Before the dawn

Seeing two new movies The Post and Darkest Hour on consecutive nights, one is struck that both these retellings of decisive historical moments in 1971 and 1940 have a lot in common. The former is about the publication of The Pentagon Papers in The Washington Post, revealing government lies about the Vietnam War over several administrations;Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee and Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham are at the top of their game, as is director Steven Spielberg. The latter film is about Churchill's refusal to knuckle under to Hitler around the time of Dunkirk, despite political pressure to make peace. Gary Oldman superbly evokes the inspiring oratory and fallible human depth of the revered Prime Minister. Both decision situations required unflinching courage in the face of considerable opposition.

Both films by implication may be read as commentaries on the present political situation in the United States. It is the absence of the principled leadership portrayed in Darkest Hour that one feels keenly now. In fact, the war we are in at present not being fought on the beaches but in the cyber-impulses that are flooding our air space. And the matter of "who is the enemy?" is looking very much like our own commander-in-chief. The characteristics of a great leader may be very much the same as they ever were. The lesson here is in what we have lost.

The Post may be seen as "Hollywood Strikes Back" against the attack on news media and the First Amendment by the present administration. I think we have here an instant classic which may have been designed to be so, and may echo typical liberal ideas, but is nonetheless effective for that. What is plainly delivered here by the artists' representatives in our society is that this shall not stand, that the ideal of free speech is what this country is all about, and that lying by governments will not be tolerated.

It is never that simple, of course. The media have often been used to control and misinform the public. Whether more often than not is a matter of debate. Let us see these two films as a history lesson, so as not to forget the moments when leaders had actual integrity and courage, and news media were not afraid to speak the truth. If it happened before, it can happen again. And in fact right now it is happening again, daily in the pages of the Post, many years after their 1970's moments of glory. Attention must be paid: the Fourth Estate is stepping up to the plate.