The Post (Steven Spielberg) - 2017

This movie makes 1971 look like ancient history.  Spielberg did a good job of recreating the analog world of newspaper publishing.  The parallels between the Nixon White House and the Trump disaster are eerie.  Will there be a Trump-Russia movie in 2050 to match this one?  The director places Meryl Streep in a man's world as the brave Kathryn Graham as the enabler for Post Editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) to put the first nail in Nixon's coffin by fully exposing Daniel Ellsberg's (Matthew Rhys) Pentagon Papers.  Robert McNamara (Bruce Greenwood) is rightly identified as the man-in-the-middle who wants to do the right thing but ultimately fails to reveal the truths of his own study.  Although I was one of the potential victims of five administrations of presidential liars, I sailored on in the USN from 1969 to 1973.  I suppose it is better that I did not know the full story.  I just wanted to complete a military obligation.  It was a difficult time for all involved.  Spielberg has served history well with this concise retelling of a shameful time.  [JAM 1/31/2018]