
American journalist John Reed journeys to Russia to document the Bolshevik Revolution and returns a revolutionary. His fervor for left-wing politics leads him to Louise Bryant, then married, who will become a feminist icon and activist. Politics at home become more complicated as the rift grows between reality and Reed's ideals. Bryant takes up with a cynical playwright, and Reed returns to Russia, where his health declines.... (Full plot summary below)
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American journalist John Reed journeys to Russia to document the Bolshevik Revolution and returns a revolutionary. His fervor for left-wing politics leads him to Louise Bryant, then married, who will become a feminist icon and activist. Politics at home become more complicated as the rift grows between reality and Reed's ideals. Bryant takes up with a cynical playwright, and Reed returns to Russia, where his health declines.
Leave your thoughts about Reds.
| Arizona Daily StarPhil VillarrealVittorio Storaro, who won an Oscar for his cinematography, keeps the long film moving at a healthy pace, mixing static shots with subtle camera movement, never showing off or detracting from the story. |
| The New York TimesVincent CanbyReds is an extraordinary film, a big romantic adventure movie, the best since David Lean's ''Lawrence of Arabia,'' as well as a commercial movie with a rare sense of history. |
| Chicago ReaderDave KehrWarren Beatty's shapely 1981 epic, based on the life of radical journalist John Reed, is a stunningly successful application of a novelistic aesthetic—a film that makes full and thoughtful use of its three-and-a-half-hour length to develop characters, ideas, and motifs with a depth seldom seen in movies. |
| Rolling StoneMichael SragowNot since Lawrence of Arabia has there been a serious historical movie of this sweep, complexity and intelligence. |
| The New RepublicStanley KauffmannIf no one will learn much about politics from this film, Beatty has nonetheless put the fire of two burning lives in it. There is plenty in it about the risks that commitment entails, but it is about commitment. |
| The NationRobert HatchBeatty, who produced, directed, helped to write and starred in this impressive work, may be forgiven for not having the heart to cut it. |
| Filmcritic.comChris CabinIt's tragic that more American filmmakers aren't taking risks like this at a time like this. |
| Kalamazoo GazetteJames Sanfordan epic love story ... As a teenager I saw it four times in the theater (which I now find pretty astonishing, considering the movie is well more than three hours long -- I had a lot more free time in 1981!) |
| Associated PressBob ThomasBeatty gives the performance of his lifetime as the erratic, possessed Reed, and his grasp of the direction of an epic film is truly astonishing. |
| Washington PostJudith MartinWarren Beatty's Reds is an extraordinary picture. Three hours and 19 minutes long, it is occasionally rambling and repetitious, but nearly always intelligent and engrossing. |