It seems like a match made in heaven pairing director Steven Spielberg with Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, and a story that has become topical again in recent years. Freedom of the press is a basic right granted by the Constitution of the United States, and that right has been under scrutiny again as our leaders fight against anything published that doesn’t meet with their approval. Many people still alive today will remember a time in the 1970s when that right was challenged by Richard Nixon, and the Republican Party took The Washington Post to court over that right when The Post published documents proving wrongdoing in the government over the handling of the Vietnam War. As a child of the late 70s and early 80s, I missed firsthand experience with this but was taught it in school and, of course, saw such wonderful films as All the President’s Men and Frost/Nixon, two films that dealt with the Nixon administration and our views on that chapter in US history and politics.
So, with the high pedigree of talent in front of, and behind, the film, why is The Post not better respected as a docudrama? It was highly reviewed upon release but is considered one of Spielberg’s weaker films with more current reviews. I saw it theatrically upon its initial release in 2017 but have scarcely given it a second thought until now. In fact, when I started rewatching it for this review, all I could tell you about this film was that it was about a newspaper and that Hanks and Streep were the stars. I didn’t even remember that Spielberg directed this. After my rewatch, with the film fresh in my mind, I can confidently state that a year from now, I will not remember the details of this plot anymore than I did last time. The subject matter may be important and reflect a landmark Supreme Court ruling, but the way the film portrays it all, it just doesn’t quite draw you into the drama the way it should. This is a rare case where Spielberg swung and missed.
The film opens in 1966, where US State Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) is sent to Vietnam. While there, he determines that the war is hopeless and returns to the U.S. to deliver his report, saying as such. However, while Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara agrees, he continues to publicly justify deployments of American troops, disillusioning Ellsberg. Over the next few years, Ellsberg, working for the RAND Corporation (a think-tank with access to classified documents), sneaks out documents and secretly copies thousands of classified pages documenting the long-term U.S. interference in Vietnam, documents that date as far back as the Truman administration. Once he finishes copying the full collection, he leaks it to a journalist at the New York Times.
Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) is the owner and publisher of the newspaper, The Washington Post, ever since her husband, Phil Graham, committed suicide. Now it is 1971, eight years later, and she is looking to take the company public despite lacking journalistic and business experience. Her goal is to secure investments for higher-quality news and to elevate the Post in national importance. She puts Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) in the position of executive editor because the two have similar visions for the paper, but the board of directors, dominated by men, see her as a glorified housewife who is in way over her head. This seems to be confirmed when a young woman shows up and drops off papers with one of the reporters, papers involving Vietnam that are of a highly classified variety.
While the Post is examining these documents looking for a way to beat the New York Times, who are working the same story, a federal district court issues an injunction against The Times, preventing them from releasing their information to the public. Ben Bradlee wants to run their story anyway, but if it turns out The Post’s information or the source are the same as The Times’, then they could be slapped with a collusion charge and face jail time. Katharine is concerned about the legacy of the paper and the jobs of those who write for it, not wanting to be the one who caused it to collapse. But she also believes in the rights of journalism and the quest for the truth. She will need to make the final call whether to publish their story or not and face the consequences, either way.
There would simply be no story if Katharine had caved in to peer pressure and not allowed the story to go to print. Knowing narrative structure and how a satisfying film is laid out, it is obvious exactly how this film is going to play out. Because of that, it becomes imperative to make the journey an enjoyable one. Here is where The Post really struggles. Scholars of U.S. Politics in the 60s and 70s may find this subject fascinating in its own right, but the layman will struggle to care beyond the basic level of right vs. wrong. The villains of this story are nameless faces and generic threatening voices on the other end of the phone line. The one person who does matter is Richard Nixon, himself, and we only see him in silhouette right before the end credits throwing a bit of a tantrum almost as over-the-top as the one thrown by Lyndon B. Johnson in The Right Stuff. That whole scene, and the brief one right afterwards, feels like a set-up for a sequel, even though films like this one never have sequels. The Post 2: Watergate just wouldn’t happen, but that is what that final scene feels like it is setting up.
Nothing in this film is all that exciting, nor is it particularly enlightening, either. The best parts of the film revolve around Katherine and her self-doubt. It’s easy to forget that there was once a time in this world when gender roles were more clearly defined, and women were often housewives who stayed at home and raised the children. Meryl has a wonderfully powerful montage where she tells her daughter that until her husband died, she had never worked a job before. This kind of thing is now a foreign concept, a relic of the not-too-distant past. What isn’t a relic, though, is her feelings of insecurity. This is a male-driven field that has found itself under the ownership of a woman, and they don’t know how to respect that leadership. Katherine is scared that her decisions could lead to the destruction of The Washington Post, yet when she makes up her mind, she plants her feet and makes the board understand that it is her call whether they agree with it or not.
I rarely feel a movie is not long enough; usually, it is the other way around. That is not the case here. I needed more of the final act. We know that The Post is going to publish their story; otherwise, there would be no movie. But once they do, there is a rush to get through the backlash, as if Spielberg and his screenwriters felt this part of the story was completely superfluous. There are court hearings all the way up to the Supreme Court, but this whole part of the drama plays out in under fifteen minutes with the final results being dictated to us over a phone call. It feels too abridged and kills any excitement or drama that could have been built up.
The Post feels like it wants to be All the President’s Men but doesn’t have the same level of excitement and biting drama that film has. So what we are left with is a film that is good, but not great. For a Steven Spielberg production starring some pretty big names, that makes for a disappointing film, overall. It’s also forgettable. I could revisit this one in another decade and it would be like watching it new all over again. It somehow got a nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars, but considering the only other nomination it got was for Meryl Streep’s acting, it never really stood a chance at winning the big prize. It’s a film that wants to be bigger than it ultimately ends up being.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Amy Pascal, Steven Spielberg, and Kristie Macosko Krieger
Best Actress: Meryl Streep
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Release Date: December 22, 2017
Running Time: 116 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, and Matthew Rhys
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
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