Review of The Post (2017) by P M — 29 Jan 2018

Another Oscar hopeful for my wife and I. 'The Post' is based upon the real-life 1971 events where secret documents were being published by the New York Times and Washington Post. These documents, a massive internal military historical study, clearly showed that the U.

S. gov't had been lying to Americans about the true nature of the Vietnam War, which was still going on at the time. The Nixon government threatened to prosecute those newspapers in deference to the press's 1st amendment rights.

My wife and I were still kids when this happened, though I vaguely remember that kerfuffle. Given the title of the movie, it focuses on the Washington Post part of this story. Spielberg focuses on the freedom of the press, the Post's owner (Streep) and her struggles with hanging on to its survival, plus the role of women.

It was quite fascinating. Curiously, some have criticized the "leftist" perspective, but the film dumps on Democrat presidents Kennedy and Johnson while providing a fairly balanced view of gender issues.

Though I'm rather tied of Streep's hogging of meaty roles, she's great! Hanks and Odenkirk are fun, too. The script has strong writing and helps keeping everyone in the loop of this complex story.

A few great cinematic moments though the ending seemed a bit flat and overhanded. But overall, a very good movie. My wife liked it, though a bit less than me...giving it a 7.