Reds and other movies
Mar. 8th, 2013 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerIt is spring break! And you know what that means: it is time to watch ALL THE MOVIES!
Today I watched Reds, which has all the stigmata of a labor of love, not least of which being the flaw common to labors of love: the writer/director/editor/whoever clearly could not bear to cut anything, which means that the first, uh, hour and a half could probably have been chopped down to fifteen minutes. That would be more than sufficient to establish Louise Bryant and Jack Reed's basic dysfunction: they can't reconcile their belief that they should be independent free lovers with the fact that, actually, what they really want is to be monogamous adventurers who write books.
Doesn't that seem revolutionary enough for anyone? But no, they refuse to admit to themselves what they really want and therefore just keep hurting each other.
Honestly, I think structuring a movie about Greenwich village in the 1910s and the Russian revolution as a historical romance focused on Louise Bryant and Jack Reed's romance is probably a mistake. Also, making one movie about both of them and wasting half of it on Louise and Jack means that neither gets very fully explored. There ought to be two miniseries, ensemble pieces exploring the politics and personalities of both: the political and artistic ferment of Greenwich Village and the assault on it after World War I, the heady enthusiasm of the early Russian revolution and its devolution thereafter.
Both would be tragedies, but the giddy wonderfulness of it - all these characters who think they're remaking the world - would be worth it. (Plus, I would looooove to see the fic. Politburo fic, everyone! Like Founding Fathers fic, except more murder-y!)
***
I keep changing my mind about which movies to see this week. Right now in my queue I have The Green Hornet, Amazing Grace (18th century English politics movie! PLEASE BE AMAZING), As You Like It, and The Road to El Dorado, but I keep changing it. Like, maybe I should finally get around to Rozema's Mansfield Park? Or Gone with the Wind?
Today I watched Reds, which has all the stigmata of a labor of love, not least of which being the flaw common to labors of love: the writer/director/editor/whoever clearly could not bear to cut anything, which means that the first, uh, hour and a half could probably have been chopped down to fifteen minutes. That would be more than sufficient to establish Louise Bryant and Jack Reed's basic dysfunction: they can't reconcile their belief that they should be independent free lovers with the fact that, actually, what they really want is to be monogamous adventurers who write books.
Doesn't that seem revolutionary enough for anyone? But no, they refuse to admit to themselves what they really want and therefore just keep hurting each other.
Honestly, I think structuring a movie about Greenwich village in the 1910s and the Russian revolution as a historical romance focused on Louise Bryant and Jack Reed's romance is probably a mistake. Also, making one movie about both of them and wasting half of it on Louise and Jack means that neither gets very fully explored. There ought to be two miniseries, ensemble pieces exploring the politics and personalities of both: the political and artistic ferment of Greenwich Village and the assault on it after World War I, the heady enthusiasm of the early Russian revolution and its devolution thereafter.
Both would be tragedies, but the giddy wonderfulness of it - all these characters who think they're remaking the world - would be worth it. (Plus, I would looooove to see the fic. Politburo fic, everyone! Like Founding Fathers fic, except more murder-y!)
***
I keep changing my mind about which movies to see this week. Right now in my queue I have The Green Hornet, Amazing Grace (18th century English politics movie! PLEASE BE AMAZING), As You Like It, and The Road to El Dorado, but I keep changing it. Like, maybe I should finally get around to Rozema's Mansfield Park? Or Gone with the Wind?
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Date: 2013-03-08 11:40 pm (UTC)TRUTH