Reds (25th Anniversary Collection): Amazon.ca: DVD: DVD

Product Description

Amazon.com Essential Video

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

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Customer Reviews

33 Reviews

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give Beatty Credit Here, Aug 29 2003

By

Donn Kean (New London, CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reds (VHS Tape)

It's a brilliant movie really; romantic, funny, intelligent and sad, as well as historical. John Reed was a confused American, or perhaps just an inspired one. His real battle was for the American working man, an underpaid, over-worked breed of Americana who helped form this nation. Reed really just believe, if you break it down into bare essence, that men should be treated fairly. He was labeled a communist, and probably believed himself to be one on some level, but his views were really more socialistic. This was his basis, and that basis took him to Russia, where he became an unwitting spokesman for the communist regime, his words twisted and translated to meet the Party's needs. His heart was just with the working man, and a misguided feeling that life should be fair. His writing speaks for itself--read "Ten Days that Shook the World". Ah, but there's more behind Reed's Russian connection, far more. He, along with the people who formed his circle of friends, was a bohemian in all respects. They were people of art, and of talent, intellectual artists in their own right, and far ahead of their time. The movie touches upon it, and leads one to want to learn more about the man, and his time. His relationships with Gene O'Neill and Louise Bryant goes far beyond what is portrayed, but the movie does at least give one the insight into those relationships. In their time, Reed, Bryant, and O'Neill did much in America for American writers, and for American theatre. They were all people of art, and of deep emotion. In a time of growing comformity, they tossed comformity aside. Their lifestyles were not the lifestyles of "proper people" of the time, but they gave great emotion to merely living, and to living each day as it came. Each of them touched this world in some way, left something of themselves behind, and that's what Reds is really all about...what one leaves behind. John Reed is the only American ever buried in the Kremlin...hardly a matter to be left a faded shade in history. His belief was strong, and he stood by those beliefs, and that's something that most of us never achieve in the long run of things.

It's a good movie, and worth seeing, and worth remembering.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling, challenging, gorgeous, emotional and epic, Dec 11 2011

By

K. Gordon - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Reds: 25th Anniversary Edition [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

The kind of film that has sadly just about disappeared - the personal,
auteur driven epic. Very rarely if ever now will a studio give a film
maker huge funds to do a risky, personal, not obviously commercial
project, one that could never be made as a `small' film.

While critics can nit pick, and a few of their points may be valid (both
Beatty and Diane Keaton were at least 10 years older then their real life characters,
making some behavior seem overly naive and juvenile instead of understandable
for their youth and inexperience), overall this is a masterful combining of the big picture
and the personal, and how the two interrelate in life. How do we deal with emotions that
are much messier than our ideals of how to live?

It explores the twin faces of revolution - the sometimes desperate need to fight to
create a new order, but the danger that the new order may be just as corrupt as the old.

Rare is the film that deeply, honestly explores both idealism and the dark realities of
political compromise. Rarer still is the film that explores both in a personal way, without
judgment, but with deep insight.

Beautifully shot by Vitorio Storraro, wonderful production design.

Keaton and Beatty are very good in the leads, and the supporting cast, down to the
smallest role, is generally magnificent. Especially amazing are Maureen Stapleton
as Emma Goldman, and Jack Nicholson in one of his very best (and most restrained)
performances as Eugene O'Neil. He may capture the true pain of trying to live through
the eyes of an artist as well as anyone I've ever seen.

The Blu-ray is particularly beautiful.

Thrilling, challenging, gorgeous, emotional and epic. They don't make 'em
like this anymore, and that's our loss.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Reds Revisited, Mar 22 2010

By

Robert Gorski (Toronto, ON. Canada.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Reds (Special 25th Aniversary Edition) (DVD)

It was nice to see this movie again since I saw it in the movies back in early 1982. It is a refreshing alternate to Dr Zhivago which was in the same time frame.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Politics aside...
This is a GREAT film -- a magnificient epic and a remarkable acheivement!!

At least a 2-disc set, please -- although that may not happen (for political reasons) unless, or... Read more

Published on Mar 24 2006

4.0 out of 5 stars USEFUL IDIOTS
EXCERPTED FROM STEVEN TRAVERS' "GOD'S COUNTRY"

The 1920s were a strange time. John Reed's "Ten Days That Shook the World" reached a large audience in the... Read more

Published on Jun 24 2004 by Steven Travers

5.0 out of 5 stars A film as novel
There is only one way of watching this film; it has to be watched as if one were reading a novel. What unfolds, however, is a love story told in terms of tense relationships. Read more

Published on April 20 2004 by Glen1975

5.0 out of 5 stars Second Only to "Schindler's List"
Of the wide-release, narrative, political films made in the second half of the 20th century, surely "Reds" ranks as one of the best. Read more

Published on Mar 10 2004 by Michael Raines

1.0 out of 5 stars Spiteful and small and important

This movie has an awful lot of chutzpah, but does not go so far as to try to glamorize communism - at least not as it developed in the early Soviet. Read more

Published on Nov 4 2003 by Tom Blair

4.0 out of 5 stars Superlative!
"Reds" is the 1981 Warren Beatty epic that harnessed the turmoil of the Russian Revolution as reported by American journalist Jack Reed and brought it to the screen in a... Read more

Published on Dec 16 2002 by Christopher M. MacNeil

4.0 out of 5 stars Long-winded but enlightening
Beatty's historical-biographical epic about John Reed deserves credit for tackling the controversial subject of Communist sympathizers in America during the early part of the 20th... Read more

Published on Jun 17 2002 by J. Levinson

5.0 out of 5 stars How could this not be on DVD
I love this movie more than I can find words to express. It is a spectacular piece of film making. Read more

Published on April 8 2002 by Michael T. Habetz

1.0 out of 5 stars Silk purse that's really a pig's ear
I wrote a favorable review earlier, but that was before I knew (it was recently found in USSR records) that John Reed recieved over 1million from his pals in the bolsheviks/soviet... Read more

Published on July 18 2001 by J. Brown

5.0 out of 5 stars Is Reds historically accurate? WHO CARES!
Anyone with some knowledge regarding the Russian Revolution can tell you John Reed's "Ten Days that Shook the World", is likely slanted(primarily because of the enormous... Read more

Published on Jan 22 2001 by Yuli Martov