The Postman (film)

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The Postman
DVD cover
Directed by	Kevin Costner
Produced by	Lester Berman Kevin Costner Steve Tisch Jim Wilson
Written by	David Brin (novel) Eric Roth Brian Helgeland
Starring	Kevin Costner Will Patton Larenz Tate Olivia Williams James Russo Daniel Von Bargen Tom Petty Scott Bairstow Roberta Maxwell
Music by	James Newton Howard John Sebastian
Cinematography	Stephen Windon
Editing by	Peter Boyle Regina Prosi-Bassman
Release date(s)	12 December 1997
Running time	177 min
Language	English
Budget	$80,000,000
IMDb profile

For other uses, see The Postman (disambiguation).

The Postman is the 1997 film adaptation of an award-winning post-apocalyptic themed novel of the same name, written in 1985 by author David Brin. It was shot in northeastern Washington (Metaline Falls) and central Oregon, and was directed by Kevin Costner. It starred Costner, Will Patton, Larenz Tate, Olivia Williams, James Russo, Daniel Von Bargen, Tom Petty, Scott Bairstow, and Roberta Maxwell.

[edit] Overview

The film version was only very loosely based on the novel. The plot was simplified to better work in a movie format, with important characters and subplots from the book entirely removed from the movie. David Brin has stated in an article on his website that while he was not involved in the movie's production (beyond selling the book's movie rights), he was pleased with the overall result.

The antagonist character named General Bethlehem (played by Will Patton) is almost completely based on General William Tecumseh Sherman. Will Patton is similar in looks, the main outfit was civil war based, and Bethlehem quotes Shakespeare and paints.

[edit] Trivia

A 1999 episode of The Simpsons portrayed the DVD edition of the film as having a "director's commentary" track which was simply Costner apologizing for the film.