Review of Reds (1981) by Pasha A — 05 Feb 2010
Beatty as director is far greater than Beatty as actor, but after a while of watcing him I start to think that he is an amazing screen presence. Plus, he puts in a dozen or so awesome actors around him, which helps (Keaton, Nicholson, Hackman, Kosinski, even underrated chaps like Sorvino and Edward Herrmann).
It's a romantic epic about two people whose love cannot break, in the guise of an epic saga of the rise and, seemingly in a few years, decline of communism in Russia (well... not quite decline, but in the way that characters see it).
It's the kind of movie my wife eats up: lots of juicy scenes of good actors sparring over relationship-themed dialog, tinged with juicy politics talk. The documentary footage of old buzzards and dames recalling how it was or might've been is also charming and informative and gives a 'real-life' perspective that is just as a-point-of-view as the movie is when it comes to history.
It took a little courage to make the movie at the time- Regan was far from the whole 'tear down this wall' speech in the late 80's- but Beatty also knew people would go see a movie with himself, Keaton and Nicholson.
It's got some nice contradictions throughout, and always at the service of entertainment and drama, but nicely balanced.
This review of Reds (1981) was written by Pasha A on 05 Feb 2010.
Reds has generally received very positive reviews.
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