USA,
1981, 194 min
Shown in 2002
CREDITS
- dir
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Warren Beatty
- prod
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Warren Beatty
- scr
-
Warren Beatty, Trevor Griffiths
- cam
-
Vittorio Storaro
- editor
-
Dede Allen, Craig McKay
- mus
-
Dave Grusin, Stephen Sondheim
- cast
-
Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino
- source
-
Paramount Classics, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90038. FAX: 323-862-1103.
-
COMMENTS
Warren Beatty appeared in person as the recipient of the 2002 Akira Kurosawa Award
OTHER
An epic set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, Reds is the real-life story of one man’s struggle to bring socialism to America. Beatty plays journalist and idealist John Reed (author of the classic Ten Days That Shook the World) and Diane Keaton is writer Louise Bryant. When Reed meets Bryant, she’s a dentist’s wife shocking her Portland neighbors by posing for nude art photos. Instantly captivated, Reed invites her back to Greenwich Village with him where they plot to change the world with a group of artists, radicals and poets including Emma Goldman (Maureen Stapleton won an Oscar for her role) and Eugene O’Neill (Jack Nicholson). Inspired by the revolution in Russia and convinced that socialism is the answer to the plight of the working class, Reed follows his convictions to Moscow party meetings, a Finnish jail and anti-American demonstrations in the Middle East. Ultimately, communism will break his heart, but Louise remains true to the end. Cowritten, directed and produced by Beatty, who also gives a poignant and empathetic performance as Reed, Reds made Beatty the only director in history to be nominated in all four categories for Academy Awards for two films (the first was Heaven Can Wait). He won the Oscar for best director.
—Jennie Yabroff
FACTOID #81
Anjelica Huston was the first recipient of the Piper-Heidsieck Award in 1991. When Huston received the prize from the champagne maker, she joked, “Can I drink it?”
