NEW YORK — The White House is hostile to the press, public figures misbehave and a vital Washington Post is at the center of the national conversation. Think any of those things are new?
HBO’s film on the legendary Post editor Ben Bradlee proves otherwise. “The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee,” which debuted Dec. 4 on the cable network, feels strikingly contemporary as it follows the editor through his Boston upbringing, friendship with President John F. Kennedy and leadership through release of the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate scandal that took down former President Richard Nixon.
It’s part of a resurgence of attention for Bradlee, who is portrayed by Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming movie “The Post.” The HBO project was instigated by Bradlee’s son Quinn.
“It’s hard not to fall in love with a guy like Ben — man or woman,” said film director John Maggio. “Because he just lived life in the moment — a very large life — and was there for some of the most important moments of the second half of the 20th century.”
Maggio found the perfect narrator for most of the film in Bradlee himself. He died in 2014, but Maggio unearthed an audio book that Bradlee had recorded in 1994.
“When I heard that voice, that smoky, Brahmin growl of a voice, I knew I had to have it in the film,” he said. “The film took on a whole new character for me. So much of his personality was in his bearing, his presence. I wanted that to be in the film.”
During some of the Post’s battles with the Nixon administration, a clip of White House press secretary Ron Ziegler passes by and you half expect to hear the phrase “fake news.”
Bradlee would likely have been conflicted covering Trump, said his widow, Sally Quinn. He would have relished a great story, and understood the need to operate with great care. He was also a patriot who fought in World War II, and would have been greatly concerned with what was happening in the White House, she said.
“Ben’s whole life was about getting to the truth,” she said. “When you look at it, it’s the lie that is the enemy of the people, and not the reporters and journalists who are trying to expose the lie.”
The film doesn’t gloss over difficult or controversial aspects of Bradlee’s life. He was married three times, and the first two didn’t end pleasantly. The film spends considerable time on Janet Cooke’s fake story about a child heroin user, the biggest blot on his record at the Post.
