The Post - Historical Thriller By Steven Spielberg

Student Name Professor Name Course Date Film Review Released in 2017, The Post is a historical thriller movie by Steven Spielberg. Its story has been penned by Josh Singer and Liz Hannah, while the main characters are played by Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bradley Whitford, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Bruce Greenwood, David Cross, Matthew Rhys and Carrie Coon. Set in the 1970s, The Post is an interesting story of a group of reporters of The Washington Post who attempt to publish the Pentagon Papers, classified documents about the involvement of America in the Vietnam War. These journalists are seen in their smoky rooms throughout the film, riffling through the reams of paperwork on the hunt for a unique story they can share with the world to let everyone know how the United States government had hidden truths of the Vietnam War through false campaigns. While doing so, they don’t even realize that the deadline for story submission has approached; eventually, a huge printing press chugs into effects, and their hard-work gets converted into text with rattles (North 2017). Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee was an American journalist who worked as an executive editor at The Washington Post from 1968 to 1990. It took him no time to become a public figure during the presidency of Richard Nixon. At that time, he was criticized by the federal government regarding rights to publish the Pentagon Papers. Benjamin oversaw the publications of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s stories and successfully documented the Watergate scandal. In The Post, the role of Bradlee is played by Tom Hanks. He was of the view that the New York Times had broken Pentagon Papers; as a result, the competitive blood of Ben Bradlee started boiling because he wished to break the significant news as soon as possible. His vision of the press as the check on untrammeled government power doesn’t seem threatening. In fact, he wanted to let others know what’s going on inside and outside the state and considered the Washington Post the right medium to unveil the truth (Awalt 2014). As a journalist, he considered himself responsible for sharing true stories with his readers and viewed himself as being the head of the newspaper. On the other hand, the New York Times tried to create a mess for both Bradlees and the Washington Post and published several false stories. Later on, the federal government forbade them from publi...