Reds: one of the best movies ever.
Oct. 13th, 2006 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI watched Reds in the movie theater last night, and despite being severely brain dead, loved it as much as ever. What a brilliant, brilliant movie, and it's made to be seen on big screen. I've forgotten how much I love it. Maybe because it doesn't just move my emotions but engages my brain too (and even though I find them delicious, the latter quality has been in hard supply with doramas).
For those who don't know, Reds is a 1981 movie about John Reed and Louise Bryant, starring Warren Beatty (who was gorgeous, Oh My God, I'd forgotten) and Diane Keaton (who was amazing and why isn't she getting more work). Reed was a turn of the century radical journalist who is best known for "Ten Days That Shook The World," his eye witness account of the Soviet Revolution, who went from a spectator to a participant. Louise Bryant was his wife and a fellow journalist. "Ten Days" was a very influential and well-known book at the time, and Reed was (of course) the darling of the Soviets. I actually remember we had a copy of Ten Days in Russian when I was growing up.
But anyway, this is an amazing amazing movie (and no, it's not "Yay for USSR!" nor is it a "John Reed was an idiot deluded"). It's much too complicated for that. That is why I love the movie so: it's both personal and epic, romantic and political. And it blows that other doomed romance set in Russia, Doctor Zhivago (which I dislike), out of the water.
It's one of those rare movies that really makes me trot out that cliche and overused "they don't make movies like this today." Because they don't. It's a movie that's content not to have a message but to be ambivalent about a lot of things. Politics: was Reed an idealist carried away used by hard-headed realists who understood his propaganda value? was he right and America needed reform? could it be reformed? One of the most brilliant scenes in the movie is when Reed is back in Russia, to get the Comintern's approval of his version of the Communist party in the US and you can see him completely out of his depth: he is a writer, an idealistic dreamer and he is confronted with real revolutionaries, men who are anything but, who are pragmatic to the bone and who will use and discard him and lose no sleep over it, and his utter incomprehension is heart-breaking. His whole dilemma is summed up in his conversation with Emma Goldman, who is a friend who is also in Russia. Emma points out that this is not socialism: people die of starvation, there is no dissent anywhere, beaurocracy runs everything. And you can see that the rational part of Reed agrees with her, but he can't, can't, can't give in to that, because otherwise his whole life would have been a waste. His loss of Louise (as he believes), time in prison, years of action, would have all been for nothing. But then of course he goes on that grand speaking tour in the Middle East parts of USSR and finds his speeches altered by Zinoviev and finally realizes he is nothing but a puppet and something in him breaks. I love the scene where he yells at Zinoviev that if you take away any individuality, then there is no individual to give to the cause. And if there is no indiviudal, there is no dissent, and if there is no dissent, there is no revolution. That he can be both a good husband and a good comrade, a good communist and not agree. He has finally come head to head with the place where ideals meet reality and it's not what he thought. And I love the scene that follows, with the White attack on the train, where he just starts running to catch up with the gunners on horses, as if it's just his unthinking, unreasoning desire to get out of there.
And then there is the issue of love: Reed and Louise have a complex, complicated relationship. They will literally brave death for each other, but they also have an 'open' relationship, and Reed's reaction to coming home to find Louise taking up with Eugene O'Neill (played by Jack Nicholson in a great performance) is one of my favorite bits in the whole movie. It's so expectedly unexpected (he walks through a side door quietly with a giant bouquet and sees them. And he walks out quietly, throws away the flowers and makes a lot of noise coming through the front door and doesn't mention the matter to Louise. And then proposes). They love each other utterly, yet this love isn't enough to fill the life of either of them and they must have their writing, their causes, even as it tears them apart or brings them back together. I love that. I love that I am never in doubt of their love for each other, yet I can buy their constant separations, self-inflicted and by necessity. I love that I believe both that Louise would walk out and become a correspondent in WWI France after yet another one of their fights and that she would brave a horrific trip, smuggled in a cargo ship, leaving US illegally, getting into Russia through snow and horrific conditions to find Reed who has been imprisoned in Finland. Just as I believe that Reed would be the man who would admit to Louise that he's slept with a lot of other women and it means nothing to their relationship and yet be the man who would fight the Russian government and who would undertake the solitary hellish journey across enemy Finland just to get out to go back to Louise.
They are both intelligent, strong-willed people. It's really rare for a movie to get across the intelligence of its protagonists. The movie makers can say they are, but it's really hard to portray, but this movie manages.
There also a bunch of really cool techniques in the film. I love the interwoven thread of witnesses (real historical figures which Beatty filmed for almost a decade prior to starting on the movie) talking about Reed and Louise. Some of them are friends, or admirers, some enemies, some just socialists or convervatives of the era. But the narrative, which is sometimes overlaid on the scenes of the movie, and sometimes is by itself, with the filmed witnesses talking, is a brilliant trick. There is also some really good editing. My favorite scene is the "International" one. It sort of encapsulates the movie by blending the personal and political, because as the song is blaring over the soundtrack (and is sung by marchers in the street), there is a brilliant bunch of intercuts, between the political: marches, meetings, fighting, and personal: Reed and Louise caught in the excitement, eyes shining, or marching, or making love (never thought that song would be used as a background for a love scene, huh?)
It's a brilliant, brilliant movie. And it makes me cry.
In fact, this movie still has one of my favorite movie scenes ever. It's near the end. Louise has managed to get into Russia (she went to Finland first, only to find out Reed has been exchanged by the Soviets) to find that Reed is away on a speaking tour in the Middle East. And finally, his train is back in and she is on the station, anxiously looking. She sees people disembark but no Reed. She looks at the official car and all the officials get out, but no Reed. And the look on her face is longing, and disappointment, and dread (the train looks like it's been through heavy fighting). And then you (but not she) see Reed in the background. And the thing is, he thinks she's left him, because he sent her cable after cable in the US and got no reply (because she left for Finland and sent him telegrams but the prison officials destroyed them). And he is exhausted, physically and spiritually. And then she turns and they see each other. And the looks on their faces! OMG. And then they are in this stumbling rush and in each other's arms, and he holds to her as if she is his salvation and he buries his head in her hug (not sure how to explain it) and he is crying and repeating "Don't leave me, please don't leave me" and I am dead.
The thing is, I know how it ends, but every time I hope it wouldn't.
Because of course, he is a sick guy, and he's overexerted himself, and he dies in the Soviet hospital, while she is out fetching some water. I love the final scene, when she walks in, and sees he is dead, even if he wasn't moments before and just buries her face in the bed and that little melody plays. Just as I both love and find it incredibly sad that some of his last words to her is "I want to go home."
Indeed.
Brilliant, brilliant film.
For those who don't know, Reds is a 1981 movie about John Reed and Louise Bryant, starring Warren Beatty (who was gorgeous, Oh My God, I'd forgotten) and Diane Keaton (who was amazing and why isn't she getting more work). Reed was a turn of the century radical journalist who is best known for "Ten Days That Shook The World," his eye witness account of the Soviet Revolution, who went from a spectator to a participant. Louise Bryant was his wife and a fellow journalist. "Ten Days" was a very influential and well-known book at the time, and Reed was (of course) the darling of the Soviets. I actually remember we had a copy of Ten Days in Russian when I was growing up.
But anyway, this is an amazing amazing movie (and no, it's not "Yay for USSR!" nor is it a "John Reed was an idiot deluded"). It's much too complicated for that. That is why I love the movie so: it's both personal and epic, romantic and political. And it blows that other doomed romance set in Russia, Doctor Zhivago (which I dislike), out of the water.
It's one of those rare movies that really makes me trot out that cliche and overused "they don't make movies like this today." Because they don't. It's a movie that's content not to have a message but to be ambivalent about a lot of things. Politics: was Reed an idealist carried away used by hard-headed realists who understood his propaganda value? was he right and America needed reform? could it be reformed? One of the most brilliant scenes in the movie is when Reed is back in Russia, to get the Comintern's approval of his version of the Communist party in the US and you can see him completely out of his depth: he is a writer, an idealistic dreamer and he is confronted with real revolutionaries, men who are anything but, who are pragmatic to the bone and who will use and discard him and lose no sleep over it, and his utter incomprehension is heart-breaking. His whole dilemma is summed up in his conversation with Emma Goldman, who is a friend who is also in Russia. Emma points out that this is not socialism: people die of starvation, there is no dissent anywhere, beaurocracy runs everything. And you can see that the rational part of Reed agrees with her, but he can't, can't, can't give in to that, because otherwise his whole life would have been a waste. His loss of Louise (as he believes), time in prison, years of action, would have all been for nothing. But then of course he goes on that grand speaking tour in the Middle East parts of USSR and finds his speeches altered by Zinoviev and finally realizes he is nothing but a puppet and something in him breaks. I love the scene where he yells at Zinoviev that if you take away any individuality, then there is no individual to give to the cause. And if there is no indiviudal, there is no dissent, and if there is no dissent, there is no revolution. That he can be both a good husband and a good comrade, a good communist and not agree. He has finally come head to head with the place where ideals meet reality and it's not what he thought. And I love the scene that follows, with the White attack on the train, where he just starts running to catch up with the gunners on horses, as if it's just his unthinking, unreasoning desire to get out of there.
And then there is the issue of love: Reed and Louise have a complex, complicated relationship. They will literally brave death for each other, but they also have an 'open' relationship, and Reed's reaction to coming home to find Louise taking up with Eugene O'Neill (played by Jack Nicholson in a great performance) is one of my favorite bits in the whole movie. It's so expectedly unexpected (he walks through a side door quietly with a giant bouquet and sees them. And he walks out quietly, throws away the flowers and makes a lot of noise coming through the front door and doesn't mention the matter to Louise. And then proposes). They love each other utterly, yet this love isn't enough to fill the life of either of them and they must have their writing, their causes, even as it tears them apart or brings them back together. I love that. I love that I am never in doubt of their love for each other, yet I can buy their constant separations, self-inflicted and by necessity. I love that I believe both that Louise would walk out and become a correspondent in WWI France after yet another one of their fights and that she would brave a horrific trip, smuggled in a cargo ship, leaving US illegally, getting into Russia through snow and horrific conditions to find Reed who has been imprisoned in Finland. Just as I believe that Reed would be the man who would admit to Louise that he's slept with a lot of other women and it means nothing to their relationship and yet be the man who would fight the Russian government and who would undertake the solitary hellish journey across enemy Finland just to get out to go back to Louise.
They are both intelligent, strong-willed people. It's really rare for a movie to get across the intelligence of its protagonists. The movie makers can say they are, but it's really hard to portray, but this movie manages.
There also a bunch of really cool techniques in the film. I love the interwoven thread of witnesses (real historical figures which Beatty filmed for almost a decade prior to starting on the movie) talking about Reed and Louise. Some of them are friends, or admirers, some enemies, some just socialists or convervatives of the era. But the narrative, which is sometimes overlaid on the scenes of the movie, and sometimes is by itself, with the filmed witnesses talking, is a brilliant trick. There is also some really good editing. My favorite scene is the "International" one. It sort of encapsulates the movie by blending the personal and political, because as the song is blaring over the soundtrack (and is sung by marchers in the street), there is a brilliant bunch of intercuts, between the political: marches, meetings, fighting, and personal: Reed and Louise caught in the excitement, eyes shining, or marching, or making love (never thought that song would be used as a background for a love scene, huh?)
It's a brilliant, brilliant movie. And it makes me cry.
In fact, this movie still has one of my favorite movie scenes ever. It's near the end. Louise has managed to get into Russia (she went to Finland first, only to find out Reed has been exchanged by the Soviets) to find that Reed is away on a speaking tour in the Middle East. And finally, his train is back in and she is on the station, anxiously looking. She sees people disembark but no Reed. She looks at the official car and all the officials get out, but no Reed. And the look on her face is longing, and disappointment, and dread (the train looks like it's been through heavy fighting). And then you (but not she) see Reed in the background. And the thing is, he thinks she's left him, because he sent her cable after cable in the US and got no reply (because she left for Finland and sent him telegrams but the prison officials destroyed them). And he is exhausted, physically and spiritually. And then she turns and they see each other. And the looks on their faces! OMG. And then they are in this stumbling rush and in each other's arms, and he holds to her as if she is his salvation and he buries his head in her hug (not sure how to explain it) and he is crying and repeating "Don't leave me, please don't leave me" and I am dead.
The thing is, I know how it ends, but every time I hope it wouldn't.
Because of course, he is a sick guy, and he's overexerted himself, and he dies in the Soviet hospital, while she is out fetching some water. I love the final scene, when she walks in, and sees he is dead, even if he wasn't moments before and just buries her face in the bed and that little melody plays. Just as I both love and find it incredibly sad that some of his last words to her is "I want to go home."
Indeed.
Brilliant, brilliant film.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 06:12 pm (UTC)I want to see this film quite badly now... but it doesn't come out onto Region 2 DVD for another 2 months. Curses.
Isn't this the film Ronald Reagan liked alot?
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 10:27 pm (UTC)Re: Reagan. No idea but it would rather odd since this is such a liberal flick.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 10:27 pm (UTC)