Final film of the season at Thame Cinema this Friday

THE POST – showing this Friday  – USA 2017, 113 minutes, 12A certificate – Directed by Steven Spielberg, Starring Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sarah Paulson, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford,

THAME Cinema 4 All will conclude its season with this superb, old-fashioned Hollywood drama about the Press speaking truth to power – and the individual bravery that this demands.

Based on real events of 1971, it is very much a prequel to the events portrayed in All the President’s Men, and shares much of the earlier masterpiece’s style and substance. Streep is Katherine Graham, the proprietor-publisher at the helm of a financially vulnerable Washington Post. She has succeeded her late husband, who had been given the job by Graham’s father, Eugene Meyer. That the old man did not appear to trust his daughter with the paper is a fact that undermines Katherine’s confidence in her own judgement. It is also a fact that the men around her take as evidence of her lack of capacity for the task at hand.

And what a task it becomes. Long suppressed secret documents have been leaked from the Pentagon revealing that the government had prosecuted the prolonged war in Vietnam knowing that it was a lost cause. The New York Times has already run a piece on the ‘Pentagon Papers’, incurring the wrath of the White House, and the Post must decide whether or not to do the same. Publication will risk harsh injunctions and imprisonment. It will put the very existence of the paper at risk. The situation is complicated by Graham’s familial history at the very heart of the Washington establishment – they have entertained presidents and senators, holidayed with the Kennedys, and must now choose whether or not to sabotage the careers of people close to her.

It is ultimately Graham’s decision. She is torn between the position of her editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks), who argues that they have no choice but to publish the truth, and others on the board who counsel in favour of saving the newspaper from ruin.

Over the course of a few days, Graham manages to find her own voice and her own authority. With Streep and Hanks on screen together for the first time, Spielberg at the helm, and an exceptional supporting cast, you really can’t go wrong. At a point in history when the current White House is doing its best to undermine the fourth estate, it is also a timely celebration of principles, ideals and bravery.

View trailer HERE.

This Friday, June 15, 8pm – Thame Players Theatre – Nelson Street, Thame
Film tickets are available on the door or online- Click here