The Post (2017) Feed And Activity

justjoia added their review for The Post: (Possible spoilers)On November 26, 2017, I had the privilege of attending a screening of The Post followed by a question and answer session with the writers Liz Hannahand Josh Singer. I have seen several movies at the Writers Guild of America now, but this was the first time there was a line around the building to get into a screening. I was lucky enough to get into the theater, which was seated at full capacity. There was an excitement in the air as the movie started.I was a little confused as to what the movie was actually about when I went into it, but it was quickly explained. Basically for the decades the United States was at war in Vietnam our government was well aware that we were "losing" the war and our service men and women were being slaughtered, BUT they were desperate to keep up the appearance that we were "winning". What is now known as the Pentagon Papers were the documents accounting what was really happening verses the story the American people were given. A man named Daniel Ellsberg played by Mathew Rhys steals the pentagon papers and leaks them to several news sources, including the NY Times. After first publishing a few pages of the papers, the NY Times is court ordered to cease publishing these documents and is accused of treason. Shortly thereafter, Ben Bagdikian played by Bob Odenkirk gets his hands on some pages and is determined to get them published in the Washington Post. Kay Graham, the first female publisher of a national newspaper, played by Meryl Streep is forced to make a decision: publish the papers and show the American public the atrocities committed by our government, or risk federal prison for being in contempt of court. Spoiler alert: the Washington Post is still very much alive and well!!!.Now I can talk about how amazing this movie really was. Meryl Streep delivered an Oscar worthy performance as the first woman who dared to be a publisher in a time where women stayed in the kitchen while the men handled the business. While this was a fast paced film where we follow these papers, how they were stolen and who they were distributed to (just about every publication in America) we are also gifted with watching Meryl Streepstruggle through her loyalties. She is forced to learn the painful way that people she thought were her friends like the Secretary of Defense (Robert McNamara, played by Bruce Greenwood) were actually manipulating her and what The Washington Post published. Alison Brie plays her daughter Lally Graham. Fresh off her success in the Netflix series GLOW, Brie shines in this role. The chemistry between Streep and Brie seems so natural and effortless.Tom Hanks delivers his own Oscar worthy performance as Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Washington Post who tries to bully Kay Graham into publishing the papers before she is ready. He goes behind her back to obtain pages of this report and pretty much includes the entire writing staff. Once again Tom Hanksowns his role and he offers an incredible performance supporting Streep's lead.In today's political climate, this movie so SO relevant, it's unbelievable! When we talk about transparency and "fake news", we really should look back on how and why we have the transparency we now have today and how important it is for us to continue to have journalists with integrity who will report what's actually happening, not what our politicians want to share."The Post" features an all star cast and was incredibly well written. "New comer" Liz Hannah does an excellent job adapting the book "Power, Privilege and the Post: the Katherine Graham story" and it's really apparent in her writing that she wrote this as a woman, for a woman and Meryl Streeppicked up the ball and ran it right into the end zone. Steven Spielberg does another amazing job directing.