Romancefest 2011: Reds

Goddamn, Warren Beatty is good looking. And he wrote and directed REDS. It hardly seems fair.

REDS tells the true story of American radical journalist John Reed, who found himself right in the middle of the Bolshevik Revolution and wrote a book about it. Inspired and idealistic, he returned to the States and attempted to make it in extreme leftist politics, only to end up imprisoned in Finland and abandoned in Russia.

But, this is Romancefest, so there has to be a romance, right? Yep. Diane Keaton plays Louise Bryant, also a (struggling) journalist, who leaves her husband to join Reed in his adventures. At first Beatty and Keaton try to out-cool one another with their free love and open relationship, but of course they both turn out to be lying to themselves and can't help but hurt each other's feelings, get jealous, fight, separate, and get back together. By the time they really realize how much they need each other, the entire world has gotten between them and Keaton must stow away on a ship and cross deserted snowy plains just to find Beatty again.

One problem with Romancefest is that romances tend to be long. At least, longer than other movies. REDS, for instance, is about 3 hours and 15 minutes long. WAY DOWN EAST, which I watched the other day, was 2 and a half hours. This is a stark contrast to Horrorfest, because a lot of the horror flicks tend to be roughly 90 minutes, which, in case you're wondering, is the perfect length for a movie. I'm kidding, a little -- obviously, a movie should be as long as it needs to be -- but still. I'm getting old.

For a lot of the running time, I was wondering how much a love story this really is. Sure, there's a relationship at the core of the movie, and it's more compelling than all the politics. But, as I neared the end of the film, everything started to snap into focus. I guess the problem was, the characters themselves weren't willing to admit they really loved each other until the last minute, so the movie didn't really become a love story until the last minute. Of course, as soon as it does become a love story, it retroactively colors everything that came before it and kind of reaches a level of sublimity that it hadn't reached yet.

The movie has an interesting supporting cast, specifically Jack Nicholson as playwright Eugene O'Neill, who has a brief affair with Keaton. Nicholson is more understated here than in most performances, and is all the better for it. Yes, you still get the crazy vibe from him -- you should, he's Eugene O'Neill. But, it smolders beneath the surface, and, despite the clear influence of booze and depression, Nicholson seems to see the other characters perhaps more clearly than the other characters are willing to see themselves. Maureen Stapleton is also on hand as the anarchist Emma Goldman who, upon being shipped off to Russia and seeing the struggling state of the revolution, throws up her hands in defeat. Even the great Gene Hackman pops up in a couple scenes.

This disillusionment in the wake of idealism, along with the less than perfect portrait of a supposed hero, reminded me a little of one of my favorite movies, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. As far as epics go, I'd say LAWRENCE is clearly the stronger film, including both more spectacle and more depth. But, both feature a strong leader who seeks change, gets it, and then watches it start to fall apart, all the while questioning who he is, what his purpose is, and where he fits. At one point, Beatty asks Stapleton, and I'm paraphrasing, "If you give up at the first sign of trouble, then what was the purpose of your whole life?" The message, I guess, is that some people become so identified with a cause or situation bigger than themselves that they don't know what to do or who they are when the world proceeds without them.

That's one reason personal relationships are important, and this is something Beatty and Keaton learn during the course of REDS. At a certain fundamental point, love becomes more important than ego or politics or the state of the world or even identity.

So, REDS is well acted and beautifully shot, even if it drags a little in the middle.

And, Warren Beatty is really, really, incredibly good looking.