Serviceable epic that never blew me away.

Not the epic Beatty thinks it is, but still this is an entertaining film--in spite of its intimidating length--that evokes the bohemian left of the Ragtime era and WWI.

The first hour of the film is ninety percent about character and relationships. Sure, everyone is talking about politics, but it all seems like an afterthought. Suffice it to say I cared most about the romance, though I did find the education interesting. It's a good film, well made, but by the end there's so much politics, when we return to the romance I hardly felt anything at all.

I'm not sure if the character study aspect or the political exploration was most interesting but I enjoyed nearly all of it. The 1910s seems to be a period little explored in film, especially on this kind of social and political scale, so even if the construction is not particularly noteworthy it still feels fresh.

I watched this in three parts. Which went something like... Part 1: This is awful. I want to remove the editor's eyes, and fix Beatty's. Part 2: Hey, it's Jack Nicholson! And a compelling, non-excruciating character. Part 3: This is engrossing. I care about these characters; I'm being entertained, I'm being educated.

this is a tremendous epic movie, clocking in at over three hours it still is packed, with every moment worth watching. beatty and keaton are fantastic and have some great chemistry. beatty definitely deserved the oscar for this movie, hell he deserved two.

The epic scope, beautiful cinematography and great screenplay alone are worth the 200 minutes to see this film. The acting, on the other hand, is merely adequate from the leading parts but excellent from the supporting turns.

512

One of Keaton's best performances.

#513

More likeable than interesting. Performances are strong, Keaton's especially. Beautiful, beautiful score.

Boring. Fifteen of the points I gave it are because you see Dianne Keeton nekkid at her prime.

"Reds is finally just an appealingly conventional epic movie-star romance with radical trimmings, but it contains several sharper elements that suggest the colorful period it seeks to recreate." - Dan Callahan

I really didn't expect this to be almost documental. I don't know if the in-between interviews made the movie better or worse. It made it more authentic for sure but it also made you distance yourself from the real core of the movie - the relationship between the two main characters and the influence of strong beliefs. I'm not the biggest fan of Beatty and the story was a bit incoherent at times (as true life stories tend to be). But the movie had heart - it just didn't hit mine.

This film starts weak, then gets better, and toward the end the film gets really good. Be patient and you will be rewarded with this one. I learned a lot, and also enjoyed Beatty's and Keaton's remarkable performances.

# 478

Beatty's paralyzing perfectionism has caused him to direct only two other films since winning the Oscar for Reds. It's easy to see why. It's so precisely accomplished, so elegantly constructed, so downright monumental in its artful realization that it's hard to conceive of the proper follow-up. It's a study in perfect balance: epic without being overblown, fiercely political without becoming didactic, measured and thorough without ever dragging (despite a runtime comfortably over three hours).

my 2nd favorite film

Documentary style. Interesting History, lovely cinema, very looong

An intellectual bohemia that couldn't withstand the real world. The love affair parallels the politics in that sense.

Brilliant. Moving. Historical.

The type of movie that seems like it generated by a computer programmed to win Oscars. Storaro's cinematography is serviceable, but not nearly as impressive as his other work. Louise Bryant is somewhat unsympathetic and never really seems to be anything more than Reed's accessory. There's some good dialogue and Beatty points out the failings of the Communist Revolution. But nothing about the film really excels, except Maureen Stapleton's performance.

This film blew me away. Best biopic I have seen. I might be biased because I'm very interested in left-wing politics. But this movie is more than that. It's a love story, epic, sometimes even almost surreal. And it's a good history lesson. On technical side we have perfect direction and acting by Beatty and cinematography by Storaro, not to mention great supporting cast.