The Post

Somehow, a new Steven Spielberg film has come out without me having any prior knowledge of its release. I've gone on record before as being a Steven Spielberg apologist. No, apologist isn't the right word - more like defender. Fact is: I love his films (for the most part). In some hardcore film circles, Spielberg is the equivalent of the devil - the destroyer of the 1970s New Wave of Hollywood. Someone who took the sensibilities of the exciting / radical European and Japanese directors of the 1950s and 60s and morphed them into mainstream entertainment. And while he has a few turkeys, I think he has a consistent filmography and has continued to make mostly good movies to this day. And his highs are just so high - Jaws, E.T., Close Encounters, Indiana Jones, Schindler's List... I even really like A.I. (a mis-understood and underrated masterpiece in my opinion...). The fact is it takes a real master of the form to do what Spielberg does. And mainstream doesn't necessarily relate to "less intelligent" films. There is nothing wrong with making quality films made for a mass audience and being good at it. And he is damn good at it.

I have welcomed his return to more adult orientated historical based dramas with open arms, with films such as Lincoln and Bridge of Spies. In a similar vein comes The Post, a taut political thriller, that might not be one of the director's all time bests but showcases some excellent performances, rich and confident filmmaking and grapples with some fairly timely issues through its historical narrative.

The Post is an effective look into the workings of The Washington Post's attempts to uncover decades of government cover up of the Vietnam War

We open in throes of the Vietnam War in the mid-60s, perfectly encapsulating the madness, terror and  atmosphere that has defined this conflict. Disillusioned by the war and disgusted at the depths of deception by the US government to cover up the futility of the conflict, military analyst Daniel Ellsberg copies top secret government documents that would eventually be published as the infamous Pentagon Papers. The 7000 page document was commissioned by JFK and LBJ's Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara, and contained detailed findings of the US' involvement in the Vietnam War between 1945-1967 - the report ultimately concluded that it was a war that could not be won yet rattled on anyway out of a fear of a US defeat.

Through a series of circumstances, the papers end up in the hands of The Washington Post. Wanting to one up rival newspaper The New York Times (who also have a fraction of the copies made but have had a federal embargo placed on a them), editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) and owner Kay Graham (Meryl Streep) grapple with the ethical and moral positions of publishing the documents whilst also walking the tight rope of the business interests of the paper. The two must overcome their differences, risk their careers and potentially their freedom, as it is revealed that the government and four former US presidents have been covering up the truth about Vietnam for decades...

Hanks is excellent but the film really belongs to Streep's Kay Graham as the film builds a quietly feminist tale of a woman asserting herself in a male dominated business

The film's heart really is the conflict of differences between Graham and Bradlee. Bradlee is a newspaper type guy - he believes in the integrity, journalism and that they should publish. Tom Hanks storms around the newsroom just the way you'd want him to but it is mostly left to Streep to mull over the moral quandary of what it means to publish a story like this. The character has a lot to deal with as she considers the business interests of the family owned paper, weigh up how this is going to affect the paper's business interests long term, along with the threats of legal action by the US government, how this will affect the ongoing conflict in Vietnam and the sense of betrayal by her friend McNamara (who commissioned the papers) for not coming forth with the information. And Streep is just as brilliant as you'd expect her to be. Her body language is wonderful and the way she fights to try and assert herself is clear in every facial expression and action she takes as the character. I actually like the film's efforts to reposition the story as a quietly feminist tale about a real woman battling for control of her own company in a male-dominated business. Graham was, after all, the first women to be the owner of a major US newspaper.

Of course the film that many critics have compared it to is All The President's Men and while The Post can't quite match that classic, I would say it does succeed on its own terms. Spielberg effectively builds this incredibly claustrophobic atmosphere, aided by a fairly subdued John Williams score and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (famous for his over-exposed style). In fact, it looks the way I wish Spotlight would. Similar in its plot with journalists working to expose a well-guarded secret, Spotlight, while a very good film, suffered from being a bit dry in places and I think this was mostly down to its visual style. You only need to compare a sequence of Spotlight to a sequence in The Post to show which one is more visually interesting. There are some scenes that hammer the points home a bit too overtly and the films does sometimes lack the propulsion that, to its credit, Spotlight had. It's more elegantly done as opposed to electrifying.

The result is a slow build that pays off with a rich and satisfying third act that makes good on the promise of the premise - grappling with journalistic integrity and governmental control of information. In an age where our governments are considering what we view on the Internet and the concept of truth is a malable term, Spielberg takes a real historical event from a time when information was more finite to explore how these issues still affect us today. The Post is an inspirational story about small people triumphing over those in control. Yet it is also a chilling reminder that those who claim to serve our best interests actively filter and manipulate how we view the world. Spielberg pulls all this off in a film that may not not stand as one of his all time greats (or even in this genre) but still feels effortless, classy, entertaining and timely.

One thing I didn't care for was the final two minutes. The film very effectively wraps up before cutting to what can only be described as a Marvel-style post credit scene. You'll see what I mean when you see the film.