The Post (2018)

The Post tells the story of the Washington Post newspaper trying to publish a story about the pentagon papers. Meryl Streep play Kay who is the owner of the Washington Post and Tom Hanks as Ben who is the executive editor. The poster is simply those two which is perhaps all the marketing that you need and when you add Steven Spielberg to the mix then you have a film that naturally sells itself.

Even though this has a very impressive cast including Bob Odenkirk, Bradley Whitford and Bruce Greenwood just to name a few, the film and story really centre around Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. Streep’s performance of Kay is very similar to Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’, it was a little distracting at times but I did think it still a good performance as someone who wants to do the right think but is being told to squash the story for the sake of her paper. Tom Hanks’ Ben is someone that drives the story and is very excited with what is about to happen and is very confident in what the paper has to do so is the opposite of Kay.

The film is essentially people talking in rooms and the fact that Spielberg manages to make this work shows how good of a director he is. This film would be a great double feature with the 1976 film ‘All the Presidents Men’, this film enda at the point where All the Presidents Men starts and this was almost certainly by design.

The Post isn't the sort of film that you would think off when you say Steven Spielberg but that doesn't mean that its any less of a film than say the Indiana Jones film and yet The Post is a very well told story that isn't perhaps the most exciting story but is done in a way that is dramatic and at times quite tense. I enjoyed The Post and think its worth watching although it might not be in Spielberg’s top 10.