The Post: Movie review

'The Post'
U/A: Biography, drama
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Tracy Letts, Alison Brie, Carrie Coon
Rating:

The Post may be about the Pentagon Papers - infamously nicknamed as The Expose On The House Of UnAmerican Activities, but it could well be a timely intervention that could liberate the Press from being under the thumb of despotic rulers, who use it as an effective tool to cover up their innumerable flaws. Everyone with even a little imagination can see that the same thing is happening with Trump in the USA and Modi in India today. The parallels are ominous.

It was a cover-up that spanned four US Presidents and pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and an editor to pitch a battle that pitted journalists against the government. Most political scandals are easily forgotten and that is what eventually happened to the Pentagon Papers, which took on the shape of a huge controversy when The Washington Post and New York Times published the findings.

Watch the trailer of The Post

The film is fairly gripping as it sweeps us through the politics of the Vietnam era. The intense controversies surrounding the Pentagon Papers is put forth with acuity, but the lack of detailing is a limiting factor. There's also the fact that Spielberg is stodgy and scatter-brained in his narrative spiel. Liz Hannah and Josh Singer's script may have built its layers from researched facts, but the process is limiting.

It's the performances that really keep it all together. The luminous Meryl Streep gives Katherine Graham the gender-busting publisher of the Washington Post a heroic swagger while the ever dependable Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, the editor, turns it into a buoyant affair.

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