Reds (1981)

Reds is a 1981 American epic drama film co-written, produced and directed by Warren Beatty. The picture centers on the life and career of John Reed, the journalist and writer who chronicled the Russian Revolution in his book Ten Days That Shook the World. Beatty stars in the lead role alongside Diane Keaton as Louise Bryant and Jack Nicholson as Eugene O'Neill.

The supporting cast of the film includes Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, Gene Hackman, Ramon Bieri, Nicolas Coster and M. Emmet Walsh. The film also features, as "witnesses," interviews with the 98-year-old radical educator and peace activist Scott Nearing (1883–1983), author Dorothy Frooks (1896–1997), reporter and author George Seldes (1890–1995), civil liberties advocate Roger Baldwin (1884–1981), and the American writer Henry Miller (1891–1980), among others.

Beatty was awarded the Academy Award for Best Director and the film was nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Chariots of Fire. Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Maureen Stapleton were nominated for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, the last time a film was nominated in all four acting categories until Silver Linings Playbook in 2012. Stapleton was the only one of the four to win, with Beatty and Keaton losing to Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn for On Golden Pond and Nicholson to John Gielgud for Arthur. Beatty was also nominated, along with co-writer Trevor Griffiths, for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, but lost to Chariots of Fire. Warren Beatty became the third person to be nominated for Academy Awards in the categories Best Actor, Director and Original Screenplay for a film nominated for Best Picture. This was done previously by Orson Welles for Citizen Kane and Woody Allen for Annie Hall.

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten" – the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres – after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Reds was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the epic genre.

Synopsis

The film covers the life of John Reed and Louise Bryant from their first meeting to Reed's final days in 1920 Russia. Interspersed throughout the narrative, several surviving witnesses from the time period give their recollections of Reed, Bryant, their colleagues and friends, and the era itself. A number of them have mixed views of Bryant and her relationship with Reed.

Actors