I first heard of The Post (2017) last year in my Screenwriting 4 Class at Brooklyn College. My professor broke us up into groups and assigned us to read one Blacklist script a week. Those of you who are not familiar with it, The Blacklist is a list of the "best" un-produced scripts that came across the desk's of Top Hollywood Executives over the last year. Being selected for the list often can result in a film being produced as early as the following year. My group was assigned The Post during one of the first weeks of the semester. I had never heard of the Pentagon Papers or Kay Graham before in my life. Politics has only recently cemented itself into a place of great importance in my reality since a reality television star became a prominent and all-around problematic figure in it.
Liz Hannah's script is the ideal example of what constitutes smart and engaging writing for film. The story moves at a lightning pace and yet takes careful consideration to pause at times and allow the characters and the audience alike to reflect on the momentous events unfolding around them. It had no "action" sequences or racy sexual occurrences within its 118 pages and was extremely dialogue-heavy, along with being a period piece. This story was quite unlike what we are accustomed to seeing as we walk into a movie theater these days, and yet it's not. The content of this all-too-true story transcends the plights it may face in the manner of its execution. The film tells the story of governmental deceits being exposed after years and years fermentation and metastasizing. It divulges, with great detail the tireless efforts of impassioned journalists to make these unknown violations to their sanctity and security public, even if that meant utter professional and financial ruin for those involved on both sides. Underneath all the cagey and cool Sorkin-Esque conversations had between Ben Bradlee and his crack team of Washington Post journalist is unstoppable irrigation of honesty and moral integrity. They will let nothing stop them from exposing the truth because lives have already been lost and thousands upon thousands more are at stake as the Vietnam War blindly rages on in 1970s America. These people aren't goliath-like beyond recognition to us everyday folk; they are everyday folk, just like us. That's what makes such a profoundly vital narrative as this one so beautifully grounded in contemporary times. We know people like Katherine Graham, the question is, do we respect them as much as we should? Our bosses, co-workers, hell even our mothers and grandmothers. We see people in positions like Ben Bradlee's, cave under pressure, but we also see people who don't. He could have stopped pursuing the publication of the government documents countless amounts of times, but he didn't and neither did Kay. We are these people, or at least we can be, and that is what this script and ultimately this film, made as a result of it, proves to us. The best cinema informs and inspires its audience. The Post does just that, and a great amount of that credit deserves to go to its original screenwriter Liz Hannah.
Now when traveling the bridge between page and screen it is only natural that Liz Hannah collected some passengers along the way. These include cinematic icon Stephen Spielberg as director and acting titans Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep as the film's two dauntingly disagreeing leads. My professor had stated that when and if this film were to be made the role of Katherine Graham would have to go to a Hollywood Icon and I myself had envisioned the likes of Lauren Bacall as the head of the Washington Post when I first read the script, though she like Graham is long deceased. It was no surprise then when Meryl Streep was cast of course. In the hands of Spielberg however, the story shifted as it was translated to film.
As preparation for writing this review, I reread the original script after seeing the final film. I noticed that while the general story arc remained intact, the anatomy of several scenes and sequences were retooled. These alterations were most likely by Josh Singer, the screenwriter assigned to make revisions to the script. In typical Spielberg fashion a more fantastical opening is given, showing soldiers active in Vietnam. However, this element would have been a stronger inclusion had it been repeated sometime in the middle of the film, after audiences learned about the falsities spread by the US government regarding the war. Seeing the false narrative spun by the bureaucrats, followed by the actual soldiers in the midst of a harrowing battle could have helped visually sell the importance of the main character's overall goals even more effectively. A scene of the Pentagon Papers actually being stolen is also added in what seems to be a cutaway from a spy thriller. While these selections may seem a bit unnecessary, they do add an element of flair that catches the audience's attention early on. The problem is, the film struggles to keep their attention at times throughout the middle half.
Some have accused the film of being boorish, and to me, it's not as simple as that. While the original script illustrates a newsroom setting that even inexperienced individuals like myself or my parents can comprehend, the finished film lingers at times in tedious expositional and intellectual garble that should be better left in a stenographers notepad then on a movie screen. The early scene between Kay and Fritz in her office comes to mind, as does portions of Kay and Ben's first breakfast meeting, which is done much more efficiently in the original draft, with its cornerstone focus being the value of a Style section for the newspaper and not the repercussions of being snubbed from attending Nixon's daughter's wedding nuptials. The playful subtext on the subject of disagreeing "styles" was just more... well, playful. Many of the revisions elevate the plot and its thematic undertones as well, including the added scenes between Kay and her daughter and Ben and his wife, played exquisitely by actress Sarah Paulson in a perhaps intentionally small role. These scenes reinforce the humanity in the character's dealing with the revelations and consequences of reporting on inhumane crimes against the masses. I do not know how the decision to publish truly went down, whether Ben was at Kay's house or not and whether the party was still ongoing or not. Still, the version shown in the film was the most powerful reiteration of this historical piece of journalism. Kay's weighty glances around the room as she holds the phone in her hand contrasted well with her airiness upon announcing she was going to bed after deciding to publish. These actions showed a woman in constant flux, trying to be what every man thought she wasn't, a leader.
Regardless of scenes included or excluded, lines omitted or added in, the release of The Post during this current political climate in the United States is unquestionably reflective and pragmatic. When the President is calling the media fake every day on his own social media profiles, we can't believe that the days in which a president could threaten imprisonment toward those who'd seek to question his authority are over. Nixon thought that journalism was below him and the current administration seems to believe the only value the press has is how it can stroke the insatiable ego of the Commander in Chief with tiresome accolades and meaningless commendations that amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things. The Post tells the story of those who weren't afraid to push back, to disavow the nonsense of necessary secrets and "alternative facts" and reach for something much more tangible, the truth. My hope is that this film and its courageously true story continues to encourage us to look forward with a sense of obligation towards the truth, not only within our government but within our everyday lives as well. Better to have nothing, than to not know what one truly has. If truth becomes second fiddle, what kind of music are we really listening to? Kay and Ben had everything to lose and more, but that didn't stop them from joining together and telling the story that had to be told. As a writer, I can only hope to honor their legacies by doing the same in every facet of my life, be it personal, professional or even political.
Those of you unsure or hesitant toward considering the validity of such a philosophy consider this; Where would the world be if things like the Pentagon Papers and Watergate remained hidden, forever concealed. That version of reality is fake news, but only thanks to the work of journalists like those at the Washington Post and New York Times and their stories will not be forgotten thanks to filmmakers and writers like Liz Hannah, Josh Singer and Stephen Spielberg.
