Reds (film)

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Reds
Reds movie poster
Directed by	Warren Beatty
Produced by	Warren Beatty
Written by	Warren Beatty Trevor Griffiths
Starring	Warren Beatty Diane Keaton Jack Nicholson Paul Sorvino Maureen Stapleton
Music by	Stephen Sondheim Dave Grusin
Cinematography	Vittorio Storaro
Editing by	Dede Allen
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	December 4, 1981 (USA)
Running time	194 min.
Language	English Russian German
Budget	$35,000,000 US (est.)
IMDb profile

Reds is a 1981 film starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton. It centers on the life of John Reed, the Communist, journalist, and writer who chronicled the Russian Revolution in his book Ten Days that Shook the World.

Besides Beatty and Keaton, the movie stars Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, Ramon Bieri, Nicolas Coster and M. Emmet Walsh. It was adapted by Warren Beatty, Peter S. Feibleman (uncredited), Trevor Griffiths, Elaine May (uncredited) and Jeremy Pikser from Reed's memoir. It was directed by Beatty.

The film also features, as "witnesses," interviews with the celebrated radical educator and peace activist 98-year old Scott Nearing (1883-1983), author Dorothy Frooks (1896-1997), reporter and author George Seldes (1890-1995), and the American writer Henry Miller, among others. It was nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Chariots of Fire.

Contents 1 Main historical characters 2 The Witnesses 3 Awards 4 Trivia 5 External links

[edit] Main historical characters

• John Silas Reed - (played by Warren Beatty)
• Louise Bryant - (played by Diane Keaton)
• Max Eastman - (played by Edward Herrmann)
• Grigory Zinoviev - (played by Jerzy Kosinski)
• Eugene O'Neill - (played by Jack Nicholson)
• Emma Goldman - (played by Maureen Stapleton)

[edit] The Witnesses

Some are very well known, others not so.

• Roger Baldwin - (founder of the ACLU)
• Henry Miller - (Writer)
• Adela Rogers St. Johns - (Journalist, novelist, and screenwriter)
• Dora Russell - (Feminist and progressive campaigner)
• Scott Nearing - (Conservationist, peace activist, educator and writer)
• Tess Davis
• Hamilton Fish III - (Congressman)
• Isaac Don Levine
• Rebecca West - (Feminist and writer)
• Will Durant - (Philosopher, historian, and writer)
• Will Weinstone
• Emmanuel Herbert
• Arne Swabeck - (American Communist leader)
• Adele Gutman Nathan
• George Seldes - (Investigative journalist and media critic)
• Kenneth Chamberlain
• Blanche Hays Fagen
• Galina von Meck
• Art Shields
• Andrew Dasburg
• Hugo Gellert - (Illustrator and satirist)
• Dorothy Frooks - (Author, publisher, military figure and actress)
• George Jessel - (Actor, singer, songwriter, and movie producer)
• Jacob Bailin
• John Ballato
• Lucita Williams
• Bernadine Szold-Fritz
• Jessica Smith - (Editor and activist)
• Harry Carlisle
• Arthur Mayer

[edit] Awards

The movie won Academy Awards for:

• Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Maureen Stapleton playing Emma Goldman)
• Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro)
• Best Director (Warren Beatty)

and was nominated for:

• Best Actor in a Leading Role (Warren Beatty)
• Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jack Nicholson)
• Best Actress in a Leading Role (Diane Keaton)
• Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
• Best Costume Design
• Best Film Editing
• Best Picture
• Best Sound
• Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

[edit] Trivia

• During filming, Beatty lectured his Russian extras on the capitalist exploitation of labour, attempting to inspire them. According to the magazine Total Film in 2004, this was the 4th "dumbest decision in movie history": the extras duly went on strike, demanding higher wages.

• To date, this is the last movie to receive Oscar nominations in each of the four acting categories. No film in the ceremonies since 1982 has achieved this feat.

• Warren Beatty began filming interviews with the "witnesses" in the early 1970s.

• Gene Hackman performed in an unbilled cameo role as Pete Van Wherry. The scene in which he tells Jack Reed that Louise Bryant no longer works for him took exactly 100 takes to shoot. Hackman vowed that he would not shoot a 101st take and he did not.

• In a 1981 interview w/ John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd on a talk show (included as a bonus on the 'Best of Saturday Night Live: John Belushi' DVD), Belushi and Aykroyd mentioned 'Reds' as one of their favorite recent movies.

• Jerzy Kosinski played the role of Bolshevik revolutionary and Politburo member Grigory Zinoviev. The Time magazine critic wrote: "As Reed's Soviet nemesis, novelist Jerzy Kosinski acquits himself nicely--a tundra of ice against Reed's all-American fire." Newsweek complimented Kosinski's "delightfully abrasive" performance."[1]

• The movie was not released on DVD until 2006.

• The film was the last major American motion picture released with an intermission.

[edit] External links

• Reds at the Internet Movie Database