Even with the first amendment recognized, our right to receive information remains in the hands of our US Supreme Court, and this important film portrays why, still today, we need a healthy media to hold government accountable to its citizens, not just its leaders. It is our right to know if five US presidents had lied to us about our purpose in Vietnam, our involvement in Vietnam, the likelihood that the US would win, what was even possible to win, the likely cost of remaining in Vietnam, and the likely length of our remaining in Vietnam, was decided by a split US Supreme Court decision. In the film “The Post” directed by Steven Spielberg, he tells the story of two newspapers, the New York Times and the Washington Post. The New York Times has been leaking secret information about the government and the Washington post wants in on the action. With the help of many editors, the Washington Post tries to beat the New York Times to the next big story. Both newspapers battle it out as they start to expose a massive amount of government secrets that had to do with the Vietnam war that leads to many issues and questions to be answered. In the end, both papers must work side by side as they try to overcome their differences as they put their jobs on the line and freedom to bring truth and justice to light.
The film features lots of key actors that play a big role in the film such as Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and Sarah Paulson. After watching and analyzing the film “The Post” directed by Steven Spielberg, I found it to be a very interesting and well put together film that has to deal with the Vietnam War and government secrets. This is a very clever and extremely well thought out film.
The parallels between the Nixon Presidency and that of Donald Trump are cleverly interwoven-as they should be. Any leader or government trying to stifle the free press is nothing short of dictatorship. The Post is a brilliant film on all counts. The Post is not just about the publication of The Pentagon Papers in 1971.
It is also about one woman finding her place in the world. Meryl Streep plays Katherine Graham the publisher of The Washington Post, she has inherited the paper due to her husband’s death. Graham is lost in this world of men, who patronize her, today we call it mansplaining. To add to her difficulties, the Post receives a copy of a secret study commissioned by the Pentagon into the conduct of the Vietnam War. The paper’s editor, Ben Bradlee ( Tom Hanks) wants to publish even though he knows that the Nixon Administration will come after the paper. The papers were taken my Rand Corporation official Daniel Ellsberg and copied. Ellsberg wanted to expose the fact that previous Presidents had lied about the reasons for and conduct of war in Vietnam.
Overall, This movie not only serves as a great reminder of how important freedom of the press was before/during/after Watergate, but it brilliantly underscores the huge importance of freedom of the press right now with apparent criminals in the White House. Director Spielberg deftly manages to balance brilliant performances with suspenseful storytelling. Making a movie where we know the outcome and still making it suspenseful is a great accomplishment. The film might get off to a slow start in the beginning but It gives you insight to the corruption of governments at try to defraud the people of this country. We forget the gifts of freedom of speech and when the free press is not allowed to be free. This war should never have been fought and so many of our out young people died unnecessarily because of the lies our government told us
