Are you old enough to remember The Pentagon Papers? Just in case that was before your time, they were 700 pages of secret government documents about the Viet Nam War. They made the government look very bad. Very bad. Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks star in The Post to tell the story of how those pages were published creating the biggest news story of the 1970s.
The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham (Streep) was the first female publisher of a major American newspaper. Her editor was Ben Bradlee (Hanks). In this new film, they race to catch up with The New York Times to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets that spanned three decades and four U.S. Presidents.
It’s a bit unbelievable that two of Hollywood’s most bankable actors, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, have never worked together before.
Steven Spielberg directs. The script was written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer. Also in the large cast are Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Rhys, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bradley Whitford, and Zach Woods.
There have been two previous TV movies about The Pentagon Papers and another about Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked them to the press. But this is the first with heavy hitters like Streep, Hanks and Spielberg.
The Post will be in theaters December 22, 2017, just in time to be considered for this year’s Oscars.