War and Beatty; Die and Keaton

The Cooper Point Journal Volume 10, Issue 10 (January 14, 1982)

Reds Directed by Warren Beatty

Beatty keeps his monster-epic (3 hours. 20 minutes) in hand with a quick tempo and a cool head. There is a sense of well-oiled precision here, an Americanization as it were, imposed most jarringly upon the landscape of Petrograd in 1917. A curious parallel is created in this way between our heroes, John Reed (Beatty), and Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton), endeavoring to fathom so alien a culture in transition even as the director himself comes to terms with his material. Subsequently, unlike its most obvious predecessor Doctor Zhivago, Reds reflects the times in which it was produced nearly as much as the times it purports to portray.

Reds is another quasi-documentary; one made most effective by the juxtaposition of “witnesses’ testimony (including that of Henry Miller– alone worth half the price of admission) against the unfolding drama of love, art and revolution. The movie reminds one of nothing so much as those made-for-TV movies made popular in the 70’s. Scenery and dialogue are stylized and predictable. Characters are caricatures and historical events proceed with an inevitability which belies reality. Fortunately the boundary that separates the glib from the urbane, the schmaltzy from the touching is crossed but rarely. Usually Keaton is the transgressor here – though not through any fault of her own. Having just trudged for days across the frozen Finnish wasteland to visit her husband in jail, having finally arrived only to find that he is no longer there she must then take another half-dozen steps, turn her back to the camera as we pan the distant expanse of snow while wriggling in our seats in acute discomfort and keen embarrassment for Keaton.

This is not the stuff of great films-the New York Film Critic’s award notwithstanding. Still, Beatty as Reed is tolerably well performed. He has retained his boyish demeanor; his infectious grin is hard not to buy. Maureen Stapleton too, as Red Emma Goldman is played with warmth and occasional verve. Outstanding are Jack Nicholson as the caustic Eugene O’Neil and, much more surprisingly, the performance of novelist Jerzy Kosinski as Zinoviev. Kosinski is callous and contrite the very image of the man he was emulating. For $4 ($1.30/hour) it can’t be beat. If you cannot sit still for the whole show, stay until the intermission and leave with a sense of euphoria courtesy of the Moscow Radio Choir. Currently playing at the State – see it soon as the print is rapidly going from superb to all right.