31.01.2008

Epic film

Chris Strafford reviews Warren Beatty's Reds (Paramount DVD, 186 minutes, �19.99)

Reds follows the revolutionary lives of John Reed (author of Ten days that shook the world) and fellow communist and partner Louise Bryant. Reed is played Warren Beatty in one of his greatest performances; Bryant by the mesmerising Diane Keaton. After spending time organising for the International Workers of the World and writing in the US, where we are treated to discussions with historical figures such as Emma Goldman, Max Eastman and ‘Big Bill’ Haywood, Reed and Bryant find themselves swept up in the great events of the Russian Revolution.

At over three hours long, Reds is an epic film; despite a slow start, it is an enjoyable movie and if you can stand Zinoviev’s terrible-looking hair, it is well worth watching.

John Reed’s life was turbulent; his commitment to the socialist revolution and his personal life often came into conflict. Whilst mixing with the great and good of the American labour movement, writing for the magazine Masses, giving talks at liberal clubs and agitating for the Wobblies, he finds time to fall in love with Louise Bryant and lose a kidney. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Reed and Bryant leave the USA to cover the upheavals in Russia. The dramatic scenes of revolution and turmoil are cut alongside interviews with people from the period from all different political backgrounds, including Henry Miller.

Comrades who have not seen this movie are missing out on great scenes, such as the storming of a meeting room by the left faction of the Socialist Party led by Reed. Karl Radek demanding that the Communist Workers Party and the Communist Party of America must merge to become an affiliate of the Third International. A mass rally of workers in Petrograd. Demonstrations by Bolsheviks before the October rising. Speeches by Lenin and Trotsky.

The film is not uncritical of certain aspects of the revolution. A scene with anarchist Emma Goldman (Maureen Stapleton) and Reed in Petrograd typifies the arguments that are still going on. Goldman derides the ongoing centralisation, the killing of anarchists and the end of a free press as the abandonment of the revolution’s ideals. Reed is still committed to defending the blockaded, starving young Soviet republic even if it not going the way they had foreseen.

Educated and nuanced performances by Keaton, Beatty and Jack Nicholson (playing Eugene O’Neill) ensure that this complex and emotionally-charged film does not fall apart. What is most surprising, however, is Beatty’s audacity in making such a movie whilst the Berlin wall was still standing.

Reds is a film which should sit on every comrade’s shelf next to Ken Loach’s Land and freedom and Chris Cooper’s Matewan. It is nothing short of tragic that movies like these are few and far between.