The film The Post can be deemed historically accurate to a large extent due to it staying true to the actual events that occurred in 1971. Even though some crearive freedom was taken to make it more entertaining, the movie encompasses the story and to a large degree tells it accurately. The movie's plot is written in such a way that majority of it reflects what happened in the past. The director's choice to tell the story from The Washington Post’s point of view may make it seem historically inaccurate when really they have shown us a different percpective. There are some things in the movie that diminish its historical accuracy. The movie to a great extenr can be regarded as historically accurate.
The story line of the movie closely references what happened in the past, making it historically accurate. The movie depicts the Vietnam War as it opens and the role Ellsberg played during it and after his return from war. We are even shown the company he worked for after his service, The RAND cooperation, and how he used it to bring in and duplicate papers, (A). This reference is proven to be true in the newspaper used in Source C. The movie captures the involvement of other newspapers, even though it is being shown through The Post’s point of view, they keep it accurate by mentioning other papers such as The Times which we are told in Source C play a major role in the publishing of the Papers. The reaction of the people is accurately depicted even the tension in the courtroom is captured by the film, Source A. the desire of the people is also accurately captured, it is known that the people wanted to stay true to the Frist Amendment in Source B. the film captured small details that made the movie more historically accurate as it was able to be placed in context.
The focus of the movie is placed on the Washington Post, this is where some people may think it loses its accuracy. Whilst one may argue that there is too much focus placed on The Post, (D), the movie really does just focus on The Post's side of the story as The Times’ has already been told. The Times was not the only paper to publish the Papers, (C), but it was however the first. The little mention of The Times and Daniel Ellsberg whom is not made into a key figure as that is not what the story is about. It is about the role of Kay Graham and Ben Bradlee and how they were left to take care of the paper, (A), because of this that is why there is little mention of other papers or key figures of the actual story. This movie was created in order for a different perspective to be seen as we have already seen it from Ellsberg’s and the Times’. The historical accuracy of the movie is not diminished because they have chosen to focus it from the point of view of another side, which is where some people think the movie went wrong.
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There are however some things that diminish the historical accuracy of the movie. The movie makes a bold and incorrect statement by saying The Washington Post was first to publish the Pentagon Papers when really it was the times, (C). in the movie we are shown Kay Graham being given the Papers at her birthday party, when really this was an addition, (D), made by the director to make the movie more interesting. The movie portrays President Nixon in a negative light and often shows him to be a villain, as they were looking for an antagonist to make the victory of the papers more impactful. Nixon was really just protecting his predecessors as he had nothing to hide in the papers, (D), and was really the one to bring an end to the USA’s involvement in the Vietnam war. There is the addition to the famous Watergate scandal into the movie, even though this event only took place a year later, (D). this places the movie out of context and maybe its biggest inaccuracy. The movie however even after its accuracy was diminished can still be regarded as historically accurate.
The movie The Post, to a great extent, can be deemed historically accurate even after it has taken some creative freedom. The movie mostly sticks to the storyline, enough so that we can place it in context and analyze it with what actually happened. The movie focuses on a different side of the story, giving us a different perspective to learn from. Even after creative freedom is taken and small additions are made it is still historically accurate. Therefore, the movie The Post can be regarded to a large extent as historically accurate.
The Post tells the story of the Pentagon Papers and it focuses on the Washington Post’s role in the battle between the press and the government. The issue arose when the White House kept the way they were handling the Vietnam War under wraps and did not inform the public on their lack of results regarding the war. This was the first time the American government had tried to stop the functioning of the press. It starts with Daniel Ellsberg coming back from serving in the war with confidential information revealing the lies the government had told the people of the USA for years. The story was the dealt with years later by the New York Times after Ellsberg was successful in receiving classified documents detailing the previous year’s actions in the partaking of the war. After the ruling from the court to stop the publishing of the papers The Post found its way to the documents that had been in the Times’ possession. They were sitting on many classified papers they could not publish, a decision was made by the new publisher, Katharine Graham and the editor, Ben Bradlee to publish the papers even after what had happened to the Times. There is a battle within Graham on whether or not to publish abd risk losing the paper and the little respect her peers had for her because of her gender and to do what was right as a publisher and tell the story. They added the Watergate scandal to insert another interesting factor and make the viewers engage more with the protagonists of the story. The Post is of Graham and her team moving around the minefield that is the government and for Graham, her gender and position in the paper during a time which was not ready to see women as anything other than subservient, all to publish the truth. We are shown and taught the constitutional rights of the press and how the executive of the country has no right to cover up whatever they would like to.
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