The Post (2017) – Review

The profession of investigative journalist is a challenging one. You have to get information that others want to keep a secret and you run a lot of risk to get it and publish it. When your research has to do with the government, who then does everything possible to make sure it isn’t published, it is a battle of interests. The government is ultimately elected by the people, but on the other hand there may be secrets that are of national importance. On the other hand there is the freedom of the press, which should be able to write about anything. We saw the collision of interests in the past few months, for example in America, where the president rejected certain news organizations because they had written about him in a way that did not fit him. That is, however, of all times, as The Post shows.

Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) runs The Washington Post, a newspaper that has been in the family for generations. She got the position after the death of her husband and comes across as very insecure. The newspaper is about to go to the stock market in the 1960s and it is an exciting period in which investors can still withdraw. Controversy could be catastrophic. Exactly around that period, The New York Times publishes high-profile articles about the government, based on what would later be called “The Pentagon Papers” (for more information you can watch this documentary). The government is forcing a ban on further publication through the courts, but when the chief editor of The Post, Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), also receives information about it, the question is whether they have to publish or to comply with the court’s decision in the case against The New York Times.

  I saw this film during a festival together with The Shape of Water, I, Tonya and The Florida Project and compared to those titles this one was somewhat disappointing. Steven Spielberg is a very competent filmmaker and The Post is well made, looks fine, but for me it lacked a bit of authenticity. Maybe it was the cinematography, but it never felt as convincing as for example Spotlight. That felt more real. Here it was mainly the strong acting that I eventually appreciated the most, but I never really had the conviction that I was “in the moment” in terms of the reality of a few decades ago. Not a bad film, but not great either.

[score7]