'The Post' trailer: Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep test the freedom of the press
Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, two living Hollywood legends, are sharing the big screen for the first time in Steven Spielberg’s drama The Post. Based on a true story — think of it as the prequel to All the President’s Men — the film stars Streep as Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of the Washington Post, and Hanks as executive editor Ben Bradlee. In 1971, Graham and Bradley made the difficult decision to publish the classified government documents known as the Pentagon Papers. Those documents revealed that the government’s aggressive actions in Vietnam over three decades were significantly more widespread than the American public, or even Congress, knew. Publishing the papers put both Graham’s career and the very existence of the Washington Post in jeaopardy. As Bradlee (Hanks) asks in the trailer, “If we don’t hold them accountable, who will?” To which Graham (Streep) replies, “We can’t hold them accountable if we don’t have a newspaper.” Watch the first trailer above.
In addition to Streep and Hanks, the film features an impressive ensemble cast, including Allison Brie, Carrie Coon, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Rhys, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bradley Whitford, and Zach Woods. No doubt it’s hoping to follow in the awards-season footsteps of Spotlight, another true-story drama about reporters exposing a cover-up, which took home the Oscar for Best Picture in 2016.
The Post opens in exclusive release on Dec. 22 and wide release on Jan. 12.
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