The Revolution of "Reds"

If you dig deep enough into world cinema, it's inevitable that you're going to run across films depicting the rise of various socialist movements across the globe, from France's "Grin Without a Cat," to Argentina's "Hour of the Furnaces," to those early masterpieces of Soviet cinema, "Battleship Potempkin" and "October." Here in the West, where socialism is still met with knee-jerk rejection, it can be difficult to remember that in the early days, The Revolution was once viewed in a very positive light by a broad base of passionate supporters, who believed it could change the world for the better. And so it was very surprising to come across Warren Beatty's "Reds," a biopic of the American journalist and radical "red" activist John Reed, best known for writing the book that "October" was based on, Ten Days that Shook the World. Despite being made in the early 1980s, during the highly conservative Reagan era, the film is deeply sympathetic to Reed, and offers a fascinating look at a long forgotten historical figure and American social and political movement.

"Reds" is usually billed first as an epic love story, using the relationship between Reed (Warren Beatty) and fellow journalist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) as its main throughline. The two meet in Oregon in 1912, and Bryant follows Reed to New York, where she becomes swept up in a community of freethinking artists and intellectuals and bohemians, including playwright Eugene O'Neill (Jack Nicholson) and anarchist Emma Goldman (Maureen Stapleton). The relationship between Bryant and Reed is a rocky one, as Bryant is fiercely independent and finds it difficult to work in Reed's shadow. They attempt to have an open relationship, which proves to be disastrous. Many eventful years later, they travel to Russia to cover the events of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 together, which becomes a major turning point for Reed, radicalizing and politicizing him. It's Reed's involvement with the American communist and socialist movements, and his ties to the Bolsheviks, that eventually threaten to separate him from Bryant for good.

I admit that I had "Reds" in the back of the queue for a long time, simply because of its length. A three hour film based on such obscure subject matter didn't sound appealing. However, I failed to appreciate that "Reds" belongs to that class of old-fashioned historical epics that does such a marvelous job of immersing the viewer in a particular place and time and milieu, and pairing that experience with first rate character drama. The scope and the detail of the recreations of Greenwich Village and revolutionary Petrograd are stunning. The cast is great, lead by Beatty and Keaton at the top of their game. They're so good as a pair of magnetic young artists in love, who can't help but be drawn together again and again, even though they frequently make each other miserable. Their fight scenes are particularly effective, full of politics, philosophy, and the kind of deeply personal invective that only really clever people who know each other very well are in a position to deliver. But more than the intellect, it's the way that the actors capture the zeal of their characters for their cause and their work that makes it so easy to get invested in their lives, even if we know that Reed and Bryant ultimately end up on the wrong side of history.

And that history is never forgotten for a moment. Beatty, who directed, produced, and starred in the film, and shares writing credits with Trevor Griffiths, went to considerable lengths for historical accuracy. "Reds" has a strong documentary element, as the dramatized narrative is interspersed with several snippets of interviews from real people who knew Reed and Bryant, or were otherwise involved in the events depicted in the film. Many were involved with the American Socialist party and other political movements of the day. Credited as "witnesses," the elderly interviewees provide firsthand accounts of their experiences during the era. Some speak to social conditions, some repeat gossip, and the various claims occasionally contradict each other. This serves to bolster the film's portrayal of Reed and Bryant, and remind viewers that their lives weren't so far removed from our own. It's a wonderful technique, one I'm surprised we don't see used more often.

Though Beatty clearly wants the audience to examine its own preconceptions, I think it's important that he never pushes too far. It never feels like he's stumping for Socialism at any point. He plays John Reed as an admirable true believer, but one with plenty of faults and hypocrisies who made some major mistakes, particularly toward the end of his life. As a romance and a biopic, I found "Reds" extremely satisfying. And as a passion project, this is one of those rare beasts where the sky high ambitions of its creator are fully matched by stellar technical and storytelling skill. In fact, this may be the best American epic film I've ever seen.
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