The Post (2017) (1 Viewer)

[SamT]

A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired by true events.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer
Stars: Alison Brie, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson

 

[TravisR]

The problem with this movie is that the cast isn't good enough.

 

[Richard V]

The problem with this movie is that the cast isn't good enough.

 

[Richard V]

DAMN, this looks good on the surface, especially in today's times.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I do think this was made and is being released because it is timely. We are sadly going through a time when journalists are under attack by the highest levels of government. We have had a giant rise in "opinion commentators" that seem to be replacing the desire to seek out actual journalism because "opinion" commentators allow people to align themselves with someone who shares their "beliefs and values" but opinions, beliefs and values are not facts.

If real journalism is killed off by people calling it "fake news" constantly then what we are headed for is becoming a country like North Korea where reporters are only allowed to write the propaganda that the government wants them to write...and with the current people in power here in the United States we are headed toward exactly that.

I don't say that as a political statement just a fact...an actual fact. If you silence real journalists, particularly real investigative journalists which have been in dreadful decline because newspapers and television networks are owned by giant conglomerates that have a specific interest in what people are told...because it can affect their profits...then we are headed toward the death of any sort of democracy.

So, I think what this film is about is important because it is about how the press needs to be separate from the government and from the influence of big money and also that whistleblowers are important to keep the public informed. The rise of "opinion" journalism has been terrible for this country and has created this strange situation where people value facts less than they value an opinion that aligns with how they feel.

I hope in writing that I was able to walk the line of discussing this without being political because it was not my intention to be and I feel like I stuck to just stating what is actually happening without going on a political rant. My hope was to communicate the value of investigative journalism and that effort to put facts in front of people...something we desperately need in times like this and what this film is about.

 

[TravisR]

I do think this was made and is being released because it is timely. We are sadly going through a time when journalists are under attack by the highest levels of government. We have had a giant rise in "opinion commentators" that seem to be replacing the desire to seek out actual journalism because "opinion" commentators allow people to align themselves with someone who shares their "beliefs and values" but opinions, beliefs and values are not facts.

The "citizen journalist" is a bad joke. If someone on the ground can tell people about something that would otherwise be unseen or unreported, that's great but journalism is a profession and one that requires more than a Twitter page. You wouldn't want some random guy fighting a fire or policing your town or flying your plane, you want a trained professional and people should want the same for their news.

 

[SamT]

The trailer itself did not impress me much.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

The trailer itself did not impress me much.

The trailer sort of makes it look like an episode of Lou Grant...which makes sense since I think that show borrowed a lot of stuff from real life.

 

[Robert Crawford]

My fear with this film is that it will diminish the role the New York Times played in breaking the story about The Pentagon Papers. It was the Times not the Washington Post that mainly brought that documented story to the general public's eye. It was the Times then joined later by the Post that battle the Nixon Administration in the court system all the way up to the Supreme Court.

I was in high school during NYT's publishing those documents and I would read it every day in my school's library throughout that legal fight. I don't want this film diminishing one paper while propping another paper as to the journalism and freedom of the press legal fight that took place in the early 1970s.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

So this is just sort of strange and unrelated but I type something in this thread about "investigative journalism" and now there is an ad showing up here on HTF about Bob Woodward teaching a class on investigative journalism...is anybody else seeing that ad on the forum?

 

[TravisR]

So this is just sort of strange and unrelated but I type something in this thread about "investigative journalism" and now there is an ad showing up here on HTF about Bob Woodward teaching a class on investigative journalism...is anybody else seeing that ad on the forum?

No but I frequently get the one for Aaron Sorkin teaching screenwriting.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

My fear with this film is that it will diminish the role the New York Times played in breaking the story about The Pentagon Papers. It was the Times not the Washington Post that mainly brought that documented story to the general public's eye. It was the Times then joined later by the Post that battle the Nixon Administration in the court system all the way up to the Supreme Court.

This was my first reaction, too. When I was in journalism school, the Pentagon Papers (and especially the New York Times Co. v. United States Supreme Court case that resulted from their publication) got revisited over and over again. More important that even their substance was the extremely high bar that was established for the government to meet for prior restraint.

My other big issue is that the trailer is just full of self-important people opining about the importance of what they're doing. It feels more Oscar-baity than Spielberg's usual standard.

It's easy to forget too that the Pentagon Papers were explosive for what they meant, not what they were. They didn't come together into a taunt narrative like the 9/11 Commission Report. They were the product of military and civilian bureaucrats, and RAND Corp think tankers. The content was dry as hell, but because they were only intended for internal dissemination, they were also unvarnished. The New York Times did the hard work of burrowing through the boring crap to get to find the stuff with explosive implications.

 

[SamT]

First Reactions to Steven Spielberg's Timely Ode to Journalism

 

[SamT]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/f...why-post-had-be-made-i-know-is-scared-1064361

 

[SamT]

Variety Review

 

[benbess]

Really looking forward to this one. Although like most of the rest of the country, I'll need to wait until January....

 

[TravisR]

I saw this a couple days ago and thought it was fantastic. Great cast, the story keeps moving, great production design, nice score that doesn't overwhelm the drama and an interesting tale.

As usual, if this was anyone other than Spielberg, it would be a career highpoint but for Spielberg, it's 'just' another great movie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I saw this a couple days ago and thought it was fantastic. Great cast, the story keeps moving, great production design, nice score that doesn't overwhelm the drama and an interesting tale.

As usual, if this was anyone other than Spielberg, it would be a career highpoint but for Spielberg, it's 'just' another great movie.

Yeah, but does it give proper credit to the New York Times which not only broke the story first, but was more aligned with the Pentagon Papers than the Washington Post?

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, but does it give proper credit to the New York Times which not only broke the story first, but was more aligned with the Pentagon Papers than the Washington Post?

I'll spoilerize the one word answer for anyone who is very spoiler-phobic:

Spoiler

Yes.

 

[SamT]

And they didn't win anything at the Globes.