MovieChat Forums > Reds (1981) Discussion > Reds is the greatest film ever made

Reds is the greatest film ever made


If I were to show aliens from outer space a film that would best represent human cinema as a whole, I would show them Reds (1981). This film is everything. It's an epic, but it's intimate. It's a bio-pic, but it's about a huge cast of characters. It's a drama, but it's also humorous. It's a romance, but it's not contrived or formulaic. It's a feature film, but it has documentary elements. It's overtly political, but tells a compelling narrative. It has major Hollywood stars, but the actors fully embody their characters. It's highly artistic, but fully accessible to a mainstream audience. Everything about the film is done to the highest degree of quality, from the cinematography and the writing to the musical score and acting. And most importantly, the story is about something and proves that the best films are the ones that challenge our way of thinking, fully engaging our minds in the process of entertainment. It's a film that challenges the status quo, and succeeds with flying colors. In my book, Reds represents the best of what has been achieved in cinema so far and is the greatest film ever made.




A Progressive Review of Mass Media and Culture: http://fedrev.net

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I don't know about that. I found it kind of boring.

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Couldn't agree more FedRev. Excellent little write up. For me, it's impossible to place one single film above all the rest. But there is a special class of a select few which hover above; set apart from the others. Reds is one of them for certain. Truly great.

I looked at your website and it's excellent. Nice write up of the Oscars this year, by the way. While I've been aware of Redgrave's activism/positions, I'd never seen Chayefsky's retort to her acceptance speech that you referenced. Wow... What a jackass. And no doubt he wouldn't've had an issue w/ what Redgrave said had he agreed w/ her positions. Him telling her that "a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed" sounds an awful lot like him giving her an etiquette lesson. A lesson on how to behave "civilly." Well... Well-behaved people, let alone women, seldom make history. And Chayefsky can shove his well-behaved manner up his ass. His criticism of her sounds an awful lot like the reasons cited for the firing of Steven Salaita last year from UICU. i.e.: "civility" on campus, etc... When will people learn...

I may be submitting a film review to your fedrev site in the next week or two. I've wanted to write it up. Just haven't gotten around to it. If I actually do it, it'll likely fit in w/ the stuff on fedrev.

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Nice review
I will definitely check out this movie
As soon as I find it

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I couldn't agree more. And moreover it is a movie that has aged wonderfully well. It could have been made last year. There is no stylistic peculiarity that clearly defines the age or decade when it was made. It is simply timeless.

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[deleted]

"The Crowd" is better.

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shut up, commie bastard.

Top 250 Foreign Movies
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls076565151/

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I was happy to read your positive comments about this film; it certainly is one of my favorites. I love the Witnesses, the folks who actually knew Jack Reed and Louise Bryant; they had a realism to the film without pushing the movie towards a documentary.

It's a movie about people, places, ideas and history. There was a time when folks talked about ideas and concepts with deep intellectual passion a passion for ideas. The fact that this film was released during Reagan's Presidency and was so well received is itself a miracle. I think it was released the same year as Ragtime, my other favorite film from that year.

Flawed? Perhaps. Indelible? Absolutely!

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