The first trailer for Steven Spielberg’s star-studded The Post has arrived ahead of the film’s release in December, giving us a glimpse at Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep sharing the screen together and setting up plenty of buzz for those potential Oscar nominations. The film tells the story of the leak of The Pentagon Papers in the early 1970s and the efforts of The Washington Post’s female publisher Katharine Graham and editor Ben Bradlee to aid in their release to the public.
We’ve run down the list of the recognizable names that appear in the film, with plenty of UPROXX favorites in the pack, but it is clear that Streep and Hanks are the big stars of the show. It’s a film that boasts everything the recent Spielberg films have succeeded with by taking a historical event or period, stacking the cast with great talent, and just telling the story. It might not have the imagination and wonder of those earlier Spielberg films that have become classics, but they are effective — unless we’re talking War Horse.
The information revealed by The Pentagon Papers and the saga of their publication across the New York Times and Washington Post is a subject ripe for a major motion picture. There have been television films and documentaries about the leaks, but this will take it to a higher level. It is also relevant to issues we’re seeing today, be it the leaks we’ve seen with Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and Wikileaks, the Weinstein scandal that saw news organizations face pressure to suppress certain stories, and the ongoing Russia investigation that seems to continue to progress forward through both sides of the D.C. political system.
While we’ve seen a change in technology since this period, the efforts and spirit behind the publication of the documents is still important. Also it looks like the type of film that is ready made for mass audiences and awards committees. It’ll be released on December 22nd, giving some counter-programming to Star Wars in limited release over the holidays.
