Reds

• Film Title: Reds
• Original Year of Production: 1981
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Director: Warren Beatty
• Cast: Warren Beatty-Jack Reed, Diane Keaton-Louise Bryant, Edward Herman-Max Eastman, Jack Nicolson-Eugene O'neill
• Prodcuers: Dede Allen, Warren Beatty, David Leigh Mcleod and Simon Relph

The film Reds is meant to emulate the life of journalist and radical communism advocate John “Jack” Reed. Jack was born to a wealthy Oregon couple in 1987. He became famous for covering the Mexican Revolution in the pages of Metropolitan Magazine. Shortly thereafter Jack became heavily involved in Communist rhetoric. The film is heavily tied to Jack's involvement in Communism, especially towards the end when Jack and Louise Bryant travel to Russia to witness the toppling of Russia's Provisional Gorvernment and the rise of Bolshevism in 1917. However, a majority of the film consists of Jack and his relationship with young feminist reporter Louise Bryant. At the beginning of the film Jack Reed begins to develop a strong bond with Louise Bryant and they eventually move to New York City together and become a couple. This leads into clips of love, infidelity, and reconciliation on both their parts. However, the film also focuses on the early Feminist movement with Mary Louis Bryant. In the film Louis Bryant was a strong and independent writer that was competing for recognition of her talents in a male dominated news-world. In the film, Mary Bryant leaves to Europe in order to seek work as a war correspondent and Reed followers her and makes a promise to take her to Russia with him, under platonic terms. He stated that she would be referred to as “Miss Bryant” and not “Mrs. Reed”. According to Christine Stansell’s review of the film, “The pace of the film inevitably slackens, and Reds compensates by shifting to the proven dramatic motif of star-crossed lovers separated by the epic of war.”(p.194) The truth as to whether or not this was in reality true or not leaves a lot of doubt in this love story. In many Hollywood films, these certain elements are usually manipulated to coax the audience into certain scripted feelings about the story. Although the Reed and Bryant love affair seems to be exaggerated other events of the film do present some elements of truth. For example, when Jack Reed tries to rally up support for socialist ideas of change amongst factory and wage laborers, the events did in fact take place and were frowned upon by some members of law enforcement, and the upper-class, or the owners and benefiters of the means of production. In addition, one must delve examine the era in which the film was emulating.  

This film takes place during a turbulent time in history. The competing ideas of conservatism, liberalism, and communism were in the minds of many influential men and women during the early years of World War One. The example of Russia and the falling of the Romanov Dynasty and the rise of Bolshevism was the world in which this movie was trying to emulate.  However, the film does posses some funny moments thrown in with a Hollywood twist. In the film, Jack was talking to one of his elderly family members about raising money for his socialist magazine The Masses. In response, the elderly man asked if that were some sort of religious magazine. Truthful, who knows, but it does make for a more entertaining flick. The main point that this film tries to convey is that of change in the form of political and social change. As stated by Rosenstone, “commitment to changing the world through politics is both admirable and very American, but you must change the politics of the personal as well as the politics of the world.”(p.106) This point is exactly what the film shows its audience when Jack rallies around the country in person, and writes about the injustices of the Bourgeoisie against the Proletariat, before moving to Russia to serve the causes of the Communist Party.  According to historian Bonnie Smith, " the Revolution took place in two arenas: one was in the provisional government, composed essentially of moderates; the other was in the factories and in the streets."(149) Reed was shown in the film as trying to catalyze support amongst workers in factories and intellectuals for radical ideas of class unity and the destruction of the ruling class who controlled the means of prodcution in heavily industrialized America during the ealry twentieth century. An interesting and radical idea that eventually led him to become a member of the Communist party in Russia; allowing Reed to honored as being the only American buried in the Kremlin.

This film can be considered a "domestic drama"(102) in the eyes of Rosenstone. This type of film is ususally centered around stories of love and dramatic elements. However, this film also falls into the category of a biography of both Reed's and Bryant's lives and careers. In spite of the term biography, Reds like other Hollywood biographies usually contain more fiction and less reality of actual events and relationships. One could argue that by nature the biography could never be historically accurate, especially in the avenue of film. For example, Reds is over three hours long. Although some parts, such as Jack and Louis reporting on the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia did actually occur, one cannot know for certain the events  and details that actually happened that made up the film. In the case of film, where the audience needs constant visual and cognitive stimulation in order to keep their attention, the realities of what really transpired, if known, are not always synonymous with a predetermined plot. The directors and writers of these biographical "domestic dramas" are not historians. Their professions are based in the arts, and do not share the burden of recreating the past through analytical investigation of the past in its respective context. Therefore, the film, although entertaining, must be judged as a piece of art rather than a piece of history.
Although I categorize biographical domestic-dramas as relating more towards the arts than the field of historical study, other information such as the time when the film was produced adn released can tell us about the historical period and its context. Reds was filmed during 1980's, and the end of the Cold War between the USSR and the United States. Although relations between these two nations were on thin ice the film does not seem to be a reflection of that. In fact, the film could be seen as actually favoring Jack Reed and his visions of politics following in line with  the ideas of Marxism. The film never actually portrays the good aspects of America’s Federal Republic system.This could be the result of the writers and directors wanting to focus more on the romantic love affair of Jack Reed and Louis Bryant than the politics of the times. Seeing how this is an American cast and made film, during the heated Cold War, one could imagine why the film took its path towards drama and romance rather than the usual review of the politics of the time.