While working my way through Warren Beatty’s directorial filmography over the past year, one final film remained my personal Everest. Blame it on the absurdly long run time, blame it on a bad trip with Doctor Zhivago several years ago, but whatever the reason, Reds (Disc/Download) always seemed like a steep hill to climb. However, current events have finally inspired me to strap on my boots and hit play. Verdict: now is the perfect time to dive into a movie about political activism, revolutions, and why men can’t be trusted to run anything.
Starring Beatty as journalist John Reed, and Diane Keaton as his love interest and fellow writer/activist Louise Bryant, Reds is a sweeping epic about the rise and fall of the Communist movement on both the American and international stages. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of the Socialist Party, the I.W.W, or the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 because there’s just too much to wade through. What I do want to concentrate on are the relationships between the main characters and the fantastic performance by Keaton. She gives many of the film’s best speeches, particularly one in which she decries the toxic, doomed relationship between religion and politics. Her romance with Reed seems heavily founded on shared ideals rather than shared emotions, which explains why she’s able to have an affair with Eugene O’Neill (played wonderfully by Jack Nicholson). We may be expected to root for Beatty and Keaton, but in my opinion, it’s Nicholson and Keaton who have the real chemistry. Leave it to Nancy Meyers to recreate their white linen beach stroll in Something’s Gotta Give twenty years later; after all, she knows what women want.
When John Reed travels to Russia, he’s advised to try an appetizer of salted lemon. It sounds gross (particularly when paired with a raw onion!), but if he’d listened, we might have been spared the scene of Beatty’s scurvy-ridden gums. I’m not taking any chances this winter. While watching Reds, I recommend drinking a Dirty Lemon Martini.
Dirty Lemon Martini
2 oz Vodka
1 oz Dry Vermouth
1/4 oz Preserved Lemon Brine
Preserved Lemon slice (garnish)
Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Stir to chill, then strain into a glass. Garnish with a small sliver of preserved lemon.
Reds would have made a great limited series, and in fact I ended up splitting the movie into two nights of viewing. I complain frequently about bloated run times, but the truth is, you can’t tell the story of the Russian Revolution in two hours. I don’t even think you can tell it in three, though Warren certainly tries. Even though the events depicted here took place a century ago, that’s really not so long when you stop to think about it. Looking around at the anger, anxiety, and pessimism that I and so many others are feeling, it seems like no time has passed at all.
Cinema Sips 