Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' Stellar Thriller Is Quietly One of the Best in the Genre

With their 2017 historical journalism drama The Post, director Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep were on a mission. Telling the true story of the Washington Post’s 1971 attempt to publish the Pentagon Papers, a report exploring U.S. involvement in Vietnam before and during the war, The Post was a vital and exciting film about speaking truth to power and the democratization of confidential facts. With Spielberg’s kinetic direction, the movie plays like a thriller, especially in the scenes of the report getting transported. Spielberg’s motivation in making the film was so strong that its production timeline, from the start of shooting to the final cut, was under six months, a wildly fast pace. He began shooting in May 2017 (according to Broadway World) and had the film out before the end of the year. As he told USA Today, “This was a story… we needed to tell today.”