By Victoria Sanchez, Courier Staff Writer
“The Post” released on January 12, 2018 by director Steven Spielberg starring Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks, captures the true events of the race to publish government papers entailing the truth about the Vietnam War.
Set in 1971 Meryl Streep’s character, Katharine Graham is the publisher of The Washington Post, who took over the company from her late husband, and originally started by her father, Eugene Meyer. She is working to make her company go public while trying to assert her place in a male dominated position.
Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst, is shown in the opening scenes writing about the condition of the American war effort. After describing to the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara and then President Lyndon Johnson that we were losing the war, McNamara goes on the tell the American public lies of our progress in Vietnam. Ellsburg takes the initiative to secretly print the entirety of the Pentagon Papers so that major publications such as the New York Times can expose the government’s secrets regarding the Vietnam War.
Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), is working diligently to catch up with The New York Times, one of their biggest competitors in the fight to make the Washington Post a national newspaper. Ben Bagdikian, an editor at the Washington Post, gets access to the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. After receiving the papers, he returns to Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), the executive editor of the Washington Post, hoping to publish the content onto the next issue. When Bradlee and his team of writers get access to the Pentagon Papers, they have less than a day left to write the article about the government papers. Bradlee is eager to publish the papers for various reasons. He has been working diligently to catch up with The New York Times, one of their biggest competitors, in hopes of making the Washington Post a national newspaper. Also, Bradlee believes that it is the duty of the Washington Post to inform the public of the truth. However, publishing the Pentagon Papers could have legal repercussions.
I have always found our country’s history fascinating and this movie topped anything I thought it would be. There was suspense, humor, women empowerment, strength, and unity. The end scene was my favorite. The Washington Post and The New York Times went to the Supreme Court which ruled 6-3 in their favor, saying that the newspapers had a right to publish the papers.
“The press was to serve the governed, not the governors,” said supreme court justice Hugo L. Black in response to the victory for the New York Times and the Washington Post.