The Post
2017 · Directed by Steven Spielberg
Woke Score
CriticCritic Score
Audience
Based
Critics rated this 45 points above its woke score. Among Based films, this critic score ranks #51 of 345.
Representation Casting
Score: 35/100
The film features Meryl Streep as a female protagonist in a position of institutional power, and the supporting cast includes women and actors of color in professional roles. However, these characters exist primarily within a white institutional framework without specific attention to their identities as marginalized.
LGBTQ+ Themes
Score: 0/100
No LGBTQ+ characters, themes, or representation are present in the film. The narrative centers entirely on heterosexual professional relationships and family dynamics.
Feminist Agenda
Score: 48/100
The film centers on a female protagonist navigating male-dominated institutions and presents her ascension as a form of feminist triumph. However, the feminism on offer is fundamentally one of access to capitalist hierarchies rather than systemic critique. The narrative conflates female representation in power with feminist consciousness.
Racial Consciousness
Score: 8/100
While the cast includes actors of color in supporting roles, the film displays minimal racial consciousness. Race is never directly addressed, and the narrative centers white institutional actors. Diversity appears primarily as demographic fact rather than thematic concern.
Climate Crusade
Score: 0/100
Climate change or environmental concerns are entirely absent from the film. The narrative concerns itself exclusively with government secrecy and institutional accountability in the context of the Vietnam War.
Eat the Rich
Score: 5/100
The film ultimately validates institutional capitalism and the corporate media apparatus. While it critiques government overreach, it presents major newspaper ownership and institutional journalism as inherent goods without questioning the economic structures they serve.
Body Positivity
Score: 0/100
Body positivity themes are absent. The film does not engage with disability, body diversity, or related contemporary discussions about physical representation and acceptance.
Neurodivergence
Score: 0/100
No characters display neurodivergent traits or conditions, and the film contains no thematic engagement with neurodiversity, mental health accommodation, or related issues.
Revisionist History
Score: 15/100
The film presents the Pentagon Papers story through a conventional institutional lens focused on government accountability and press freedom, without revisiting historical narratives about colonialism, American imperialism, or the experiences of Vietnamese people affected by the war itself.
Lecture Energy
Score: 32/100
The film carries moderate preachy weight, particularly in its depiction of constitutional law and First Amendment principles. Scenes explaining legal and governmental procedures have an expository quality, though the film generally balances this with narrative momentum and character drama.
Synopsis
A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired by true events.
Consciousness Assessment
Steven Spielberg's "The Post" operates as a kind of historical propaganda for the pre-Trump era of American liberalism. The film centers on Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, played by Meryl Streep with the kind of steely determination that Hollywood reserves for women in positions of power. The narrative dutifully constructs her journey as one of feminist awakening, though this awakening largely consists of wearing pantsuits and making difficult business decisions alongside men. The film's contemporary relevance during the 2017 political moment is unmistakable, yet it remains committed to a classical understanding of institutional authority and democratic norms rather than any interrogation of systemic power structures.
The production presents journalism and the First Amendment as inherent goods requiring no further analysis. The moral universe is comfortingly binary: government lies, the press tells truth, democracy depends on this arrangement. Missing entirely are any considerations of how institutional media serves particular interests, how marginalized communities experience journalism, or whether the institutions being defended in 1971 were themselves operating equitably. The film's feminist content amounts to the presence of a powerful woman navigating a male-dominated boardroom, a premise that confuses representation in capitalist hierarchies with substantive social consciousness. Streep's character ultimately succeeds by embracing the very institutional logic she might have questioned.
The supporting cast, while diverse in appearance, functions primarily as functional players in a predetermined narrative about institutional accountability. The film treats the Pentagon Papers as a story about government overreach rather than as a window into America's imperial project in Southeast Asia. This is historical drama in the Spielbergian mode: morally earnest, cinematically competent, and fundamentally conservative in its political imagination. One leaves the theater reassured that the system works, provided the right people occupy the right positions.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Critic Reviews
“Shot and edited by Spielberg and his team in less than six months, The Post is very evidently a strike-while-the-story’s-hot kind of project, and it finds the master filmmaker at his most thrillingly supple and intuitive.”
“If the film has an MVP, it’s Bob Odenkirk, who does a splendid and quietly amusing job of playing The Post’s unsung Pentagon Papers hero, assistant managing editor Ben Bagdikian.”
“The Post is the rare Hollywood movie made not to fulfill marketing imperatives but because the filmmakers felt the subject matter had real and immediate relevance to the crisis both society and print journalism find themselves in right now.”
“Steven Spielberg’s The Post is a fake news movie, a true story told phony to further an agenda.”
Consciousness Markers
The film features Meryl Streep as a female protagonist in a position of institutional power, and the supporting cast includes women and actors of color in professional roles. However, these characters exist primarily within a white institutional framework without specific attention to their identities as marginalized.
No LGBTQ+ characters, themes, or representation are present in the film. The narrative centers entirely on heterosexual professional relationships and family dynamics.
The film centers on a female protagonist navigating male-dominated institutions and presents her ascension as a form of feminist triumph. However, the feminism on offer is fundamentally one of access to capitalist hierarchies rather than systemic critique. The narrative conflates female representation in power with feminist consciousness.
While the cast includes actors of color in supporting roles, the film displays minimal racial consciousness. Race is never directly addressed, and the narrative centers white institutional actors. Diversity appears primarily as demographic fact rather than thematic concern.
Climate change or environmental concerns are entirely absent from the film. The narrative concerns itself exclusively with government secrecy and institutional accountability in the context of the Vietnam War.
The film ultimately validates institutional capitalism and the corporate media apparatus. While it critiques government overreach, it presents major newspaper ownership and institutional journalism as inherent goods without questioning the economic structures they serve.
Body positivity themes are absent. The film does not engage with disability, body diversity, or related contemporary discussions about physical representation and acceptance.
No characters display neurodivergent traits or conditions, and the film contains no thematic engagement with neurodiversity, mental health accommodation, or related issues.
The film presents the Pentagon Papers story through a conventional institutional lens focused on government accountability and press freedom, without revisiting historical narratives about colonialism, American imperialism, or the experiences of Vietnamese people affected by the war itself.
The film carries moderate preachy weight, particularly in its depiction of constitutional law and First Amendment principles. Scenes explaining legal and governmental procedures have an expository quality, though the film generally balances this with narrative momentum and character drama.