I'd like to have a chat with Warren Beatty sometime. Anyone who can be behind such disastrous works as Town and Country and Ishtar, yet also be the driving force behind such successful works as Bonnie and Clyde and Reds... well, it would be interesting to hear what makes him tick.
Particularly with respect to his 1981 project Reds. Here's a film that plays like a documentary, a history lesson, an epic drama and a timeless romance all at once. It also focuses on a very specific time in history (from 1914 to 1920), which enables Beatty to capture a lot of the elements of the period without even showing any of the First World War that was going on at the same time. His breathing room becomes his canvas.
Beatty plays American journalist John Reed, the man who was so taken by the Communist movement while in Russia that he tried to superimpose its fundamentals into labour movements and political parties back home. Diane Keaton has rarely been better as Louise Bryant, the writer to whom Reed was married, although not before a fair share of mutual wanderings and returnings. Unlike so many other Hollywood films, Reds wisely begins with the romance, gets it out of the way, then uses the rest of its running time to illustrate the ebb and flow of a fulfilling but difficult relationship. Reed and Bryant are smart, thoughtful people who are evenly matched and do not even bother to try to outwit each other. Their dialogue is often heated but passionate, and each character is very well drawn and defined. Gene Hackman, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino, William Daniels, Edward Herrmann, and Maureen Stapleton all appear in strong supporting roles.
If Reds slips in parts, it is because terms like "revolution" are discussed ad nauseam, but there are very few visual examples to accompany the term. In other words, a lot of talk but little action. Conversely, there should probably have also been at least one full, uninterrupted speech by Reed as an example of his power of pursuasion, and his masterful gift for diction and language. Instead, there are snippets of statements, tête-à-têtes and debates, rather than one complete argument.
And yet it would be foolish to deny the scope and intensity of this motion picture. As co-writer, co-producer, lead actor, and director, Beatty has obviously done an exhaustive amount of research in order to give Reds its educational and informational strength. There is a brief montage of photos of the actual people, making his attention to detail quite evident. He even uses clips of interviews with real life witnesses who either knew or were familiar with Reed and Bryant. So few movies have been set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, but we feel that even if we have not read his novel Ten Days that Shook the World, at least at the film's conclusion we have gotten to know Reed and Bryant themselves a bit better.
