The Post (Reflection)

Directed by Steven Spielberg, “The Post” tells the story about the days leading up to the decision that was made by The Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers which was the U.S. government’s top-secret history of the Vietnam War in 1971 that exposed that the government had continuously lied to the public about the progress in the Vietnam War. The main characters in the movie were played by Meryl Streep as Katharine (Kay) Graham, the publisher of The Post and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, the executive editor of The Post.

Initially, the New York Times had already broken the story about the Pentagon Papers, however, they were prohibited from running the story after President Nixon’s administration won a court injunction. That was when The Post quickly took the opportunity to take up the story and publish it.

This movie points out the need for a vigilant press by portraying that no matter what the outcome may be for doing the right thing, it should always be righteous and truthful. At the time when The Washington Post received the Pentagon Papers, they were about to go public, which could tarnish their reputation and threatened their existence. We need a strong and vigilant press to be able to freely publish the truth and nothing but the truth regarding all sorts of matter, especially when it comes to issues and news regarding the government. It is of high importance that they people are not lied to by the government that they voted for and have their trust in. Thus, in this movie, it is very well portrayed how important it is that the press remains vigilant and strong. One of the scenes that left an impact on me is the scene when they receive the Pentagon Papers and they camp out at Bradlee’s house to put all the information together in a limited amount of time because when they had received the Pentagon Papers, the pages were not organized and in order.

The character played by Streep had a huge impact on me as a woman. Katharine Graham was the first ever female publisher who took over the role after her husband committed suicide. In the era where most women were not given a say in anything despite being well and highly educated, Graham took on a role that must have been difficult to handle as she was working with a group of entitled men who thought that she was not good enough to lead The Washington Post.

However, throughout the movie, Graham’s character development is so evident, from being unconfident about her role to becoming the woman to make one of the most important decisions of The Post which was the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers. In spite of knowing all the things that were at stake, especially after being discouraged by her lawyers and advisors, she still goes ahead and does the right thing. Her role was different compared to all the others because she was the deciding factor, if she had not said yes to publishing the Pentagon Papers, everything would have turned out so differently for The Washington Post.

The tie-in between this movie and All the President’s Men was that The Post acted as a prequel to All the President’s Men. The last scene of The Post was the starting scene of All the President’s Men. I had a shocking realization when the last scene played, and everything made complete sense to me. In my opinion, the period of Nixon’s presidency was extremely crucial for the press. The Washington Post clearly played a much bigger role even before the Watergate incident which makes total sense. Both were amazingly produced movies that told the true incidents which took place and the correlation is just astonishing.