Reds [25th Anniversary Edition] [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Few filmmakers other than Warren Beatty would have had the courage and vision to fashion an epic film from the life of famed American Communist John Reed (who is the only US citizen buried in the Kremlin). The film is an effort to humanize a political movement that has previously been depicted on screen in a series of unsubtle and prejudicial broad strokes. The film begins in 1915, when Reed (Beatty) makes the acquaintance of married Portland journalist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). So persuasive is Reed's point of view--and so charismatic is Reed himself-- that Bryant kicks over the traces and joins Reed and his fellow radicals. Among the famous personages depicted herein are Emma Goldman (Maureen Stapleton), Eugene O'Neill (Jack Nicholson) and Max Eastman (Richard Herrmann). The second half of this nearly-200-minute film skims through the years when Reed, now a Russian resident, becomes disillusioned by the harsh realities of Bolshevism. Despite the celebrity line-up of real-life "witnesses" to the events depicted in the film (ranging from novelist Henry Miller to comedian George Jessel!), historians took Reds to task for its oversimplification of events and its laundering of the notoriously promiscuous Louise Bryant. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Features:
  • cc
  • Witness to REDS:
  • The Rising
  • Comrades
  • Testimonials
  • Revolution - Part 1
  • Revolution - Part 2
  • The March
  • Propaganda
  • New DVD Trailer

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Cinematography - 1981 (Vittorio Storaro)
•     Won Best Director - 1981 (Warren Beatty)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1981 (Maureen Stapleton)
•     Nominated Best Actor - 1981 (Warren Beatty)
•     Nominated Best Actress - 1981 (Diane Keaton)
•     Nominated Best Art Direction - 1981 (Richard Sylbert, Michael Seirton)
•     Nominated Best Costume Design - 1981 (Shirley Russell)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 1981 (Craig McKay, Dede Allen)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1981 (Warren Beatty, Trevor Griffiths)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1981 (Warren Beatty)
•     Nominated Best Sound - 1981 (Simon Kaye, The Reds)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 1981 (Jack Nicholson)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1982 (Jack Nicholson)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1982 (Maureen Stapleton)

• Directors Guild of America

•     Won Best Director - 1981 (Warren Beatty)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Director - 1981 (Warren Beatty)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - 1981 (Warren Beatty)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 1981 (Jack Nicholson)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama - 1981 (Diane Keaton)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pic - 1981 (Maureen Stapleton)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Drama - 1981
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1981 (Warren Beatty)

• Los Angeles Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Cinematography - 1981 (Vittorio Storaro)
•     Won Best Director - 1981 (Warren Beatty)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 1981 (Maureen Stapleton)

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Director - 1981 (Warren Beatty)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 1981 (Jack Nicholson)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1981

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Picture - 1981

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Warren Beatty - John Reed
       Diane Keaton - Louise Bryant
       Edward Herrmann - Max Eastman
       Jerzy Kosinski - Grigory Zinoviev
       Jack Nicholson - Eugene O'Neill
       Paul Sorvino - Louis Fraina
       Maureen Stapleton - Emma Goldman
       Nicolas Coster - Paul Trullinger
       M. Emmet Walsh - Speaker at the Liberal Club
       Ian Wolfe - Mr. Partlow
       Bessie Love - Mrs. Partlow
       Adela Rogers St. John

• Director:

  Warren Beatty

• Producer:

  Dede Allen, Warren Beatty, Simon Relph

• Screenwriter:

  Warren Beatty, Trevor Griffiths

• Cinematographer:

  Vittorio Storaro

• Composer (Music Score):

  Stephen Sondheim

• Editor:

  Dede Allen, Craig McKay, Simon Relph

• Production Designer:

  A. Kitman Ho, Michael Seirton, Richard Sylbert

• Art Director:

  Simon Holland

• Associate Producer:

  David L. MacLeod

• Executive Producer:

  Dede Allen, Simon Relph

• Set Designer:

  Redmond Morris, Simon Bosanquet

• Costume Designer:

  Shirley Russell

• Makeup:

  William Turner

• Script Supervisor:

  Zelda Barron

• Additional Music:

  Dave Grusin

• Additional Editing:

  William Scharf

• Sound Editor:

  Peter Odabashian

REVIEW:

• An achievement in epic storytelling and historical romance, Warren Beatty's Reds (1981) combines American Communist John Reed's experience of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath with the intimate relationship between Reed and Louise Bryant, his match in progressive thinking. Structured through the reminiscences of two dozen actual witnesses, from Henry Miller to George Jessel, the film meticulously recreates the culturally volatile World War I period, from the bourgeois Portland abandoned by Diane Keaton's Louise to the passionate Greenwich Village bohemia of Beatty's Reed, Maureen Stapleton's no-nonsense Emma Goldman, and Jack Nicholson's cynically romantic Eugene O'Neill. Reed's final reunion with lover/comrade Bryant poignantly reveals the personal cost of his political beliefs. Praised as an impressive accomplishment, regardless of its historical liberties, Reds earned 12 Oscar nominations, including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson, and four for Beatty as producer, director, actor, and co-writer. One of the last vestiges of artistically ambitious 1970s "auteur" Hollywood, Reds won Oscars for Vittorio Storaro's cinematography, Stapleton's supporting performance, and Beatty's direction, but it lost Best Picture to Chariots of Fire. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi