''Reds'' is a 1981 American
epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements
Epic or EPIC may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and medi ...
historical drama film
A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and sw ...
, co-written, produced, and directed by
Warren Beatty, about the life and career of
John Reed, the journalist and writer who chronicled the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
in Russia in his 1919 book ''
Ten Days That Shook the World
''Ten Days That Shook the World'' (1919) is a book by the American journalist and socialist John Reed. Here, Reed presented a firsthand account of the 1917 Russian October Revolution. Reed followed many of the most prominent Bolsheviks closely ...
''. Beatty stars in the lead role alongside
Diane Keaton as
Louise Bryant and
Jack Nicholson as
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
.
The supporting cast includes
Edward Herrmann
Edward Kirk Herrmann (July 21, 1943 – December 31, 2014) was an American actor, director, and writer. He was perhaps best known for his portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the miniseries ''Eleanor and Franklin'' (1976) and 1982 film ...
,
Jerzy Kosiński
Jerzy Kosiński (born Józef Lewinkopf; ; June 14, 1933 – May 3, 1991) was a Polish-American novelist and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. Born in Poland, he survived World War II and, as a ...
,
Paul Sorvino,
Maureen Stapleton,
Gene Hackman,
Ramon Bieri,
Nicolas Coster, and
M. Emmet Walsh. The film also features, as "witnesses", interviews with the 98-year-old radical educator and peace activist
Scott Nearing, author
Dorothy Frooks, reporter and author
George Seldes,
civil liberties advocate
Roger Baldwin, and the American writer
Henry Miller, among others.
Beatty was awarded the
Academy Award for Best Director
The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award of Merit for Directing) is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibit ...
and the film was nominated for
Best Picture, but lost to ''
Chariots of Fire''. Beatty, Keaton, Nicholson, and Stapleton were nominated for
Best Actor
Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play.
The term most often refers to th ...
,
Best Actress,
Best Supporting Actor and
Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Stapleton was the only one of the four to win. Beatty became the third person to be nominated for Academy Awards in the categories Best Actor, Director, and, with co-writer
Trevor Griffiths,
Original Screenplay—losing again to ''Chariots of Fire''—for a film nominated for Best Picture.
In June 2008, the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Lead ...
revealed "
AFI's 10 Top 10"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the film community. ''Reds'' came in ninth in the epic genre.
Plot
In 1915, married journalist and suffragist
Louise Bryant encounters the radical journalist
John Reed for the first time at a lecture in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...
, and is intrigued with his idealism. After meeting him for an interview on international politics that lasts an entire night, she realizes that writing has been her only escape from her frustrated existence. Inspired to leave her husband, Bryant joins Reed in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
, and becomes acquainted with the local community of activists and artists, including anarchist and author
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of th ...
and the playwright
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
.
Later, they move to
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provin ...
, to concentrate on their writing, becoming involved in the local theater scene. Through her writing, Bryant becomes a feminist and radical in her own right. Reed becomes involved in labor strikes with the "Reds" of the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines gener ...
. Obsessed with changing the world, he grows restless and heads for
St. Louis to cover the
1916 Democratic National Convention.
During Reed's absence, Bryant falls into a complicated affair with O'Neill. Upon his return, Reed discovers the affair and realizes he still loves Bryant. The two marry secretly and make a home together in
Croton-on-Hudson, New York
Croton-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 8,327 at the 2020 United States census over 8,070 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Cortlandt as part of New York City's northern su ...
, but still have conflicting desires. When Reed admits his own infidelities, Bryant takes a ship to Europe to work as a war correspondent. After a flare-up of a kidney disorder results in him having one of them removed, Reed is warned to avoid excessive travel or stress, but he decides to take the same path as Louise and goes to Europe. Reunited as professionals, the two find their passion rekindled as they travel to Russia and are swept up in the fall of the Czarist regime and the
events of the 1917 Revolution.
After returning to the United States, Reed writes ''
Ten Days that Shook the World
''Ten Days That Shook the World'' (1919) is a book by the American journalist and socialist John Reed. Here, Reed presented a firsthand account of the 1917 Russian October Revolution. Reed followed many of the most prominent Bolsheviks closely ...
'', while Louise is called to testify in front of the
Overman Committee. In order to implement the Communist ideals he saw in Russia, Reed becomes active in the
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
's new
Left Wing Section
The Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party was an organized faction within the Socialist Party of America in 1919 which served as the core of the dual communist parties which emerged in the fall of that year—the Communist Party of America ...
. The Socialist Party soon undergoes a major political shift, with Reed and the Left Wing elected to 12 of its National Executive Committee's 15 seats, but the sitting members of the Committee prevent a takeover of the party by invalidating the election and expelling the entire Left Wing. Differing ideology among the expelled members causes them to splinter into two rival organizations, with Reed forming the
Communist Labor Party of America. Anxious to establish his group as the United States' true Communist Party, Reed plans to return to Russia to secure official recognition from the Soviet
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
. Having grown tired of the political infighting, Bryant threatens to end their relationship if he goes, but he does so anyway, promising to be home by Christmas.
As it was now illegal to travel to Russia, Reed enters the country by traveling to
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
and sneaking across the border. Once there, though, he grows disillusioned with the authoritarian policies the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
have imposed upon Communist Russia. Reed attempts to leave and return to Bryant, but is imprisoned in Finland after being caught trying to cross the border. After learning of his arrest, Louise seeks the U.S. government's help in securing his release, but it refuses, as in his absence he has been indicted on charges of
sedition. With no other recourse, Louise illegally travels to Finland herself, but by the time she arrives Reed has been returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange between the two countries.
Now living in
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Reed is employed as a
propagandist with the Comintern, and shares an apartment with Emma Goldman, who had been deported from the U.S. Unaware that Louise has traveled to Finland, he repeatedly tries to make contact with her by sending telegrams to New York and becomes increasingly frustrated by the lack of response. Louise makes her way to Petrograd, where she is found by Emma, who tells her Reed was sent to deliver a speech in
Baku. On his return to Petrograd, the Czarist
White Army attacks Reed's train. Reed manages to survive the attack and is reunited with Louise at the train station. Soon thereafter, he is admitted to the hospital, where he dies of
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
, with Louise at his side.
Cast
Production
Development
Beatty came across the story of John Reed in the mid-1960s. Executive producer and film editor
Dede Allen remembers Beatty's mentioning making a film about Reed's life as early as 1966. Originally titled ''Comrades'', the first script was written by Beatty in 1969, but the process stalled. In 1973, Beatty was offered the role of Reed in
Sergei Bondarchuk's Soviet film production ''
Red Bells
''Red Bells'' (also known as ''Mexico in Flames'', ''Insurgent Mexico'' and ''Red Bells Part I – Mexico on Fire'') is a 1982 adventure-drama film directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. It was coproduced by Soviet Union (where it was released as ''Krasnye ...
'', but declined, and felt further driven to make his own biopic about Reed to compete with the Soviet version.
In 1976, Beatty found a suitable collaborator in
Trevor Griffiths, who began work but was delayed by his wife's death in a plane crash.
The preliminary draft of the script was finished in 1978. Beatty still had problems with it and he and Griffiths spent four and a half months fixing it. Beatty also collaborated with his friends
Robert Towne
Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz;'' Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' by Peter Biskind page 30, 1999 Bloomsbury edition November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He started with writing films for Roger C ...
,
Peter Feibleman
Peter Feibleman (August 1, 1930August 23, 2015) was an American author and screenwriter. He won critical acclaim for his novels and received multiple awards for his writings, including a Guggenheim Award in 1960 and a Golden Pen Award in 1983. He ...
and
Elaine May to continue polishing the script after shooting had begun.
Financing
Beatty achieved tremendous success with 1978's ''
Heaven Can Wait Heaven Can Wait may refer to:
* ''Heaven Can Wait'' (1943 film), a comedy based on the stage play ''Birthday'' by Leslie Bush-Fekete
* ''Heaven Can Wait'' (1978 film), an American football comedy starring Warren Beatty; a remake of the 1941 film ...
'', which he produced, starred in, co-wrote and co-directed for
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
. The success gave Beatty the clout to seek funding for his long nurtured ''Reds'' project, which was difficult to secure because of the controversial
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
subject matter and high price tag.
Beatty succeeded in interesting both
Warner Bros. and Paramount, before the head of
Gulf+Western (Paramount's parent company),
Charles Bluhdorn, agreed to finance the project.
Bluhdorn soon had second thoughts, and attempted to dissuade Beatty with the promise of underwriting a $25 million alternative to ''Reds'' of Beatty's choice, but Beatty remained committed.
Casting
Beatty originally had no intention of acting in the film or even directing it because he had learned on projects such as
''Bonnie and Clyde'' and ''
Heaven Can Wait Heaven Can Wait may refer to:
* ''Heaven Can Wait'' (1943 film), a comedy based on the stage play ''Birthday'' by Leslie Bush-Fekete
* ''Heaven Can Wait'' (1978 film), an American football comedy starring Warren Beatty; a remake of the 1941 film ...
'' that producing a film alone is a difficult task. He briefly considered
John Lithgow for the part of John Reed because the two were similar in appearance, but eventually Beatty decided to act in the film and direct it himself. Nicholson was cast as Eugene O'Neill over
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, hav ...
and
Sam Shepard.
Nicholson was older than the young O'Neill he was playing, and having just completed work on
Kubrick's ''
The Shining'', was in a "most shambolic" and "grotesque" physical state, according to producer
Simon Relph. But Nicholson was committed to the role and appeared at the start of filming four months later having lost the weight he had gained and looking much younger.
Beatty also chose to cast non-actors in supporting roles, including
George Plimpton, the editor of ''
The Paris Review
''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phi ...
'', who played the character of Horace Whigham.
Jerzy Kosiński
Jerzy Kosiński (born Józef Lewinkopf; ; June 14, 1933 – May 3, 1991) was a Polish-American novelist and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N., who wrote primarily in English. Born in Poland, he survived World War II and, as a ...
, a Polish-American novelist, was asked to play the role of
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, . Transliterated ''Grigorii Evseevich Zinov'ev'' according to the Library of Congress system. (born Hirsch Apfelbaum, – 25 August 1936), known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky (russian: Ов ...
, but he initially refused because he was a fierce anti-Communist and feared that he might be abducted by the
KGB if he went to Finland to film.
The Witnesses
To gain perspective on the lives of Reed and Bryant, Beatty filmed interviews with a group of men and women, referred to only as "The Witnesses", as early as 1971. ''American Film'' identified the witnesses in its March 1982 issue.
In a capsule review for ''The New York Times'', film critic
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death i ...
refers to them as "more than two dozen very, very old people, billed only as The Witnesses, whom Mr. Beatty interviewed about the Reeds and their long-gone times." He went on to say, "More than anything else in ''Reds,'' these interviews give the film its poignant point of view and separate it from all other romantic adventure films ever made." "The most evocative aspect of the presentation is a documentary enhancement – interviews with a number of venerable 'witnesses,' whose recollections of the period help to set the scene, bridge transitions and preserve a touching human perspective", wrote Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
''.
* Jacob Bailin, labor organizer
*
Roger Nash Baldwin, founder,
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". ...
* John Ballato, early socialist
* Harry Carlisle, writer, teacher
* Kenneth Chamberlain, political cartoonist for ''
The Masses''
*
Andrew Dasburg, painter
* Tess Davis, cousin of Louise Bryant's first husband
*
Will Durant, historian
* Blanche Hays Fagen, member of the Provincetown Players
*
Hamilton Fish, congressman, Harvard classmate of John Reed
*
Dorothy Frooks, recruiting girl, World War I
*
Hugo Gellert, artist for ''
The Masses''
* Emmanuel Herbert, student in Petrograd, 1917–18
*
George Jessel, entertainer
*
Oleg Kerensky, son of
Alexander Kerensky
*
Isaac Don Levine, journalist, translator for Reed
*
Arthur Mayer, film historian, Harvard classmate of Reed, also film distributor
*
Henry Miller, novelist
* Adele Nathan, member of the Provincetown Players
*
Scott Nearing, sociologist, pacifist
*
Dora Russell, delegate to
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
*
Adela Rogers St. Johns, journalist
*
George Seldes, U.S. journalist in Moscow
* Art Shields, political activist
*
Jessica Smith, political activist
*
Arne Swabeck Arne Swabeck (1890–1986) was an American Communist leader.
Swabeck was born in Denmark and emigrated to the United States where he became one of the founding members of the Communist Party. In the late 1920s he was expelled from the party as a Tr ...
, member, Communist Labor Party
* Bernadine Szold-Fritz, journalist
* Galina von Meck, witness to Russian Revolution
* Heaton Vorse, son of a Provincetown playwright
*
Will Weinstone
William Wolf Weinstone (1897–1985) was an American Communist politician and labor leader. Weinstone served as Executive Secretary of the unified Communist Party of America, the forerunner of today's Communist Party USA, from October 15, 1921, to ...
, organizer, U.S. Communist Party
*
Rebecca West
Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed book ...
, writer, novelist
*
Lucita Squier, screenwriter and widow of
Albert Rhys Williams, who was an American participant in the Russian Revolution, pro-Soviet author, friend and biographer of Lenin
Filming
When principal photography began in August 1979 the original intention was for a 15- to 16-week shoot, but it ultimately took one year. Filming took place in five different countries and at various points the crew had to wait for snow to fall in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
(and other parts of Finland), which stood in for the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, and for rain to stop in Spain. Beatty asked the Soviet government for a permit to film in Moscow but was denied.
A cottage in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
was used to depict exteriors of the Reeds' home in
Croton-on-Hudson, which in reality was a small early American
saltbox house. The interior sets built at
Twickenham Studios and
EMI-Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios on Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire is a British film and television production centre operated by Elstree Film Studios Limited. One of several facilities historically referred to as Elstree Studios, the Shenley Road st ...
were also enlarged to evoke the "flavor" of the real home without reproducing it exactly.
Other English locations included
Frensham Ponds in Surrey, which stood in for
Provincetown, the Smeaton Room of the
Institution of Civil Engineers
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...
at
One Great George Street for the Liberal Club meeting room in Portland, and the interior of
Lancaster House
Lancaster House (originally known as York House and then Stafford House) is a mansion in the St James's district in the West End of London. It is close to St James's Palace, and much of the site was once part of the palace complex. This ...
for that of the
Winter Palace
The Winter Palace ( rus, Зимний дворец, Zimnij dvorets, p=ˈzʲimnʲɪj dvɐˈrʲɛts) is a palace in Saint Petersburg that served as the official residence of the Emperor of all the Russias, Russian Emperor from 1732 to 1917. The p ...
in St. Petersburg. Another round of filming began in 1980 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
,
Washington D.C., and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
, including Paramount Studios.
The Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro was banned from shooting the scenes shot in the U.S. after he was unable to gain an
H-1B visa
The H-1B is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H) that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. A specialty occupation requires the application o ...
and because local
trade unions
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...
blocked him from doing work on the film. The film encountered similar problems with
trade unions in the United Kingdom, and had to hire a separate British crew and pay British actors enrolled in
Equity at
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
-rate salaries in order to allow American actors to film scenes in the U.K. These trade disputes caused the film to run heavily over budget, but the studio ultimately recouped its costs after financing the film with a low-interest loan from
Barclays Bank
Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Barclays traces ...
as part of a
tax-shelter plan.
Actress
Maureen Stapleton was due to begin shooting her scenes in London in November 1979, but she refused to take a plane because of a fear of flying. Because it was the wrong season for
ocean liner
An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships).
C ...
travel, the production had to arrange for Stapleton to travel on a
tramp steamer
A boat or ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule, itinerary nor published ports of call, and trades on the spot market as opposed to freight liners. A steamship engaged in the tramp trade is sometimes call ...
, which broke down in the
North Atlantic and had to be towed to
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
.
This caused another unwelcome delay. Beatty would also not stop the camera between
takes, letting it roll continuously, and insisted on a large number of takes. Paul Sorvino said he did as many as 70 takes for one scene; Stapleton had to do 80 takes of one scene, which caused her to say to Beatty, "Are you out of your fucking mind?"
Beatty and Keaton's romantic relationship also began to deteriorate during filming.
Peter Biskind wrote about the making of ''Reds'', "Beatty's relationship with Keaton barely survived the shoot. It is always a dicey proposition when an actress works with a star or director—both, in this case—with whom she has an offscreen relationship. Keaton appeared in more scenes than any other actor save Beatty, and many of them were difficult ones, where she had to assay a wide range of feelings, from romantic passion to anger, and deliver several lengthy, complex, emotional speeches." George Plimpton once observed, "Diane almost got broken. I thought
eattywas trying to break her into what Louise Bryant had been like with John Reed." Executive producer
Simon Relph adds, "It must have been a strain on their relationship because he was completely obsessive, relentless."
Post-production
The editing process began in early 1980, with as many as 65 people working on editing down and going over approximately 2.5 million feet of film.
Post-production ended in November 1981, more than two years after the start of filming. Paramount stated that the final cost of the film was $32 million, which would be the rough equivalent of around $80 million in 2007.
Music
The film introduced the song "Goodbye for Now", written by
Stephen Sondheim, recorded by
Jean-Pierre Rampal and
Claude Bolling. The song was later recorded by
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...
for ''
The Movie Album'' (2003).
Reception
Released on December 4, 1981, ''Reds'' opened to critical acclaim. Despite its political subject matter and limited promotion by Beatty, the film became the
13th-highest-grossing picture of 1981, grossing $40 million in U.S. box office revenues, a figure that does not include the film's foreign box office revenues or its substantial subsequent earnings in home video, worldwide broadcast and cable television, and subscription television and streaming services.
Beatty later remarked that the film "made a little money" in box office returns. During the film's second and third weekends, there were concerns that it would become a massive flop like ''Heaven's Gate'', but it performed more strongly over the next month. The film was screened at the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...
for President
Ronald Reagan.
John Simon of the ''
National Review
''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...
'' wrote, "Never exactly boring, sometimes entertaining, ''Reds'' is frequently irritating and finally disappointing". ''
Commentary'' published a largely negative review by
Richard Grenier, who, among other things, saw the film as deliberately obscuring the protagonists' Communist politics and as exaggerating Bryant's talent and accomplishments.
Conversely, in a retrospective article for ''
Jacobin
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = P ...
'', Jim Poe called ''Reds'' "one of the greatest and most faithful depictions of revolutionary politics", praising its "light touch and brisk storytelling" for an epic, as well as its cinematography, shifts in mood and performances, in particular those of Keaton and Beatty.
''Reds'' holds an 89% "Fresh" rating on the
review aggregate website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The site's consensus reads, "Brawny in both intellect and scope, ''Reds'' is an intimate epic that captures the tumult of revolutionary change and the passion of those navigating through it."
On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a score of 76 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Awards and nominations
The film is recognized by the
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
Lead ...
in these lists:
*
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #55
*
AFI's 10 Top 10 – #9 Epic Film
References
;Notes
;Citations
External links
*
*
Review of ''Reds'' Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death i ...
, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' (December 4, 1981)
"Film on a Revolution Was a Revolution Itself" A.O. Scott, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' (October 4, 2006)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reds
1981 films
1980s biographical drama films
1980s historical drama films
American biographical drama films
American epic films
American historical drama films
American political drama films
Cultural depictions of Leon Trotsky
Cultural depictions of Vladimir Lenin
1980s English-language films
Films scored by Dave Grusin
Films about journalists
Films about communism
Films about anarchism
Films directed by Warren Beatty
Films whose director won the Best Directing Academy Award
Films whose director won the Best Director Golden Globe
Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award-winning performance
Films produced by Warren Beatty
Films set in the 1910s
Films set in 1920
Films set in Russia
Films shot in Finland
Films shot in Lincolnshire
Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
1980s German-language films
1980s Russian-language films
Films with screenplays by Warren Beatty
Paramount Pictures films
1981 drama films
Films shot at Twickenham Film Studios
Films shot in London
Films shot in Kent
Films shot in Helsinki
Films set in Portland, Oregon
Films set in Massachusetts
Films set in New York (state)
Films set in New York City
Russian Revolution films
Films set in the Soviet Union
Films set in Moscow
Films set in Saint Petersburg
Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films shot in Washington, D.C.
Films set in St. Louis
Films shot in New York City
Films shot in Surrey
Films shot in Greater Manchester
1981 multilingual films
American multilingual films
Films scored by Stephen Sondheim
1980s American films