It was curious going to see the “Post,” the new movie about publication of The Pentagon Papers,  how Katherine Graham, the country’s first female newspaper publisher and Ben Bradlee, the brilliant pirate editor of The Washington Post, exposed the lies of four different presidents about the Vietnam War, at great risk to themselves and the future of the paper.

I worked for the Washington Post as a reporter in the late 70’s, I worked for Mrs. Graham and Bradlee.

I am not drawn to nostalgia, I don’t ever really care to go backwards in my life, but the picture was emotional for me, it reminded of a simpler time for journalism, before the rise of extremist and divisive media, cable news, and a President who does not seem to believe in or understand the role of a free press in a democracy.

Obviously, this was the point of the movie, an unbalanced President – Richard Nixon – and an unbalanced President – Donald Trump, both of whom despised the very idea of a free press and who cannot endure any kind of criticism or scrutiny.

Graham was threatened with arrest and imprisonment if she published the then Top Secret Pentagon Papers, a stunning and detailed account of how four governments sent thousands of soldiers to their deaths knowing that the war could not be won.

I know there is no going back to those days, especially these days, but I loved being a journalist and was nearly on fire at the sense of moral purpose many of us had about our work – to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comforted.  Our world is obsessed with the “left” and the “right,” but my colleagues and I never thought that way or talked that way.

Everybody had their own truth, but not their own facts.  We were chosen, we felt, to keep a check on ruthless and corrupt power.

It was curious seeing my life being portrayed in a film as history.

I managed to ruin the careers of some crooked politicians in my time as a journalist and even sent a few to jail. I always thought my work had a great moral purpose to it, that is was an integral part of living in a free society. I guess I took it for granted that everyone else thought so too.

I was assigned to the Watergate story in its early days, but played no great role in its coverage, Woodward and Bernstein captured the story and hung onto it. I disliked Washington, and left to work at the Boston Globe in a city much more suited to the kind of journalism I wanted to do.

In my time in Washington, I was keenly and admiringly aware of the towering presence both of Mrs. Graham and Ben Bradlee, two icons in journalism, the likes of which have not been seen since their departure and deaths. I suppose they put the high water mark on journalism and its purpose.

The movie is wonderfully acted by Meryl Streep as Graham and Tom Hanks as Bradlee. It was produced by Steven Spielberg, three famed liberal Hollywood icons who have staunchly defended the idea of a free press, especially against President Trump’s unrelenting attacks. There is great irony in watching a President, who lies as easily as he breathes, trashing the media almost daily for being fake.

Spielberg’s masterful movie touch is on display in this movie, which rockets along without a single unnecessary scene. Streep brilliantly captures the evolution of Mrs. Graham from an overwhelmed and dismissed publisher to one of the most famous and admired publishers in the world.

It is true that a lie repeated often enough will take root and grow, no matter how false it might be. This is the elemental lesson of the demagogue, and Trump knows it well. No demagogue loves the press, ever.

The movie tells the very intimate story of a women caught in a man’s world, of whom nothing is expected. She grasps the significance of her moment, and rises to it, thus becoming a role model for women everywhere. She risked everything she had to support the idea of a free press, took on a vicious and unforgiving government, and won. It is a stirring story, beautifully and faithfully rendered.

When she took over The Post after her brilliant husband, Phil Graham, committed suicide, she admits to being terrified and overwhelmed. When her moment came, she saw it and took it and found out she was both wise and brave, a patriot as well as a shrewd businesswoman.

Cheering for the press is one element, but an equally powerful target of the movie is women – the way they were treated, the obstacles they face, the taunts and cruelties they endured, and today, their continuing struggle against violence and harassment. In a way, the movie is aimed more at women than journalists I think.

Curiously, Mr. Trump seems to have  revived a struggling and diminished media in America, his media enemies are gaining readers and subscribers by the millions, and seem in some cases to have found their real purpose once more – to taunt the powerful and shed light on darkness.

The more the President attacks them, the better and more popular they become. I suspect he will eventually learn the same lesson Richard Nixon learned, there is no clubbing or scaring them into behaving, something in a real journalist just hates being told what to do or write, and is not prone to pandering.

Mr. Trump is fortunate he does not have a Benjamin Bradlee on his tale, the fearless and dashing Blackbeard of journalism, that would have made even this most arrogant of men afraid.

I recommend this movie to anyone who loves a good story, appreciates great acting, wishes to be entertained, wants to understand the role of a free press in a democracy, or wants to be inspired by the story of a frightened and patronized woman who finds her power and her truth and makes history.

Aside from everything else, “The Post” is just a great movie, really well done,  it moves like a runaway train and doesn’t waste a minute, it ends up giving us an important civic and constitutional lesson combined with the raw and gutsy suspense of an early Indiana Jones movie.

As for me, Maria, who also loved the movie, asked me at dinner if it made me wish I was back there in the Post or some other newsroom. I didn’t have to think about it, I said no, I almost never look back or want to go back, I do not romanticize the old days.

The movie made me sad for the struggles of journalism, but I never fall into the trap of thinking the old days were better than the new days. Every old fart in the world has thought that for all human history.

My journalism world is long gone, and I have given rebirth to myself, in a world that I love very much. Had I stayed in journalism, the last few years – the corporate takeovers, layoffs, rise of cable news and countless hate sites, the rise of the left and the right, the Sean Hannity and cable shrieking era  – I would have been miserable, and probably dead by now.

“The Post” reminds of how lucky it was to work in journalism during it’s golden time, and how lucky I am to be living where I am and with who, and writing my books and my blog and taking my photos.

A friend of mine is always telling me how overwhelmed he is in his life, how unhappy and pressured, and I always have to bite my tongue (sometimes my tongue bites me) and say, hey, you chose your life just like I chose mine. Don’t speak poorly of it, don’t blame anyone else for it.

If you don’t like it, change. He can’t hear that, I know, most people don’t want to change, but we are friends anyway. He has to live his own life.

I don’t expect everyone to share my philosophy, and I don’t need everyone to agree with me.

This is the life I chose, and this is the life I will live.  I really can’t blame it on anyone else – my parents, bosses, fate or bad luck. Most people don’t want to change, and often remain trapped in their unfulfilled lives.

Life is a series of choices, and we are all responsible for them.

“The Post” brought back some wonderful memories for it, but it also reminded me of how grateful I am to have changed. There is really not much that is sadder about the life of an aging and embittered journalist – i know many.

The movie is a movie for our time as much as it is for another one.

It bristles with relevance, for people who work in journalism, for people who consume journalism, for people who love democracy, for women seeking to find dignity and voice in a world being ravaged and ruined by angry men in suits.

There is an especially poignant and symbolic scene in the movie as Graham leaves the Supreme Court building after the hearing that would determine the fate of the paper. She walks through a vast crowd of quiet, smiling you women, to whom she became an overnight hero. I doubt the scene really occurred, but it was  a neat touch by Spielberg, it connected Mrs. Graham to 2018, and the rise of so many other women.

Those are themes we can all think about. And if you like to think rather than argue, you’ll like this movie very much. If your kids are idealistic at all, bring them along. There’s not a single explosion or car crash in the film.