|
It was great. And I recommend it to everyone - especially anyone who cares about knowledge, politics, history, courage, and/or the First Amendment. It covers only the brief time in the early 1970s when the Washington Post became a major journalistic force during the Pentagon Papers uproar. It has superb performances by Meryl Streep (of course) and Tom Hanks as the publisher/editor, and does a terrific job of pulling everything together: Ellsberg's theft of the top-secret material, the Post's uncertain financial situation, the raring-to-go reportorial staff, the uncertainty about the consequences of publishing after the injunction against the New York Times. But it's not just informative - it's fun, with a lot of humor, and it's a nice reminder of the importance of journalism at its best.
It's true that Jason Robards better resembled Ben Bradlee, and it's true that "All The President's Men" managed to be more suspenseful, but this is still excellent. The biggest flaw is that, for anyone seriously interested, it doesn't do a good enough job of identifying everyone, but it still works really well.
|
