Update 5/5/15 - 12/27/21: Six and a half years later, and Reds is finally back in print. What's more, it's a new 4k restoration as part of the Paramount Presents line. Woot!
Reds is the true story of journalist/poet/political activist John Reed, who wound up playing a huge role in the Bolshevik Revolution. It starts out with, and continually returns to, documentary interviews with real people from Jack's life, recounting their memories of him, but the bulk of the film is played out by a fantastic cast including Beatty, of course, along with Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson (as Eugene O'Neill), Maureen Stapleton, Paul Sorvino and Gene Hackman. The tagline for the film was, "Not since Gone With The Wind has there been a great romantic epic like it," and I daresay this film fully lives up to that hyperbolic claim. And perhaps unlike Gone With the Wind, Reds is just as powerful and moving today as it was the year of its release. Everything from the complex politics to the tragic romance flourish in this lavish production, with a very memorable score by Stephen Sondheim and a directorial style that actually feels reminiscent of classic Woody Allen, but on a grander scale.
So it sucked that you couldn't find a copy for a reasonable price for so long. I've still got copies of both US blu-ray editions here, as well as the original DVD release (surprisingly, the 25th Anniversary was also the film's DVD debut). But hopefully we can forget about all that and just pick up the new 40th Anniversary edition. All it needs to be is affordable - check! - and definitive... Check?
1) 2006 DVD; 2) 2006 BD; 3) 2008 BD; 4) 2021 BD. |
See those black edges? That's the overscan stuff I was talking about. |
It's a nice little upgrade in the audio department, too, though still a bit disappointing. The DVD and blu both gave us the option between the original mono and a modestly rejiggered 5.1 (plus a French dub on the DVD and French and Spanish on the BD). Unfortunately, the old BD audio was as lossy as the DVD. And this new version? Well, the 5.1 is now lossless DTS-HD, but unfortunately the mono is still lossy. Oh well. At least it's a step in the right direction.
All three discs also offer optional English subtitles, with the 25/27th BDs also offering French and Spanish, and the 40th giving us both standard and HoH English subs.
Extras-wise, all editions are the same. They're all mixed together into one, feature-length (about 75 minutes) documentary, which is a very satisfying, all-you-need-to-know look back at the film, primarily based on a very substantive interview with Beatty himself. But it also involves interviews with Nicholson, Sorvino, Paramount execs... basically everybody except Keaton. It's great. There's also a "DVD trailer" (yes, even on the 40th edition), which is a newly made trailer that's actually pretty corny. It's a small thing, but one can't help wondering what happened to the original theatrical trailer?
I originally ended this post asking Paramount for an updated 35th Anniversary edition next year. Beatty was making his big comeback film, his first film since 1998, so I said the two projects could surely drum up some glowing publicity and sales for each other. Well, maybe Paramount did the right thing by waiting. But ultimately they've done the right thing, putting this masterpiece back into print, and making it a superior edition to boot. Hey, they even took my suggestion of putting the film on one BD50 instead of two BD25s (the 40th is still a 2-disc set, but now that second disc is just the extras), sparing us the hassle of switching discs mid-film. I'm a little bummed about the lossy mono mix, but overall, this is better than I was expecting. Maybe for the 50th, we can get a UHD with lossless mono and an interview with Diane Keaton? Then we'd really be set and could focus back on the important work of raising the masses out of their accustomed lethargy and the subterranean fires that continue to smoulder.