Could Spielberg's The Post be this year’s Spotlight?

Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks star in this journalism drama about the publication of the Pentagon Papers

Video by The Skinny | 08 Nov 2017

The Post, the new film from Steven Spielberg, sees acting heavyweights Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks share the screen for the first time. It follows the scandal surrounding The Washington Post's publishing of the Pentagon Papers during the Nixon era, which showed that the administration of Nixon's predecessor, Lyndon B. Johnson, had lied to the public and Congress about US military involvement in the Vietnam War.

Streep plays the Post’s publisher Katharine Graham, who was the first woman in charge of a major American newspaper, while Hanks plays the Post's editor, Ben Bradlee; both put their careers and the paper as a whole on the line to help expose the cover-up.

Spotlight's scribe Josh Singer is one of the co-writers, and we wouldn’t bet against The Post being as successful as that 2015 film, which ended up winning the Oscar for Best Picture in 2016. In an age when journalists are once again enemy number one with the US President, it’s also bracing to be reminded that the press have been in similar situations before and come out the other side stronger.

As well as Streep and Hanks, The Post has a stellar ensemble cast that also includes Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys, Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Jesse Plemons and Zach Woods. Take a look at the film's first trailer in the player above, or on YouTube.


The Post opens in the UK on 19 Jan, via Entertainment One