The Post Film Review

Finished watching The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Matthew Rhys, Bruce Greenwood, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. The film opens in 1965 as military analyst Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) goes to Vietnam in the middle of the war where he sees first hand how the war is going. On the plane back to America Daniel meets with Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood) as they discuss how America is losing the war and are sill sending more and more troops into the country. This leads to Daniel to make copies of classified documents which he later sends some to the newspapers years later. Meanwhile the owner of the Washington Post Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) is preparing to but the company onto the stock exchange while the editor in chief of the paper Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) works on the papers day to day business where one day the paper is given some of classified documentation and are beaten to repotting it by the New York Times who quickly find themselves in trouble with the government for reporting on the documents. This then leads to the whole press team at the Washington Post to question what they should do with the documents they have in their possession and if they should report on it or not. Overall this was a great film as it dives into the world of journalism thanks to a very intriguing story that shows not only some of the day to day business within the creation of a newspaper but also showing how impactful a paper can be essentially during the release of news on government secrets. There is an amazing amount of suspense within the film thanks to how well each character and actress interact with one another and deal with the different types of situations they find themselves in which us are just as suspenseful on there own. The film does a great job in bringing to life the elements of the Vietnam War be it briefly on the battlefield to how the American people and government reaction to it along with the time period as a whole. Additionally the film does a great job within its more character driven moments as it helps to develop some of the cast more and bring a more personal feel and prospective to the events the are transpiring within the film. 8.5/10.