Dir. Steven Spielberg (2018)
Rated PG-13 The Post is about Washington Post journalists Katherine Graham (the first female publisher for a large American newspaper) and Ben Bradlee and their race against The New York Times to publish the Pentagon Papers. These papers included top secret information about the Vietnam War that Nixon and his agents had tried desperately to cover up. The government had been lying to the Americans about their ongoing success in the war, when really, they were losing and in a catastrophic state. When these papers got in the hands of Graham and Bradlee, they had a monumental decision to make. The New York Times also had these papers on hand, and since they came from the same source as Washington Post's, Graham and Bradlee were facing getting into real legal trouble by publishing them. Graham also had her reputation and role in the paper at stake, being the first woman to be in charge of a major publishing company with a lot of people already looking down on her. Publishing the papers would also expose the government in their wrongdoings, so they were risking the abolishment of the press companies as well. This film delivers messages of freedom of speech and press, gender inequality in the 60s, and the time in history when the role of the government in people's lives changed forever. There were great parts of this movie and not so great parts. It's mostly comprised of dialogue with some really great cinematography spliced in. The scenes of New York, DC and its surrounding areas were beautiful, but I don't think aesthetics were a main focus of Spielberg's while filming. Before watching this, I heard a lot of people say that the movie is boring, and I can see that argument. I was bored for the entire first half until the plot picked up. Once it did, you couldn't take your eyes off the screen, but it was kind of a bummer that I had to sit through the entire first half to wait for it to happen. It also helps if you were actually alive and remember when the Pentagon Papers and Watergate happened in history, so while my dad and stepmom knew exactly what was going on, I had some catching up to do. Even then, I thought it was good but not great. In my opinion, the not as good parts outweighed the good parts, but I think it really boils down to what you like in a movie. Some people love a lot of dialogue and some don't. A lot of other people thought this movie was brilliant and well deserving of its many nominations. I don't hate it, but it doesn't deserve this kind of praise. I also worry that Streep is going to lose her credit as the great versatile actress that she is if she keeps doing roles that she gets nominated for simply for appearing on a screen. (I'm thinking Florence Foster Jenkins and Big Little Lies season 2.) I'm not trying to shade Streep, because I think she is amazing in everything I've seen her in, I just don't want her to lose that. The acting was of course incredible, but it's also great to watch movies with actors that we haven't really seen before in lead roles, which this film doesn't achieve. Compared to all of the other acclaimed films that have come out as of late, The Post lacks in this regard. There are so many different opinions on this movie, though, that it is entirely possible that someone else's opinion is the exact opposite of mine.
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AuthorCasey Land Archives
January 2018
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