Amazon.com Essentials:
Warren Beatty's lengthy 1981 drama about American Communist
John Reed and his relationships with both the Russian Revolution and a
writer named Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) is a compelling piece of
little-known history told in a uniquely personal way. Beatty plays
Reed as he did the title gangster in Bugsy and Senator
in Bulworth, as a visionary likely to die before anyone fully
recognizes the progressiveness of the vision, including those who are
supposed to be on the same page. Jack Nicholson has an interesting
part as fellow intellectual Eugene O'Neill, and the late author Jerzy
Kosinski--himself a refugee from then-Soviet-controlled Poland--makes
a strong impression as Reed's problematic Russian liaison. --Tom
Keogh
