"The Post" (2017)

It is virtually impossible to take Meryl Streep seriously as The Washington Post default owner Katherine Graham when she is standing on the patio of her mansion helping a friend conduct a yacht launching party.
So much for "of the people."
Though never excusing her wealthy upbringing, Streep plays Graham with a gentleness that belies the Mama Bear Harvey Weinstein colluder that is within this insanely talented woman.
Needless to say, I despise the Post because it stands on the hypocrisy of printing truth, when in reality, it prints the truth against its enemies. Namely the conservatives. They make no bones about it, since it was the same paper that out'd the Nixon Watergate scandal. Too bad it did nothing for the Bill Clinton sex scandals. Because...class?...they print anything against its enemies and passes it as truth.
While that's admirable and most likely true...it doesn't forgive the agenda that is sickeningly transparent.
Though they give very little shade on the Presidents that extended the Vietnam War (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon) it certainly doesn't pull punches at Graham's friendship with Secretary of Defense Bob McNamara who had the Pentagon Papers leaked. In fact, there is a moment that Streep attempts to even exonerate her connection with "the enemy" but using the friendship for her business's gain. That is unethical yet legal.

Yes, they paint the view as freedom of press. But those "top secret documents" and the governments constant ability to be shady works on all levels. You wonder if director Steven Spielberg would feel driven to make this film had Hillary Clinton won the election (she won the popular vote). I doubt it. This is the best illustration I can make of the very thing The Washington Post once stood for. If it stood for anything. Which didn't stop them from patting themselves on the back until their neck snapped.

There is no true enemy in the movies. Unless you consider Richard Nixon's tapes in regards to The Post and their ban from the White House. Which is parallel to what Trump is doing today. Truth be told, I can stand not to deal with any more press regarding Trump from any paper. The Washington Post or otherwise. This film, so expertly crafted, fails at the one thing I wished could be spun better...it had a distinct agenda and turned to that over human interest. In other words, I know free press is important...I blog here to express myself and am VERY grateful for it. It's saved me from alcoholism. Unfortunately, Spielberg believes that there is no press freedoms as long as Trump is in office.
I'd say he is a powerful man, as well as Streep and so forth. They are more than welcome to express themselves through a blog that influences whomever they want. They don't need the subterfuge of a weak movie. Just come out and say it. Oh right...they don't want to be sued. Well, guess what...that's what this movie was all about.
Do what I say, but if the hammer comes down, it was all just a movie anyway, right?