Review for The Post

The Post tells the story of the scandal that hit the United States when The Washington Post chose to run a story regarding leaked top secret government documents. These revealed the extent to which the United States government lied regarding the Vietnam War.

Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Washington Post, supports the running of this story (despite the New York Times getting there first and being sued by the government to be stopped) and believes this is the story that will make the newspaper not just a local paper, but a national newspaper.

The Washington Post's owner, the first female newspaper owner Katharine Graham must come to terms with whether she should rock the boat of an already struggling newspaper and run this story which could jeopardise the very existence of the paper.

I must say that this story would have made a fabulous TV Drama spread over maybe four or so episodes it would be amazing to really get indepth looks into this story and the people it involved. However, as a movie, this felt rushed and a little boring. That is not to say it wasn't enjoyable, it just wasn't memorable.

Tom Hanks as Bradlee and Meryl Streep as Graham are fantastic as always, but maybe that was the thing, despite Streep being nominated I wasn't actually sure why. Yes, her performance is spot-on and even in the documentaries they talk about just how well she portrayed her, but to me it was just another great, but unremarkable performance.

The story is a fascinating one and maybe if they had focused more on the story and not the paper (like they do in All the President's Men) it would have been more enjoayble. Instead, it felt like two separate films. There is the film about the paper struggling with the moral dilemma of what publishing or not publishing would mean and then there is a film about a woman in a man's world struggling with the prejudices and the struggles that the paper was having at the time. This aspect was clearly to cash-in on the #MeToo and #Timesup movement and to me it felt a little forced.

However, again that is not to say the film isn't enjoyable. The supporting cast is excellent and I was surprised at the number of known people such as Bob Odenkirk, Alison Brie and David Cross who were in it all giving fabulous performances.

Extras includes Layout: Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee and The Washington Post is a great look at the real people and why they and this story were so important. This could have been dry and boring, but instead was a great accompaniment to the film.

Editorial: The Cast and Characters of The Post is a great look at how the film was cast, not just for Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, but also all the other actors that made up this amazing ensemble cast. How this cast was not nominated for Best Ensemble at the SAGs is insane?

The Style Section: Re-Creating an Era is a great look at just how the film was created to look like it was set in 1971 and it is the little subtle things the team did which just made the film feel authentic.

Arts and Entertainment: Music for The Post is a fantastic look at just how much of a genius John Williams is. The music is not a major factor when I was watching the first time, but after watching this I made a point of listening to his music and it is fantastic and it is a shame that he was not nominated for an Oscar (though he was for the Golden Globe).

The Post is definitely not a bad film. It does deserve all the accolades it has received, I just don't think it is the ground-breaking, wonderful, film of the year that everyone keeps declaring it as. Apart from the National Board of Review, it is not surprising that it did not win any other major awards. The film just feels like it needed more time to really tell the story and I do wish that Spielberg had opted to do a mini-series as it would have made it a lot more easy to digest and also some aspects would have been better with more time.