Reds (1981)

A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.

Director:

Warren Beatty

Writers:

Warren Beatty, Trevor Griffiths

Stars:

Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann

Won 3 Oscars. Another 27 wins & 20 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Warren Beatty	...	John Reed
Diane Keaton	...	Louise Bryant
Edward Herrmann	...	Max Eastman
Jerzy Kosinski	...	Grigory Zinoviev
Jack Nicholson	...	Eugene O'Neill
Paul Sorvino	...	Louis Fraina
Maureen Stapleton	...	Emma Goldman
Nicolas Coster	...	Paul Trullinger
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Speaker - Liberal Club
Ian Wolfe	...	Mr. Partlow
Bessie Love	...	Mrs. Partlow
MacIntyre Dixon	...	Carl Walters
Pat Starr	...	Helen Walters
Eleanor D. Wilson	...	Mrs. Reed
Max Wright	...	Floyd Dell

Storyline

This movie tells the true story of John Reed, a radical American journalist around the time of World War I. He soon meets Louise Bryant, a respectable married woman, who dumps her husband for Reed and becomes an important feminist and radical in her own right. After involvement with labor and political disputes in the US, they go to Russia in time for the October Revolution in 1917, when the Communists siezed power. Inspired, they return to the US, hoping to lead a similar revolution. A particularly fascinating aspect of the movie is the inclusion of interviews with "witnesses", the real-life surviving participants in the events of the movie.

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Plot Keywords:

russia | interview | russian civil war | marriage | dinner party | 

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Taglines:

Not since Gone With The Wind has there been a great romantic epic like it!

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian German French Finnish

Release Date:

4 December 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

John Reed: The Ten Days That Shook the World

Filming Locations:

Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

SEK 3,179,562 (Sweden)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Barclays Mercantile Industrial Finance, JRS Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

195 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the mid-1980s, ABC wanted to telecast an edited version of the film. Star and producer Warren Beatty refused to allow an edited version to be shown, so that version was never aired.

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Goofs

In the scene where Gene and Louise talk in Gene's apartment, the position of Gene's cigarette pack changes radically from shot to shot.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Witness 1: [voiceover] Was that in 1913 or 17? I can't remember now. Uh, I'm, uh, beginning to forget all the people that I used to know, see?
Witness 2: [voiceover] Do I remember Louise Bryant? Why, of course, I couldn't forget her if I tried.

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Crazy Credits

As the credits roll, additional interviews with the 'witnesses' play.

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Connections

Referenced in Brief Film Reviews: My DVD/Blu-Ray Collection (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Liebesfreud"
Written by Fritz Kreisler

User Reviews

Great movie

This movie was great, and I hope it comes out on DVD real soon. Beatty became Reed in more than one sense--not only did he act the part, but he directed the movie in a way reminiscent of the kind of "new journalistic" style that Reed and his fellow MASSES writers pioneered, mixing the drama with interviews of people who knew JR, Louise, etc.

The film also sort of puts forward the question, "What if, instead of running back to Russia (to die of kidney failure and mistreatment by the CP), Jack Reed had stayed in this country to build the CP? Would it have turned out to become Stalinist?" According to Howe and Coser, who wrote a good book on THE AMERICAN COMMUNIST PARTY, much like Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in Germany, Reed was the ONLY leader who was independent, who had some real backbone.

The best part of the movie is when Emma Goldmann, played by Maureen Stapleton, tells Jack that "it doesn't work" (i.e. statist, bureaucratic socialism that the Bolsheviks were instituting as a grossly mistaken response to the economic crisis and Allied invasion of Russia after the Revolution). And then his rebellion against the lying propaganda of Zinoviev. Kind of hits me right now that Jerzy Kosinski should play Zinoviev--didn't he commit suicide when he was exposed as a plagiarist? Where is the line between art and reality, politics and life?

Of course I loved the romantic reality between Beatty, Bryant, and Nicholson (Reed, Bryant, and Eugene O'Neill). And the cynicism that Reed expresses about the Democrats and Wilson is certainly apropos today.