The Post trailer: Steven Spielberg's latest starring Meryl Streep,Tom Hanks unravels Pentagon Papers scandal
The upcoming film from 20th Century Fox, The Post, is bound to be one of the most celebrated cinematic collaborations ever, because the best of the best are coming together to tell the riveting story of one of the most monumental events in the history of the USA. With Steven Spielberg in the director's chair and Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks as the primary cast, it's quite obvious that the result will be a cinematic masterpiece, or at least the trailer promises that it will be.
For cinephiles who enjoy Hollywood movies, The Post also brings Streep and Hanks together for the first time. The film is based on the Washington Post's role in exposing the classified Pentagon Papers in 1971. The trailer of the film was released on 7 November.
The official synopsis of the film reads: "The Post is a thrilling drama about the unlikely partnership between The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham (Streep), the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, and editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks), as 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 US Presidents. The two must overcome their differences as they risk their careers – and their very freedom – to help bring long-buried truths to light."
Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in Steven Spielberg's The Post. Image courtesy: YouTube screengrab
The two-minute-thirty-two-second-long trailer is stirring and tightly-paced from the get go. Streep and Hanks shine in their roles and, as always, get into the skin of their respective characters. There's hardly a moment when one feels the presence of these two cinematic heavy-weights in the narrative. Spielberg creates the feel of America in the Seventies, especially inside newsrooms.
From the beginning, the trailer establishes the conflict between the press and the government whilst ensuring that the gravity of the story doesn't get eclipsed by this conflict. Streep demonstrates multiple emotions — power, fear, dejection, thrill — in their varying degrees in the trailer itself. Does that call for another Academy Award nomination this year? Hell yes!
In 1971, former US President Richard Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell obtained injunctions from the federal court demanding a halt in the publication of The New York Times papers after it carried a report on the US' enlarged political and military involvement in the Vietnam War. It is then that Washington Post decided to go ahead and publish the 47-volume Pentagon Papers, which revealed some of the government's most covert deceptions.
Both papers appealed to the Supreme Court, and on 30 June, 1971, the court ruled 6-3 and said that the government had failed to provide enough proof that the papers' First Amendment rights should be sidelined for national security reasons, as reported by The Telegraph. The judgement still stands as a historic verdict and an example of a free press in the US.
The Post has been written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer. Produced by Steven Spielberg, Amy Pascal and Kristie Macosko Krieger, the film is co-financed by Amblin Entertainment and Fox. It is slated for a limited-theatre release on 22 December and a wide release on 12 January next year.
Here's the trailer:
