"The curious notion that Hollywood or its European counterparts could produce a truly and unequivocally progressive spectacle…continues to be as much a facet of Hollywood myth and its policy of containment as it is a popular utopian leftist dream." Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum's assertion in 1982 that "revolutionary" blockbusters are an impossibility (see also: 2025's One Battle After Another) is a suggested discussion topic after CFS's screening of Reds, Warren Beatty's extravagant romance about American journalists and activists Louise Bryant and John Reed (witness to the Russian Revolution and author of Ten Days That Shook the World). While the film's radicalism is questionable, it remains a glorious feat of filmmaking: a masterfully edited epic full of humanity, community, and wit (Elaine May was an uncredited contributor to the screenplay), where sexual liberation and revolution take place amid the joys and tedium of daily life, fiery domestic arguments, braising cabbage in the bathtub. Shockingly light on its feet even at 194 minutes, with a remarkable cast including Beatty as Reed and Diane Keaton as Bryant (in one of the most sensitive turns of her career), alongside Jack Nicholson as Eugene O'Neill and Maureen Stapleton as Emma Goldman. Scattered amongst the stars are interviews with real-life radicals, unnamed "witnesses" infusing the film with life and complicating it in ways that a lesser director would never have allowed. Bring your friends, your enemies, your lovers, and come prepared for a debate. - Text courtesy of the Chicago Film Society

35mm from Paramount 

Preceded by: Willie Howard & Al Kelly in "Come the Revolution" (1941) – 3 min – 16mm from the Chicago Film Society collection