No, contrary to what most Cincinnatians believe, Reds is not a documentary about the formation of the first major league baseball team. Actually, it's a sprawling period piece starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton chronicling the Russian Revolution through the eyes of reporter and activist Jack Reed.
Or rather, think of it as an American Dr. Zhivago. That Boris Pasternak epic was remarkable not just because it was a clear-eyed depiction of the events of the Bolshevik revolution (an accomplishment in and of itself considering the lengths to which the Communist government went to excise historical accounts critical of the regime), but because of its intense focus on the uncontrollable disruption of individual lives caused by great (read: important) moments in history.
Substituted for Pasternak's doctor and poet Yuri Zhivago is Jack Reed, an energetic voice of progressivism whose writing skill is matched only by his ability to unite workers and educate the masses. Instead of Pasternak's Lara, the tender nurse that is the love of Zhivago's life, we have Louise Bryant, an empowered yet loyal wife and top-rate reporter in her own right. Both stories depict the disillusionment of the Russian Revolution's initial promise of social justice and subsequent degeneration into a Draconian tyranny.
Reds, as with Zhivago, begins and ends as a love story. Bryant, a quintessential flapper and promising writing talent, leaves a small town life for literary capital New York after beginning an affair with Reed. Though the relationship is able to flourish, Bryant's adjustment to life in the big city proves difficult, especially in the shadow of the mercurial and influential Reed. Clearly, Jack's interest in chronicling and aiding the labor movement in America trumps that of all else - even his eventual wife. The two go through a period of rockiness which includes an affair on Bryant's part with writer Eugene O'Neill (played with a quiet cynicism by Jack Nicholson). After a brief period of separation, the two eventually find their love for one another again as they travel to Russia on the eve of the Revolution. Reconnected, the future looks bright for Jack and Louise, and the world seems to be on the precipice of becoming the Utopian Eden promised under Communist theory.
But this bucolic outlook gives way to the practical difficulties of maintaining a relationship and fueling the reorganization of an entire economic system. Jack is continually drawn into the action of the flailing American labor movement, allowing his literary potential as well as his relationship with Louise to wallow. Eventually, after disagreements splinter the American Socialist Party, Jack decides to smuggle himself into Russia to gain official recognition of his faction through the Commissar. He gets more than he bargains for, being detained indefinitely by the Russians as a party spokesman, despite repeated pleas to be released so he may reconnect with his wife. Though his leaving for Russia frayed the relationship nearly beyond repair, Louise takes off to recover her husband, and the final phase of the movie depicts the attempts of the two to find each other amid the murk of the great historical turmoil.
Despite the length and sweeping nature of Reds, Beatty's steady direction (yes, he directed, starred in, and actually wrote Reds as well) is able to keep things from feeling bogged down - not an easy accomplishment with a 3.5-hour-long movie. This is also a credit to the script, which, though containing an awful lot of talk (much of which on the decidedly un-engrossing subject of Communist theory) moves steadily forward and draws vivid and fascinating portraits of Reed, Bryant, and their relationship.
Reds approaches the complicated question of whether individual human beings can actually steer the course of their own history. Even in his earlier years as a supposedly objective reporter, Jack cannot help but take part in some of the revolutionary activities that he covers, and as his life progresses, he seems to completely disregard any notion of journalistic distance. Louise insists that he has done far more to fuel the revolution through his writing than any of his actions, yet, he is unable to ignore the impulse to try to take some sort control over the future. By the end of the film, the Gods have proven (as they have so many times before), that fate has far more control than one man ever could. Reds seems to assert that rather than look to take hold of the reins of history, the best people can do is stay true to their ideals and to one another.
The ending to Reds does seem truncated and to some extent (and in my opinion, to its detriment) takes the focus off of this overarching question and on to the comparably simple matter of Reed and Bryant's relationship. Still, it reminds us that though so much of what happens to us is completely out of our hands, our ability to connect to one another transcends even the most powerful forces of the universe. Just as with Dr. Zhivago and Lara, the love of Reed and Bryant is able to pierce through the fog of the Russian Revolution and prove that the humble divinity of mankind can occasionally overpower fate, if not drive it.
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