Movie Review: The Post (Rating: 4/5)

Directed by Steven Spielberg and played by award-winning cast including Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, the film is about how the Washington Post has obtained the confidential study by the US government on the Vietnam War, and the struggle of whether or not to publish the information.

The story itself is nothing out of the box since it is based on a pretty famous event in US history (i.e.: Pentagon Papers), but the screenplay or the script is what makes this movie truly shines. First of all, the script moves the story slowly, so that without any knowledge of the related events in history, you can still fully understand the situation in that period of time, such as the frustration of the US government on fighting the Vietnam War, and the management issues of the Washington Post on its own survival. 

Next, the script showed us the tangling relationships between the US administration personnel (including the First Family) and the media owners in those days, as well as more importantly, the reason why these relationships exist. Finally the script detailed every step and the huge risks associated with each step for publishing the confidential study. You can almost feel the weight on some of the decisions during the process. For instance, you only need to be brave knowing you might go to jail for something you publish, but it is a totally different thing when you know your colleagues might go to jail instead of yourself. 

There is no doubt that the cast performance in this film is superb, because most of the cast are veteran actors/actresses. You may not know all their names, but definitely you will recognize their faces (e.g.: the Secretary of Defense played by Bruce Greenwood). The two leading characters played by Hanks and Streep obviously are essential to the overall performance of this film and they delivered beautifully as expected.

However, if you really want to compare whose performance is better, I would say Streep had the best without any hesitation. The main reason is her character (i.e.: the owner of the Washington Post) has to make the final call on publishing the confidential study, and has the most stake to lose if the result did not turn out the way she expected. Streep showed us precisely how her character transforms from a nervous and shy executive usually standing on the sideline, to a calm and fearless newspaper owner standing upfront for protecting the freedom of the press. 

Some people are saying Spielberg is using this film to reflect the current battle between the news media and the US administration at the present time. I would say it is more like the battle between the news media and the US president, who loves to express his own personal views which are not always aligned with the administration as a whole. But I truly agree a dialogue at the end of the film saying, all news media are used to monitor the government, rather than the people who are being governed.