Reds (1981)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Warren Beatty

Writers:

Warren Beatty (written by) &
Trevor Griffiths (written by)

Release Date:

4 December 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

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

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Russia | Playwright | Political | Interview | Speech

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 18 wins & 21 nominations

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Reds (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Adoomim (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Czerwoni (Poland) [pl]
Les rouges (Canada: French title) [fr]
Punaiset (Finland) [fi]
Rojos (Spain) [es]
Vörösök (Hungary) [hu]

Runtime:

194 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian | German | French | Finnish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:PG (re-rating after appeal) | USA:R (original rating) | Australia:M | UK:15 (cut) | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:Atp | Chile:TE | Finland:K-16 | Norway:12 | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

1 Great George Street, Westminster, London, England, UK

Company:

Barclays Mercantile Industrial Finance

Trivia:

Over 130 hours of footage were shot, about 40 times more than the final cut of the film. It takes 2 days for everyday shooting dailies (shot in Europe except for London scenes) to reach editors Dede Allen and Craig McKay. This was accomplished by having a courier on standby round the clock. The courier would take the dailies to the Technicolor Lab in Rome for the special processing and would reach Los Angeles (where post-production is done) at the end of next day.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The pet dog is a Golden Retriever but the first Golden (Champion Speedwell Pluto) wasn't imported into the US from England until 1930

Quotes:

Eugene O'Neill: If you were mine, I wouldn't share you with anybody or anything. It'd be just you and me. We'd be the center of it all. I know it would feel a lot more like love than being left alone with your work.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream (1998) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Engine

Reds

An engrossing film about John Reed's love affair with Louise Bryant and his struggles in the midst of the Russian Revolution. There are great performances from Beatty, Keaton, Nicholson (excellent as Eugene O'Neill) and Stapelton in her Oscar winning performance as Emma Goldman. Beatty's precision and timing in the use of his camera in this picture is a superb achievement. There is a touch of David Lean in director Beatty in this film. The color, the editing, the sound. All of those important filmic elements are at play here in great form. Beatty won the Best Director Oscar, but lost the Best Picture award to Chariots of Fire.