MPAA (PG-13) CNS/USCCB () RogerEbert.com (3 Stars) AVClub (C+) Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)
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CNS/USCCB () review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan)
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RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico)
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AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky)
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The Post [2017] (directed by
Steven Spielberg screenplay by
Liz Hannah and
Josh Singer) is nominally about the challenges to the Press / Society that came with the 1971 leaking of
The Pentagon Papers regarding a 30 year cover-up of official (U.S. military / government) opinion regarding the prospects for U.S. success in the
War in Vietnam. Yet, one would have to be utterly tone-death to not see the parallels (and on a multitude of levels, sometimes surprising) to our current situation as well.
First, the U.S. found itself in a
War that appeared to have no real prospect of ending, victoriously anyway, anytime even remotely resembling "soon." Today, we find ourselves in a similar war with Islamic Militants that has similarly dismal prospects of ending anytime "soon" (AND YET, we do understand in the current case that we truly have no other alternative other than slug it out. In the case of Vietnam, there was the serious / legitimate question of whether the War there was worth it. Yes, there had been the "Domino Theory" -- if Vietnam fell, so would a lot of other nearby nations as well. Yet, that did not materialize even after Vietnam did indeed Fall in 1975. Today, most public opinion is more-or-less certain that if Islamic Militants are allowed widespread safe haven ANYWHERE, that we can expect 9/11 style attacks to follow once more. We really DON'T have a choice).
Second, the whole public debate during the
Vietnam War, JUST LIKE CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL DEBATE IN THE U.S., was _tainted_ by fears of Soviet (now Russian) involvement. This may be something that many _today_ may want to forget, but from the late-1960s through to the end of the
Cold War there were LEGITIMATE fears of Soviet collusion with then THE LEFT in this country (and throughout the West) in influencing U.S. (and West European) public opinion. Indeed, even the
Watergate Break-In of the Democratic Party's National Headquarters (which eventully resulted in
President Nixon's resignation) was at least IN PART driven by fears that the Communists / Cubans were somehow involved with the radically "peacenik"
George McGovern campaign. And for someone of my ethnic background, Czech, with parents who both fled
Communist Czechoslovakia during the
Cold War, it's simply _hard for me to believe_ that there would not have been _robust contacts_ (perhaps even simply through the Communist Party of the United States) between the Soviet bloc intelligence agencies and groups like
Tom Hayden's Students for a Democratic Society, which led a good part of the anti-Vietnam War protests. Indeed, I look at someone like former
KGB officer
Vladimir Putin and see someone for whom the current "colluding" hoopla would not be anything even remotely resembling his "first rodeo" in this sort of a thing. The Soviets were seeking to influence public opinion in the West -- BACK THEN usually linking-up with THE LEFT -- throughout THE WHOLE OF THE COLD WAR.
That all said, the
Pentagon Papers did reveal something that American Public opinion needed to know -- that even the U.S. military and its government agencies did not believe that the
War in Vietnam was winnable, and didn't believe so FOR DECADES. That's what a Free Press is for: to ensure that secrets effecting millions of people's lives (how many American soldiers served in Vietnam? And 55,000+ died there...) are available so that decisions effecting said lives could be made rationally and openly. Yes, not every detail needed to be known, but the simple fact that even the Generals themselves did not believe the War to be winnable was important for the American public to know (and then plan for the consequences ... including the acceptance of millions of subsequent Vietnamese refugees...).
Which then leads us back today. It could be fairly said that _today_ we have a U.S. President more hostile to the institution of the Free Press than any since
Richard Nixon, and arguably even more so. That should worry us because if we are not given information on which to make rational judgments, then we can not effectively elect our leaders. That's effectively
Putin's line: that ALL PRESS, everywhere is basically a lie (so might as well just listen _to him_...).
So then, back in 1971, the
Washington Post, under its first woman head,
Katharine Graham [wikip] (played wonderfully by
Meryl Streep) who was forced to take the job -- back then the Washington Post was a family business -- after her husband died (perhaps even of a suicide), risked arguably its future in printing the
Pentagon Papers (jointly with the
New York Times) rather than keep them unreleased. In doing so,
Katharine Graham risked lifelong friendships with some of the U.S. power elite including
JFK /
LBJ era Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara [wikip] (played in the film by
Bruce Greenwood) who had, in fact, commissioned the "
Pentagon Paper" study that was being leaked.
Even the incestuous nature of "upper echelon"
Washington D.C. is something that was worrisome then, and should remain worrisome _now_. In this film, it was clear just how "everybody seemed to know each other" pretty much all their lives.
Graham's editor-in-chief,
Ben Bradlee [wikip] (played wonderfully in the film by
Tom Hanks) had been a long-time friend of the Kennedy Family, especially
JFK and his wife
Jackie ...
Now in 2010, _long before_ the current
Trump-Russian collusion "hoopla," the FBI broke-up an odd Russian spy-ring operating in the U.S.
[1] [2]. Curious was that these were "deep cover agents" seeking to basically infiltrate "
The Hamptons Circuit" (where the rich, Washington/Manhattan powerbrokers would "summer"). Why would Russian Intelligence (the
FSB) want to do that? Unless they were operating under the view that a good part of what makes the United States operate remains that incestuous "network" of interconnected power-brokers like those that existed back in the 1970s -- the
Grahams,
Bob McNamara, the
Kennedys,
Ben Bradlee, etc ...
Indeed, interestingly enough,
Nixon, like
Trump, felt that he was "outside" of this loop ...
Anyway, all this makes the current film, made by
Steven Spielberg,
Meryl Streep and
Tom Hanks, all now "Hollywood royalty" with certainly at least "get in free cards" to stomping grounds of the
Hampton Elite, all the more interesting ...
MUCH to think about / contemplate here ;-)
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