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 But its makers says it is also intended as an ode to feminism
that resonates as powerfully today as the 1970s era in which it
is set.
The movie, which begins its movie theater rollout on Friday,
dramatizes the 1971 battle by U.S. newspapers, led by The New
York Times, to publish the leaked Pentagon Papers. The documents
showed that successive administrations had secretly enlarged the
scope of American military action in Vietnam even as U.S.
leaders became convinced the war was unwinnable.
Among those in the forefront of that battle was Washington Post
publisher Katharine Graham, played by Meryl Streep, who despite
being in her mid-5Os at the time, was struggling to establish
herself in a man's world. She had taken over the publisher's job
following the death of her husband, Phil Graham.
"There is something very relatable to a woman finding her voice,
to a woman standing in a room with men and being out-talked and
overlooked," said Liz Hannah, who wrote the screenplay with Josh
Singer.
It was Graham who had to give the go-ahead to editor Ben Bradlee
(played by Tom Hanks) to defy an injunction by the Nixon White
House and risk imprisonment by publishing the Pentagon Papers.
The decision affected not only Graham's family but the future of
her company and the way she thought of herself.
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Streep, 68, who is expected to be Oscar-nominated for a record 21st
time next month, had no doubt about the film's relevance for women
who are still fighting for equality in corporate boardrooms and in
Hollywood itself.
"I try to tell young women who weren't alive then how different it
was very recently, and it still is in those leadership circles. We
have filled up the bottom of the pyramid but ... where it all gets
decided, we don't have parity. We're not even close," Streep said.
Streep said she relied on Graham's Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir
"Personal History" for insight into the publisher's thinking at the
time.
"She was very uncertain, and it's in her book and she talks a lot
about that." Streep said. "At work, she had so many people thinking
she didn't deserve to be where she was. We know what a brilliant
woman she turned out to be."
The Washington Post review of "The Post" said that "Streep and Hanks
lead a stirring homage to the pursuit of the truth."
And Entertainment Weekly said that Streep's performance "elevates
'The Post' from being a First Amendment story to a feminist one
too."
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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