Hacker Cinema
Reds
1981 · Film · 195 min
Directed by Warren Beatty
An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant.
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5 comments on Hacker News
It isn't that movies like The Deer Hunter are slow, necessarily. It's that the scenes are doing things other than advancing "the plot". Things like revealing a hidden character trait or depicting the quality of the protagonist's world. I remember someone telling me that The Zero Effect (1997) was "too slow", when I thought it was moving along at a fast clip; I finally realized it was the difference in what we were getting out of (or looking to get out of) the movie that accounted for our differing perceptions.
Not that that can't be done poorly, either. But The Deer Hunter never struck me as slow, and I'm a kid who grew up with Star Wars as my template. But I got really into what we might call (erroneously) "character-driven" movies in the '80s.
(Dammit, I liked Chariots of Fire, but there was no way it should have taken Best Picture over Reds. Same with Ordinary People and Raging Bull.)
I remember one of the very first David Letterman shows, he had his dentist as a guest, reviewing the recent Warren Beatty movie Reds from the point of view of dentistry. Apparently it wasn't a very realistic movie.
I was a fan after seeing one of his first shows, in which he had his dentist on as a guest to critique Reds, the Warren Beatty movie about the Russian revolution, all from the point of view of dentistry. The guy was deadpan serious, using still images to point out historical fallacy in dental work, anachronism and such. It came across as the real thoughts of a real dentist, in the sort of conversation one might have during an office visit. Dave's affection for the guy was obvious - and you can see that in this interview with Grace Hopper, too. He shows genuine interest in her, and enjoys her qualities as a person, so he lets her talk. So many talk show hosts obstruct and interrupt and make themselves the center of attention. Dave was different from the start and it was refreshing.
Lots of reasons. You could watch the movie "Reds" with Warren Beatty. It's just a movie, but it should be a good jumping off place to see what parts to investigate.
For example, I'm sure sanctions from the rest of the world [1] from the beginning didn't do them any favors. Having a wolf in with the hens (named Stalin) was also unfortunate.
[1] All terrified that revolution would kick off in their countries. Justified fear as well, it did just that in Spain.
A good re-telling of the 'real' Bonnie & Clyde story, though I suspect some of the author's personal opinion on wider matters is revealed through excellent quotes like
"the legendary Penn movie that invented the New Bonnie and Clyde was such a ideological crock that it deserves placement in that list of other leftist crocks mistaken by gullible critics and film lovers as somehow great: Beatty’s own Reds, the appalling JFK, and the toxic oeuvre of Michael Moore and his tribe of screwball clones"