When Steven Spielberg turns his spotlight on history -- from Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List to the recent Lincoln -- the world tends to sit up and pay attention. When Spielberg brings heavy hitters like Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep along for the ride, the film industry (and probably the Academy) sits up and pays attention. We have all been looking forward to the first footage from Spielberg's upcoming The Post, a movie about journalists hammering away at a presidential administration eager to hide difficult truths from an American public. The first trailer is below:
The Post will be a late-game player in the ever-shaping Oscar race, as Steven Spielberg delivers what looks to be a hard-hitting drama with contemporary undertones into a crowded field of awards contenders in December. The big question will be whether or not audiences pull themselves away from a similar story unfolding on actual television to watch an historic battle between journalism and government play out on the big screen.
The Post in the title focuses on The Washington Post, which wrestled with the responsibility to publish The Pentagon Papers, an extensive history of our country's involvement in the Vietnam War that detailed years of cover up at the highest levels of our government during four presidential administrations. Details in the Pentagon Papers proved that multiple presidents had misled the public about our intentions in the Vietnam region, and that a lot of our actions in that area during time of crisis went unreported by the media.
Naturally, parallels can and will be drawn to current events, where a debate wages on a daily basis on the strength and merit of a free press being able to investigate and report on practices of high-ranking government officials. Some might say that Steven Spielberg's The Post is arriving at the perfect time. Others might say there's too much of this in the real world, and the movie theater should be an escape from reality. Valid arguments, both.
What can't be argued, however, is the sheer force of the ensemble that Steven Spielberg has put together for The Post. Sure, the double bill of Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep playing journalistic titans Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham will attract folks. But the rest of Spielberg's players here include the best of the best, from Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Sarah Paulson Bruce Greenwood and Bradley Whitford to Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Jesse Plemons and Michael Stuhlbarg. Will they even HAVE a Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony next year? Or has The Post already won it?
The Post will open in limited release on December 22, allowing it to qualify for an Oscar run. It will go wider in January. For more information on all of the films opening in 2018, be sure to peruse our 2018 Movie Release Calendar.
