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REDS

                                                     July 1, 2009
                                                Rev: May  3, 2012
At long last, I saw the movie
"Reds" for a second time (on DVD),
after having seen it only once               JOHN_REED
when it first came out in 1981.

As I remembered, this is a very
balanced portrait of John Reed--           Here we see John Reed, the
if anything it's more balanced             left-wing journalist caught up
than I remembered.                         in the Russian Revolution,
                                           involved in intercine wars
Emma Goldman is the real ideological       between rival American Communist
hero: she figures out that the Soviet      groups, finding himself hijacked
system is rotten very quickly, while       by the Soviets for propaganda
Reed is depicted as being lost in a        purposes...
religious obsession-- he can't face the
failure of the Russian Revolution, or               Jerzy Kosinski does a
else his life will be without purpose.              memorable performance as
                                                    an appropriately grim
I suspect the portrait of Eugene O'Neil             Soviet functionary.
may be a little off-- he seems a little
too obviously intellectual (remember,
blue collar guys *really* liked him).

The pacing is a little slow, but
over-all this film is a class act,    A note from the DVD "extras" (interviews
deserving of it's reputation.         with the elder Beatty): Beatty had to
                                      fight with his camera man about letting
     I would've liked to              the camera be static.  That's an artistic
     have seen more of the            detail that's unlikely to occur to us
     Greenwich Village gang           from the outside...
     in action (many things
     are elided, e.g. the                      A funny bit: Beatty realizes
     publishers of "The                        he's doing a grumpy-old-man
     Masses" put on trial                      interview, just like Henry
     for subverting the war                    Miller did when Beatty
     effort), but what can                     interviewed him for the film.
     you do?  It's already
     pretty long.

     IMPROPER_BOHEMIANS




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