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Reds (1981)

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Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Reviews Counted: 34
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 2

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 0

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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 7,871

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Movie Info

Few filmmakers other than Warren Beatty would have had the courage and vision to fashion an epic film from the life of famed American Communist John Reed (who is the only US citizen buried in the Kremlin). The film is an effort to humanize a political movement that has previously been depicted on screen in a series of unsubtle and prejudicial broad strokes. The film begins in 1915, when Reed (Beatty) makes the acquaintance of married Portland journalist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). So

PG, 3 hr. 15 min.

Drama, Romance, Classics

Directed By: Warren Beatty

Written By: Trevor Griffiths, Warren Beatty

In Theaters: Dec 4, 1981 Wide

On DVD: Oct 17, 2006

Paramount Home Video

Reds Trailer & Photos

Cast

Warren Beatty
John Reed
Diane Keaton
Louise Bryant
Edward Herrmann
Max Eastman
Jerzy Kosinski
Grigory Zinoviev
Jack Nicholson
Eugene O'Neill
Paul Sorvino
Louis Fraina
Maureen Stapleton
Emma Goldman
Nicolas Coster
Paul Trullinger
M. Emmet Walsh
Speaker at the Liberal ...
Ian Wolfe
Mr. Partlow
Bessie Love
Mrs. Partlow
R.G. Armstrong
Agent
Roger Baldwin
Witness
Ramon Bieri
Police Chief
Phil Brown
Joseph Buloff
Joe Volski
Norman Chancer
Barney
Brenda Currin
Marjorie Jones
Noel Davis
Macintyre Dixon
Carl Walters
Will Durant
Witness
Kathryn Grody
Crystal Eastman
Stefan Gryff
Alex Gomberg
Gene Hackman
Pete Van Wherry
Jerry Hardin
Harry
Gerald Hiken
Dr. Lorber
Jack Kehoe
Eddie
�ke Lindman
Escort
Christopher Malcolm
C.I.P. Party Member
Jack O'Leary
Pinkerton Guard
George Plimpton
Horace Whigham
Stuart Richman
Leon Trotsky
Shane Rimmer
MacAlpine
Tony Sibbald
CLP Member
Roger Sloman
Vladimir Lenin
Pat Starr
Helen Walters
Dolph Sweet
Big Bill Haywood
Jan Triska
Karl Radek
Rebecca West
Witness
Eleanor D. Wilson
Mrs. Reed
William Daniels
Julius Gerber
Harry Ditson
Maurice Becker
George Jessel
Witness
Dave King
Allan Benson
Patsy Pollock
Josef Sommer
Official
Max Wright
Floyd Dell
Gretchen Rennell
Nancy Foy
Jane Jenkins
Marion Dougherty
Adela Rogers St. John
Leigh Curran
Ida Rauh
Art Shields
Witness
Hamilton Fish III
Witness
Arthur Mayer
Witness

Critic Reviews for Reds

All Critics (36) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (38) | Rotten (2) | DVD (25)

As for Beatty, Reds is his bravura turn.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment (1)

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

Reds is an extremely fine film.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Vincent Canby

New York Times

Top Critic

Warren Beatty's political epic features superlative performances and speaks to the inner-rebel in each of us.

August 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Oscar Guy

| Comment

Wesley Lovell

Oscar Guy

Filled with rich ideas.

January 10, 2010 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Vittorio 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.

August 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star

| Comment

Phil Villarreal

Arizona Daily Star

Reds proves that movies on this huge of a scale can be full of ideas and do not have to rely on action alone.

March 29, 2007 Full Review Source: Scene-Stealers.com

| Comment

Eric Melin

Scene-Stealers.com

an 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!)

January 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette

| Comment

James Sanford

Kalamazoo Gazette

Viewed today, it's not so effortlessly impressive, but it's still an uncommonly intelligent and quite entertaining film.

January 5, 2007 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

One of the most ambitious Hollywood films of the 80s, Reds is trying to do too much (historical epic, political expose, and romance), but the insertion of interviews with contemporaries of John Reed is original and poignant.

December 23, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

It's tragic that more American filmmakers aren't taking risks like this at a time like this.

October 18, 2006 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com

| Comment

Chris Cabin

Filmcritic.com

A left-leaning pretty boy's distended, black book ramblings.

October 11, 2006 Comment (1)

Keith Uhlich

Reverse Shot

A handsome, unsatisfying DVD of a handsome, unsatisfying epic.

October 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Dan Callahan

Slant Magazine

Marred by historical bluff and jarring cutesiness, 'Reds' is nevertheless the sweeping melodramatic stuff of classic moviemaking.

October 9, 2006 Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews

| Comment

Donald J. Levit

ReelTalk Movie Reviews

Were it not for the antique clothing and music, you wouldn't know that the dialogue isn't taking place in the 21st century.

October 6, 2006 Comment

Eric Lurio

Greenwich Village Gazette

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.

September 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Dan Callahan

Slant Magazine

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Audience Reviews for Reds

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Reds is an epic political drama, and Beatty's passionate directing and acting are fun to watch. The fact that Beatty was able to make this film in the 80s is equally admirable. But I find the movie too unquestionably devoted to revering the man and his politics. Sure, the film allows a few questions about his

October 17, 2010

Jim Hunter

Super Reviewer

Warren Beatty wrote, directed and stars in this biopic of John Reed, a journalist who became entrenched in Russia's communist revolution and also helped inspire the founding of the communist party in America. Despite this being Beatty's movie and role, the film seems to focus more on Reed's love interest, Louise

May 2, 2010

First Last

Super Reviewer

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