The Post (Spielberg movie, Pentagon Papers)

It has been said that when Meryl Streep got the script, she agreed to do the movie only if her part was increased, and the result is what we saw. I think the movie would be better with 15 minutes less of her story, and more on the hard reporting and intrigue involved -- basically, more like All the President's Men.

 

Does more Streep translate to better Oscar chances?

 

Perhaps, but for me, more Streep means more sleep.

 

I saw it today and greatly enjoyed it, despite not being anywhere near as enamored with today’s press as are many of the movie’s admirers. The movie did make me nostalgic for that early-‘70s media, though. Top five of the year for me.

 

Finally saw it tonight and enjoyed it. Not astounding, but decent. Made me want to watch Errol Morris' The Fog of War again, which was an interview with Robert McNamera.

 

The Post is to All the President’s Men what Rogue One was to Star Wars.

Otherwise, Tom Hanks wasn’t terrible convincing, but when the film honed in on journalistic struggles, it worked. When it tried to make feminist points (which I agree with), it was heavy handed and undercooked. It should have expanded to do that element justice, or it should have played it waaay down.

The scene involving a mass of documents and a pivotal phone call rocked in a way the rest of the film sadly couldn’t match.

Shalom, y’all!

L. Bangs

 

Really, Hanks is playing Ben Bradlee? He's got a hard act to follow- IMO Jason Robards nailed Bradlee in All The President's Men.

I admit I would be more interested in seeing The Post if it was anybody buy Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks...two of my least favourite actors/actresses of all time!

 

Hanks is doing his William Holden impersonation, better newspaper movies exist. Spotlight for instance..

 

Love Hanks, not much of a Streep fan though I thought she was fine here. As I said before, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. However, I found the very last line of dialogue totally unnecessary. Is there anyone in the movie’s target audience who, without that line, wouldn’t understand the final sequence? For me it nearly ruins a great ending.

 

She spend some years at regional theater here in WI, including the American Players Theater. She always earned good reviews.

 

Content aside, I liked The Post, but I'm sorry to say it had more in common with Spotlight than anything else. It came across as a good film - "made for television".

 

I can't be the only one who feels like this is the most blatant "Oscar bait" film of the awards season, right?

 

It’s got the press under attack, women belittled by men, Hanks and Streep. Definitely a strong candidate.

 

Plus Spielberg, plus it's politically timely. Plus I think I read the release was pushed up to make it in time for awards season, or am I mistaken?

 

Sorry, I haven’t heard anything about that.

 

I think that's basically what's going on.

 

I saw it this afternoon and thought it was good not great.

I mostly liked the printing press parts of making a daily paper and timetables, etc..

Meryl did a decent job.

 

I'll leave this link here for anyone interested in reading an informed critical review of The Post's revisionist history:

'The Post' and the Pentagon Papers

"In the 457 pages of Ellsberg’s fine book [Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers], Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee is mentioned exactly once, on page 392. Katharine Graham, the owner and publisher of the Post, is not mentioned at all. But it is upon Bradlee and Graham that Hanks and Spielberg decided to base their film about the Pentagon Papers."

 

While the historical inaccuracies are regrettable (but typical dramatic license for Hollywood), I think complaining that the film isn't about Daniel Ellsberg is kind of missing the point.... they wanted to do a film about a crisis at a newspaper, and must have decided Graham and Bradlee were more interesting characters (and the Post at more of a turning point in its history), than the people at the New York Times.

 

Just watched the film and found it quite interesting. Here is a positive review:

Steven Spielberg's The Post makes an entertaining, timely case for freedom of the press

I especially like the line "the press was to serve the governed, not the governors".

 

Watched it last night and whilst I enjoyed it, it isn't Oscar worthy. Have to say I don't remember the Washington Post story/leaks but up to the one hour mark I just thought so, what do you expected.

Come the hour mark and we have Streep beginning to morph in to Margret Thatcher, she now becomes important to the story and the really interesting factors come in to play when the lawyers enter stage left.

From a UK perspective there's a much better film to be made with Tony Blair as the central character.

 

I'm interested in The Post, but haven't seen it yet. In the actual Washington Post, after The Post was released, they had a feature about journalism-related films that they, as journalists, liked and thought were fairly accurate to the actual profession. Spotlight was the only one that I could find via streaming.

I watched it over the weekend and was very impressed. It told the story in a deliberate, non-gratuitous way, and was very effective. The actors all played earnest professionals who worked hard to uncover the truth. Even Rachel McAdams, who is gorgeous, was treated in a non-glamorous way. Highly recommended!

 

It was hard for the Catholic wife to watch, but the way it was, as you say, deliberate, non-gratuitous, kept her involved through the movie. I don't think she discussed with anyone else in the family, though.............

 

I enjoyed this. Spellbindingly brilliant cast (when Carrie Coon only has a few lines, you know that's quality). It's middle-tier Spielberg, but that's still pretty good. But can we talk about how he can take an esoteric concept such as prior restraint and weave it into such an entertaining movie? He did the same the same thing with Lincoln and the "Team Of Rivals", only there it was trying to get the 13th Amendment passed. Anybody else pitches these ideas and they'd be rightfully written off as too high-minded for the masses. But Spielberg feeds it to us like a mom trying to hide the veggies-it's good for you and tastes good, too!

 

Haven't seen Spotlight yet but do want to. Perhaps it is an accurate representation of the journalism profession, but was the story itself accurate in the first place? This journalist suggests not:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/29/oscar-hangover-special-why-spotlight-is-a-terrible-film/