'The Post' gives Tom Hanks a perfect vehicle to combine his love of history and passion for acting

LOS ANGELES - In spring and summer 1971, the American political landscape was on fire. In March, the Weather Underground set off a bomb in the U.S. Capitol. In April, half a million people marched on Washington to protest the Vietnam War. And in June, the Nixon administration battled with the New York Times and the Washington Post over the publication of the classified Pentagon Papers, which revealed years of deception at the highest levels of the government regarding the conduct of the war.

At the time, Tom Hanks wasn't particularly aware of all this. He was a 14-year-old kid from Oakland, finishing up his run at Bret Harte Junior High, and he had things other than politics on his mind.

"I didn't pay that much attention to what was going on," Hanks recalled on a recent afternoon in Santa Monica. "I paid attention to things that 14-year-olds pay attention to: the Oakland Raiders and the California Golden Seals hockey team and girls and stuff."

Cut to winter