With their 2017 historical journalism drama The Post, director Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep were on a mission. Telling the true story of the Washington Post’s 1971 attempt to publish the Pentagon Papers, a report exploring U.S. involvement in Vietnam before and during the war, The Post was a vital and exciting film about speaking truth to power and the democratization of confidential facts. With Spielberg’s kinetic direction, the movie plays like a thriller, especially in the scenes of the report getting transported. Spielberg’s motivation in making the film was so strong that its production timeline, from the start of shooting to the final cut, was under six months, a wildly fast pace. He began shooting in May 2017 (according to Broadway World) and had the film out before the end of the year. As he told USA Today, “This was a story… we needed to tell today.”
Despite the movie’s reasonable box office success (especially for a historical drama) and solid awards run (including Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress for Meryl Streep), it quickly faded from public consciousness. It’s possible the very factors that made it so timely in 2017 kept it from having the lifelong hold on the public you get from other Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks collaborations, other period pieces like Saving Private Ryan or Catch Me If You Can, or even the similarly classy 2015 thriller Bridge of Spies (and no need to acknowledge The Terminal). Playing Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, Hanks was fully in his element in The Post, acting not for the first time as Spielberg’s avatar of goodness and lawfulness in a messed-up world.
Only 3 Steven Spielberg Movies Are Kind of Bad
You’d be forgiven for thinking these ones might’ve been done by his non-union counterpart, Señor Spielbergo, instead.
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks Reunite for ‘The Post’
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks had wanted to work together for a long time before the making of 1998’s Saving Private Ryan, but that was the film that brought them together: a supersized World War II epic (and one of the best war movies ever) with Spielberg’s most visceral filmmaking ever and Hanks at his soul-baring best. From that point on, Hanks became the face of Spielberg’s historical dramas, someone who could represent a Rockwellian face of normalcy in dangerous times. The masterful Catch Me If You Can cast him as an FBI agent against Leonardo DiCaprio playing one of his most gleefully law-breaking characters. What you got with their collaborations was something like Frank Capra working with James Stewart — material that could be hokey but was brought to cinematic life by the actor’s winning performances.
As Ben Bradlee in The Post, Hanks again played that role for Spielberg. The movie casts Bradlee as a man at odds with the political situation in Washington, D.C. as well as the Washington Post’s owner, Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep). Because of Graham’s political connections, Bradlee is often put in a position of fighting with her about getting certain articles out there. And when the Pentagon Papers begin to leak to the public (first in a New York Times story), Graham and Bradlee try to figure out how to navigate the dangerous waters in their own backyards. For Hanks, playing a role like this seems to come easy. In Spielberg’s hands, there’s rarely been anyone so good at finding the way into doing the right thing.
‘The Post’ Is Exciting and Stirring… And a Little Dated
While The Post deals heavily with the back and forth of publishing, getting approval for stories, and navigating the impenetrable social codes of old-money elites in Washington, D.C., it’s one of Steven Spielberg’s most purely satisfying and entertaining movies. It might lack the explosions of Saving Private Ryan or the vicarious thrills of Catch Me, or even the absurdist Cold War tension of the Coen Brothers-scripted Bridge of Spies, but it lets Spielberg execute a newsroom thriller with passion and excitement. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski’s elaborate camera moves can turn the bullpen of the Washington Post, or even Ben Bradlee’s reporter-filled living room, into some of Spielberg’s most exciting environments.
The Post is very much tied to the year in which it emerged, which could explain why it’s lost some of its immediate power. As a story paying tribute to journalists, it might literally have dealt with figures like Robert McNamara and Richard Nixon (drawing many comparisons to the 1976 classic All The President’s Men), but more than anything, it stemmed from Spielberg’s anxiety about the Trump administration’s treatment of critical reporters. And the story of Katharine Graham in the film is an immediately recognizable allegory: a woman in charge of a paper of record being frequently dismissed and disrespected before ultimately proving she dares to destroy her reputation in Washington for the sake of the truth. Many Steven Spielberg historical epics are accused of whitewashing or sentimentalizing U.S. history, and The Post could have benefited from a bit more cynicism — but when you have Hanks and Spielberg in their element working together, it’s hard to be too critical.