The new Steven Spielberg film out now “The Post” takes back to a time when another president Richard Nixon felt embattled when it came to dealing with the American media.

The film is a true story about the Pentagon Papers, which  military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaks to the the New York Times and later the Washington Post.

At the time, the Post was owned by Katharine Graham following the deaths of her husband and her father and she struggles as a woman in what then a very man’s world. She is preparing for the newspaper's IPO at the time and she clashes with editor Ben Bradlee who undermines the public float as he tries to publish the Papers in defiance of a government court order against the New York Times.

The film is a gripping story well told and it benefits enormously by the presence of its two main stars.

Meryl Streep plays Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, and the talk of Streep picking up another Oscar to add to her collection is not wide of the mark.

She really takes the audience into the heart of her dilemma as a businesswoman and also as someone who has the editorial independence of the paper close to her heart.

She is ably supported by Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee. Hanks is getting better with age and following a brilliant performance as Captain Chesley Sullenberger in the film Sully (2016) he again delves into the heart of another intriguing character, Ben Bradlee, the long-term editor of the paper.

Both Streep and Hanks accomplish much even by saying little.

A shrug of the shoulders or a meaningful look are often all that is needed to convey complex emotions of their characters.

The dominant newspaper print era of the 1970s is faithfully recreated here but there are also pointers to today’s world of secret surveillance, government interference and a media that is struggling to turn a buck and remain relevant to its readers.

Even for those who know the story, The Post is gripping entertainment.