The Bottom Line
- Fact-based love story with memorable characters set against an epic backdrop
- Entertaining, but raises many issues of historical interest
- Interviews with real-life people provide a window into the past
- Some viewers will be bored by the politics of 1915-1920
- DVD has no scholars providing historical context for the complex story
- DVD provides no audio commentary track
Description
- Two-disc DVD set containing movie Reds (1981) starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton
- Supporting roles played by Jack Nicholson, Maureen Stapleton, Paul Sorvino, Edward Hermann
- Film nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including Best Picture
- Won 3 Oscars: Best Director (Beatty), Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress (Stapleton)
- DVDs contain a 2006 making-of documentary divided into 7 segments with total run time 1 hr. 8 min.
- MPAA rating: PG
- Feature film run time: 3 hours 15 minutes
- DVD release date: October 17, 2006
Guide Review - Reds DVD Review
Reds was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won three (Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress). It is a sweeping love story set against a historical backdrop of political turmoil. However, the movie did not impress me as being about politics so much as about creating richly textured characters.
A superbly acted and well-crafted film, Reds chronicles the relationship between American writers John Reed (Warren Beatty) and Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) that took place during the period 1915 to 1920. During the early part of the movie, they live together as part of a bohemian circle of intellectuals in Greenwich Village. After Bryant has a fling with playwright Eugene O'Neill (Jack Nicholson) in Provincetown, she and Reed marry. But only months later Bryant leaves Reed and goes to Paris. While still estranged, they travel to Russia together, and there they reconcile while witnessing the October Revolution.
After the film's intermission, Reed and Bryant are back in the United States, and he becomes immersed in Marxist activism. When he decides to again visit Russia, she refuses to accompany him and tells him she's not sure where she'll be when he returns. But Reed ends up imprisoned in Finland, and Bryant sets out on a difficult journey to try to help him.
The DVD set has an excellent seven-part making-of documentary, but Reds is worth buying on the strength of the feature film alone.
