite so simple, the picture is rich with messages about progressiveness and moral, it shows how close the past is to reality today and it tries to refreshen our minds that all of which we’re seeing it’s all in the past but still present today in some form.
There is a duality to the message the story is trying to convey, which are inevitably intertwined and follow a logical and factual climax that starts and ends at the same place and at the same pace. It is a beautiful crafted evolution that depicts real life events of different natures but of same spirit.
The first part is freedom of the press, now, I don’t suppose to compare what reality was like back then, to today, because to my knowledge in actuality there are no such, evident problems. Today we face a different beast. Then the government scared newspapers into not publishing facts, today the government just buys newspapers so they can do their bidding. I do not presume to know how today is going to end, but I know that in this movie The Washington Post faced all odds and jumped inside an unprecedented pool of political heat. It showed that a government cannot hide from it’s population and that certain people are going to make sure every story is true and covered, regardless of the consequences because truth is what matters, nobody in charge can or should make decisions for everyone on its own, be it a person or a government.
The second part is about female empowerment. It talks about women, in particular Kay Graham, the first female newspaper publisher who struggles to overcome years of “unfair normality”, where women aren’t supposed to do such things as owning a newspaper. It so beautifully depicts how she’s lost amidst a sea of unknown and uncertainty, her inability to speak loudly because her subconscious forces her to think she doesn’t matter. Until a point where she realizes the power in her hands, something she had all along and the will she has to take her needs and wants into her own hands and decide for herself with courage and focus. This all sounds like textbook, but let me tell you something this movie doesn’t do wrong, it doesn’t just “blame men” and society altogether, not entirely, it makes clear that because of society and the way it was shaped back then, most women did not think AT ALL of what more they could do if only they wanted to, they were just happy to have the life they had, like Meryl Streep’s character said. I think this is very important to note because it doesn’t always have to be about hate between person and society or sex against sex, it can just be an individuality message to everyone, to think more about who you are and what can you do and why you should do it, if you should do it.
This duobus is enveloped in finely crafted cinematography that primarily directs at visual keys that extrudes passion and life out of the film, which is what Steven Spielberg excels at. Most noticeable of these are: the way the camera is on close-up shots at the printing machine, showing how newspapers used to be made, showing key words for the story on the letter casts and consecutively when the printing starts the desks in the news room shake holding an abstract sense of relentless fortitude and accomplishment, the glow the view acquires at the end of the movie which hymned at a brighter tomorrow, putting an end to a steep trail.
I must admit. I have not idea about how much of the movie is actual to the facts of what really happened back then and how much isn’t, the core message is there and it’s clear to everyone, the details might have gone to a storytelling side of things, some might have been lost but one thing is certain, this movie has done a marvelous job at portraying two of the biggest problems society still is enduring as of today, which in a sense is a little scary and if I really think about it, it makes me feel like I felt when I first saw 1976 Network’s speech Howard Beale made about American society’s anger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMVMbmQBug
On Twitter I review the world -> @WiseMMO