Reds

Film Title: Reds

Original Year of Production: 1981

Studio: Paramount Pictures

Director: Warren Beatty

Cast: Warren Beatty- Jack Reed, Diane Keaton- Louise Bryant, Edward Herman – Max Eastman, Jack Nicolson- Eugene O’neill

Producers: Dede Allen, Warren Beatty, David Leigh Mcleod and Simon Relph

            Reds is a feature film that was written, produced, and directed by Warren Beatty.  Beatty stars as John “Jack” Reed, a journalist who was most famous four his participation and writings of the Russian Revolution on 1917.  Only the latter sections of Reeds life is covered in the film and begins when he meet Louise Bryant, a female journalist, who interviews him and becomes his main love interest.  Unlike the film October which is focused on the Russian Revolution from the uprising group, Reds is a film which is focused from the perspectives of Reed and Bryant.  Details of their meeting, friendship, quarrelling, trails, and confrontations make this film a historical record mostly of their romance. This may have been performed by the producers purposely to appeal to a very wide audience, because most people can relate to these type of relationship challenges.   Since both Bryant and Reed were both writers there seemed to be competition and cooperation in their relationship.  Bryant seemed to always be trying to improve herself and to be “taken seriously.”  The film showed her having to deal with being a woman in her field as numerous men approached her with romantic intentions.  This couple was considered “radical” and lived their lives in a very untraditional way, experimenting with having and “open relationship” which seemed to cause more conflict. 

They were also portrayed as being very passionate people who stood for certain standards in their work where they did not want their work to be manipulated in anyway even though writing in itself can be interpreted as propaganda in any form.  However, Reed insisted that it reflect “the truth.”  There were many scenes where Reed got very upset when his work was manipulated with.  To Reed, the “truth” in his work was very important.  Perhaps what influenced Reed’s insistence on “truth” in his work was the period of history he lived in.  The period of the film Reds was known as the “Postmodern Period.”  (Approximately 1850-1930)  During this period, many new forms of art, ideologies, and forms of expression were created which were unique in the way it emphasized creative self-expression such as writing. “If post-modernist cultural anthropology is any guide, the concern with developing casual explanations and social theories would be replaced in a post-modernist history with focus on self-reflexivity and on problems of the literary construction: how does a historian author construct his or her text, how is the illusion of authenticity produced, what creates a sense of truthfulness to the facts and warranty of closeness to past reality?” (Norton, 305)

What made this feature film unique is that it also incorporated aspects of a documentary film where the real life friends and acquaintances were interviewed.  Unsurprisingly, they each had very different perspectives on their recollections of Reed, Bryant, and that era.  Some of the comments included: “his wife was a communist,” “I think she was somewhat of an exhibitionist”, “I wouldn’t call him a playboy-but some people did”, “ not everyone can be buried in the Kremlin- and he’s an American- born in Portland Organ.” These documentary style interviews gave a special insight into what living in that period of history and what Reed and Bryant were like.  “Whatever form the historical documentary takes, it inevitably inserts itself into the larger historical discourse, that field of data and debates that surround its subject.” (Rosenstone, 74)

                                                  

Reds is a film that exposed the many social and economic problems Russia had which prompted the Revolution.  There were many scenes showing people waiting in long lines for bread, shoes, and ration cards.  The extreme poverty and destruction of the people of Russia was well constructed on this film.  “Early on in the history of the new medium, a few people saw part of its promise just this ability to make us see the past.  A French drama critic in 1908 described the aspirations of film as not only the ability to reproduce the contemporary world, but also to imitate the past, to reconstruct the great events of history through the performance of the actor and the evocation of atmosphere and milieu.” (Rosenstone, 11)

Another social aspect of history that was well captured was Louise Bryant as a modern, feminist woman.  This was a time in history where women’s roles drastically evolved and changed by allowing women to work outside of the home and have more sexual freedom which was once only enjoyed by men.  Birth control was a very new and controversial issue and was shown to be a popular subject of debate in the film. “The women’s suffrage movement advanced everywhere in Europe in the early twentieth century, help by urbanization and improved communication.” (Smith, 106)

Warren Beatty who played Jack Reed and Diane Keateon who played Louise Bryant in Reds were a real life couple during the filming.  Their onscreen chemistry was real, in a sense.  It is recorded that their relationship was strained due to the many conflict filled scenes they had together. “Keaton appeared in more scenes than any other actor, except Beatty, and many of them difficult ones, where she had to assay a wide range of feelings, from romantic passion to anger, and deliver several lengthy, complex, emotional speeches. Diane almost got broken.  I thought Beatty was trying to break her into what Louise Bryant had been like with John Reed.” (Plimpton, 3)

The thesis of this film is: Great writers such as John Reed and Louise Bryant make their art not only a career but a way of life where they are submerged in their work in every aspect of their lives. These examples can be seen respectively in the film Reds where they lived, ate, and breathed writing.  Reed was always gone, off to cover the next story.  Bryant worked effortlessly to not only improve her writing, but also got very upset when she was negatively criticized.  They both loved the art of writing.  This couple had a special place in the Russian Revolution experience because they were there and wrote so much about it.  This allowed them to interview both Kerensky and Lenin.  There acquaintances in these circles allowed Reed to further his participation in the Russian Revolution and helped fight for their cause.  He had duel political affiliations with both America and the Socialist party.  These close and personal engagements are what allowed him to produce much of his valuable work such as the book, “October: Ten Days that Shook the World.”  These types of close associations are valuable in any type of relationship.  The way Reds got mad is that Beatty contacted Rosenstone while he was studying Reed’s papers.  “I was contacted by Warren Beatty, who had learned at the Houghton Library at Harvard University which houses Reed’s papers, that I was at work on the topic.” (Rosenstone, 157)

Reds had a multi- million dollar budget of 18,000,000 and did very well in both the box office and the academy awards.  Warren Beatty won the award for best director for this film. In 2008, the American Film Institute made added this film in their “Ten Top Ten” list.