The Post (2017)

Jack and I expected to love, and did, this story of Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham and her editor Ben Bradlee struggling to obtain and publish the Pentagon Papers--secret 1971 documents about the Vietnam War, detailing lies from several presidential administrations.

Naturally, Meryl Streep (last blogged for Florence Foster Jenkins) is fabulous as Graham (1917-2001), a woman in a man's world at the dawn of feminism, whose husband Phil was appointed to run the family's newspaper by her father, and then she took over after Phil died in 1963. One biographical note I read tonight tells of Graham's being raised by nannies and then verbally abused by Phil, logical contributors to low self-esteem. Watching Streep fiddle with her reading glasses is worth a thousand words. And. listening to audio tape of the real Graham in an NPR interview followed by Streep's interpretation, I loved that she got the voice just right as expected. As Bradlee, Tom Hanks (most recently in Sully) is perhaps less lovable than usual but we still root for him whole-heartedly, as well as for his wife Tony, played by Sarah Paulson (last in Carol), whose biggest scene is in the trailer. As a feminist myself, I took note of her counting heads, of the reporters working late at their house, and then bringing them trays of sandwiches--hallmarks of 60s housewife behavior.

Then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was a close friend of Graham's. She gave many parties, some of which you will see in all their glory, with McNamara at so many I thought he might be a relative. He was not, but he was a pallbearer at her funeral. Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek: Into Darkness) is also good in the role. Dozens of talented and recognizable actors populate the scenes. Who's going to turn down an opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg, Streep, and Hanks??

Spielberg (most recently in these pages for directing The BFG) apparently rushed this to completion because of our current climate of the administration's clashes with the press. Producer Amy Pascal (Ghostbusters, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Molly's Game, and many coming soon) found Liz Hannah's feature debut script on the 2016 Black List. Spielberg's next release was already in the can but put aside to get this out as soon as possible. Josh Singer (Oscar for co-writing Spotlight) was brought in as a co-writer here.

We enjoyed, as always, the old technology such as the newspaper printers (#19 of my Rules) and, new this time, the mechanical typesetting apparatus.

You may want to wait until after seeing this to read an article or two about the movie and the facts. I'm sure there are many more.

Spielberg's reliable composer John Williams (last scored The BFG) presents us with an orchestral soundtrack, available in its entirety (a whole hour for a movie that's just under two hours of running time) on youtube. Only a few songs (listed here) are added to that score and I'm inspired to create Rule #22: any scene of the Vietnam War (such as the very first shots here) will be accompanied by danceable pop music recognizable to most baby boomers and many others.

Despite six Golden Globe and eight Critics Choice nominations, no wins yet. The Producers Guild and Art Directors Guild have nominated this and the Oscar nominations will be announced Tuesday morning. Here's my running list of nominations and wins so far, also available at the right side of every blog page.

It baffles me that, at 88% from critics and 74 from audiences, Rotten Tomatoes averages are lower for this than for Girls Trip. Go figure. And go see it. Or wait for DVD/streaming in the spring.