Reds (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Reds is a 1981 American epic film that was co-written, produced, directed by and starring Warren Beatty. It centers on the life of John Reed, the revolutionary communist, journalist, and writer who chronicled the Russian Revolution in his book Ten Days that Shook the World. In 1920, less than two years after writing his classic of romantic reporting, and a few days before his thirty-third birthday, Reed died in Moscow of typhus and a stroke. Beatty stars in the lead role alongside Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson.
The supporting cast of the film includes Edward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, Gene Hackman, Ramon Bieri, Nicolas Coster and M. Emmet Walsh. The film also features, as "witnesses," interviews with the 98-year old radical educator and peace activist 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.
Beatty was awarded the Academy Award for Best Director for the film. Reds was also nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Chariots of Fire.
In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten" — the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres – after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Reds was acknowledged as the ninth best film in the epic genre.
