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Reds (film)

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Reds
Reds movie poster
Directed byWarren Beatty
Written byWarren Beatty
Trevor Griffiths
Produced byWarren Beatty
StarringWarren Beatty
Diane Keaton
Jack Nicholson
Paul Sorvino
Maureen Stapleton
Gene Hackman
Edward Herrmann
CinematographyVittorio Storaro
Edited byDede Allen
Music byStephen Sondheim
Dave Grusin
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
December 4, 1981 (USA)
Running time
194 min.
LanguagesEnglish
Russian
German
Budget$35,000,000 US (est.)

Reds is a 1981 film starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton. It centers on the life of John Reed, the Communist, journalist, and writer who chronicled the Russian Revolution in his book Ten Days that Shook the World.

Besides Beatty and Keaton, the movie stars Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski, Jack Nicholson, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, Gene Hackman, Ramon Bieri, Nicolas Coster and M. Emmet Walsh. It was adapted by Warren Beatty, Peter S. Feibleman (uncredited), Trevor Griffiths, Elaine May (uncredited) and Jeremy Pikser from Reed's memoir. It was directed by Beatty.

The film also features, as "witnesses," interviews with the celebrated radical educator and peace activist 98-year old Scott Nearing (1883-1983), author Dorothy Frooks (1896-1997), reporter and author George Seldes (1890-1995), and the American writer Henry Miller (1891-1980), among others. Warren Beatty was awarded the Oscar for Best Director for the film. It was also nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Chariots of Fire.


Cast

Actor Historical character
Warren Beatty John Silas Reed
Diane Keaton Louise Bryant
Edward Herrmann Max Eastman
Jerzy Kosinski Grigory Zinoviev
Jack Nicholson Eugene O'Neill
Maureen Stapleton Emma Goldman
Nicolas Coster Paul Trullinger
M. Emmet Walsh Speaker - Liberal Club
Gene Hackman Pete Van Wherry
Eleanor D. Wilson Mrs. Reed
Max Wright Floyd Dell
George Plimpton Horace Whigham
William Daniels Julius Gerber
Dave King Allan Benson
Stefan Gryff Alex Gomberg
Roger Sloman Vladimir Lenin
Stuart Richman Leon Trotsky

The Witnesses

Some are very well known, others not so.

Awards

The movie won Academy Awards for:

and was nominated for:

Trivia

  • To date, this is the last film to receive Oscar nominations in each of the four acting categories. No film since Reds has achieved this feat.
  • Warren Beatty began filming interviews with the "witnesses" in the early 1970s.
  • Gene Hackman performed in an unbilled cameo role as Pete Van Wherry. The scene in which he tells Jack Reed that Louise Bryant no longer works for him took exactly 100 takes to shoot. Hackman vowed that he would not shoot a 101st take and he did not.
  • In a 1981 interview with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd on a talk show (included as a bonus on the 'Best of Saturday Night Live: John Belushi' DVD), Belushi and Aykroyd mentioned 'Reds' as one of their favorite recent movies.
  • The movie was not released on DVD until 2006.
  • Beatty wanted to cast his friend Nicholson as Eugene O'Neill but was unsure if the actor would accept the part since Beatty felt it wasn't a big role. When Beatty had a conversation with Nicholson, he described the character as someone who could take a woman away from John Reed (Beatty). Nicholson said the only person who could pull that off was him and he signed onto the film. Although upon accepting the role, Nicholson had just finished work on The Shining and producers on the film had observed his appearance as being messy and overweight. But as soon as filming began, Nicholson had changed his appearance and shed a considerable amount of weight for the part.
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