“THE POST”
directed by Steven Spielberg
starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks
This review was written by my longtime friend and high school classmate. She raved about the film, and since I hadn't seen it, I said "have at it!"
It is amazing how timely “The Post” feels when you consider that The Washington Post and The New York Times were pushing to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971 – 47 years ago. The antagonism between members of the media and representatives of the U.S. government strikes a chord with viewers in light of the current administration’s sparring with the media and labeling most unfavorable reports as “fake news.”
Steven Spielberg’s take on the working relationship between Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and editor Ben Bradlee is an excellent bird’s eye view of an era when men were grudgingly forced to accept that women could be not only their co-workers but – gasp – even their bosses. In one scene, Graham (portrayed by Meryl Streep) tells a room filled with male board members, legal counsel, and editors including Ben Bradlee (portrayed by Tom Hanks): “This is not my father’s paper. This is not my husband’s paper. It is MY PAPER!” I felt like shouting “Time’s Up!”
The film shows Katharine Graham as a privileged, well-educated, white socialite who was described by a male Washington Post board member as “giving great parties” attended by a who’s who list of D.C. government movers and shakers. But Graham assumed the publisher post after the 1963 suicide of her husband, Philip Graham, the paper’s former publisher who succeeded her father, Eugene Meyer, after he stepped down as publisher. By the time U.S. military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, first to The New York Times and next to The Washington Post in 1971, Graham had been publisher for eight years.
Splicing in scenes of street protests with the action in boardrooms, newsrooms and the New York Stock Exchange, Spielberg does a great job of communicating the growing frustration of the American public after Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers revealed that American involvement in the Vietnam War was the result of three decades of government lies which impacted the success of U.S. troops.
Not only did I enjoy watching the power plays between prospective newspaper investors, editors, government representatives and the publisher that the film portrays, but I loved the attention paid to how women were treated by men inside and outside the newsroom in 1971. Spielberg doesn’t hold back as he shows how Graham has to battle the condescending way she is treated and spoken to by Bradlee and others as she fights to be taken seriously by the men she encounters and finds the courage to make a tough decision for The Washington Post on whether to publish the Pentagon Papers or not. While Graham is the central female character, the film also includes scenes showing how women with less power and money than her are evolving in the 1970s.
On a personal note, this film reminded me of why I decided to become a journalist and what it was like when I interned at two newspapers in 1981. The newsroom scenes were authentic, from the overall chaos of ringing telephones to the pneumatic tubes used to file completed stories and send them to the copy desk. For anyone working in a newsroom or just living life before smart phones, seeking a private phone conversation during work hours meant leaving your desk and going outside of the office to find a phone booth – and using coins to make the call! Spielberg adds this reality to his newsroom tableau as a seasoned reporter reaches out to Ellsberg via a pay phone outside the Washington Post, nervously dropping lots of coins on the ground mid-call.
No matter the age of the viewer, this film does a good job of translating the fact that news organizations have the ability to shine a light on all aspects of our government, even if it requires a Supreme Court decision. It also highlights the power struggles within news organizations themselves and the continuous journey women are on as they fight to be respected and listened to in a still patriarchal society.
I highly recommend seeing this film. Sure, Spielberg could have taken the time to include a bit of dialogue on why there were only a few faces of color in the newsroom scenes, i.e. the ever-present lack of diversity in major media, then and now. But overall, the film was accurate with stellar acting and great pacing. I felt suspense at several points, even though the outcome is already a part of recorded history.
Leslie Hunter-Gadsden is a journalist and educator with over 30 years of experience writing for print and online publications. A life-long resident of New York City, her current passions include writing personal essays, dancing, enjoying her husband and grown son and daughter, and researching her ancestors.
*screenshot of Twentieth-Century Fox trailer
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