Enjoyable if forgettable ode to the power of print media.
The Post portrays events leading to the titular Washington Post publishing the controversial Pentagon Papers in 1971, at great risk both to its life-saving IPO, and of criminal prosecution from a litigious White House none too happy with exposé reporting that it lied to the American people over the Vietnam War. Among other things, it was first incident where a US President labelled journalists the “enemy” – and four decades later, The Post is a direct response to another US President doing the same.
Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and an all-round outstanding cast are all doing wonderful things: the director’s trademark stunning blocking and camera work, bewitching performances, an historic ticking clock… and yet the entire runtime, I feel like I’ve seen other movies that out-Post The Post. Yes, it’s incredibly reductive of me to say, but… my favourite moments in The Post are director when Steven Spielberg and DP Janusz Kaminski fetishize the printing press itself:
So let’s contextualise The Post, and jump straight into…
Further Viewing
The ideal triple feature: The Post leads directly into its most obvious visual influence, All The President’s Men (1976)…
… whose true spiritual descendant, moreso than the comparatively sentimental The Post, is Spotlight (2015):