Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Edward Herrmann in the Warren Beatty movie ‘Reds’

A love triangle mixes with the epic historical drama of the life and career of socialist, journalist and activist John Reed today. Reed reported on the Russian Revolution in his book Ten Days That Shook the World, which held a large sway in the Warren Beatty directed and written movie Reds (1981). Trevor Griffiths also wrote Reds along with Beatty.

(From left, Edward Herrmann as Max Eastman, Warren Beatty as John Reed and Diane Keaton as Louise Bryant in the Warren Beatty movie Reds).

The movie Reds begins when suffragist and journalist Louise Bryant, married to another man at the 1915 encounter, meets radical John Reed for the first time at a lecture in Portland, Oregon. The intellectually engaging meeting convinces Bryant, portrayed by Diane Keaton, to join Reed, as portrayed by Warren Beatty, in Greenwich Village, New York City, New York. The womanizing ways of Reed is at odds with the idealism of his writing for Bryant.

(Maureen Stapleton as Emma Goldman in the Warren Beatty movie Reds).

The opportunity to meet Emma Goldman and Eugene O’Neill in the district folds into conversations on writing and the radical feelings of the group. O’Neill and Bryant develop intimate feelings for each other in this period, as the strikes of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) alongside the St. Louis, Missouri Democratic presidential convention stirs Reed‘s passions even further. The subsequent marriage of Reed and Bryant hits the difficulty of Reed‘s infidelity, prompting professional, interpersonal and political turmoil between the pair. Goldman and O’Neill were portrayed by Maureen Stapleton and Jack Nicholson.

(Jack Nicholson as Eugene O’Neill in the Warren Beatty movie Reds).

The story of John Reed‘s health, losing a kidney in the midst of this, leads to another instinct to head to Russia as the possibility of what became the Russian Revolution. Professionally reuniting for that trip, Bryant too experiences the ideals of that revolution. The love the pair once experienced reignites, at least until Reed and other communist sympathizers in America break ideologically. Practitioners of the Bolshevik ideology in the Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia put Reed to work as a propagandist. With help from O’Neill, Bryant aims to reconnect with Reed while the two are kept from having any legitimate communication. The parallel storylines of history and love were messy and difficult. The way both stories come to resolution reflect the successes of the story.

(From left, Paul Sorvino as Louis C. Fraina and Jerzy Kosinski as Grigory Zinoviev in the Warren Beatty movie Reds).

There is so much more to the tale of Reds than what this introduction to the story of the movie does in more than three hours of movie. Airport Friend rates the movie in the top ten movies he has ever seen. I grant the movie Reds and directed and partly written by Warren Beatty 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Amor Towles and the book ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’

Ever a fan of the effect of story, we turn today to the second published novel of Amor Towles. The 2016 novel A Gentleman in Moscow approaches the notions of human feeling, diminishing distinctions of class and the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, which began during World War One. This work of historical fiction incorporates social customs of the Soviet Union as written by Towles, a writer from the United States.

(Amor Towles wrote A Gentleman in Moscow. His books reportedly have collectively sold more than 4 million copies while being translated into over thirty languages).

The fictional Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov serves as the namesake of A Gentleman in Moscow, having been born in St. Petersburg, Russia. As was the custom before the Russian Revolution, Rostov had lost both of his parents to cholera before joining the aristocratic family of one of his father’s military friends. At age eleven, Rostov joined the family of Grand Duke Demidov. Rostov would later be sent out of country to wound the suitor of Alexander Rostov’s sister, who had broken his sister Helena’s heart. Upon returning home from Paris, France after the revolution, the Count was arrested.

(Amor Towles speaking about A Gentleman in Moscow, the second of his published novels. Much of the books action takes place in the Soviet Union).

A Bolshevik tribunal conducts a trial for Count Alexander Rostov, arguing that as a social parasite that Rostov should be found guilty and shot. A revolutionary poem attributed to Rostov saved his life, with Rostov instead being sentenced to house arrest at his current residence, the Hotel Metropol in Moscow, Russia. Rostov is moved within the hotel, near The Kremlin of Moscow, where he is moved from his luxury penthouse to comparatively austere servant’s quarters.

(An alternate book cover for Amor Towles‘ historical fiction book A Gentleman in Moscow).

The notion of permanent residency at a luxury hotel might not be seen as much of a punishment for some, even on tenuous yet politically motivated charges. The restricted movement coupled with diminished circumstances indeed forces Count Alexander Rostov to engage with those with whom he does have access. Rostov’s gift for conversation on a wide range of subject offers the means for observing the world from a unique vantage point and through a distinct prism. Much of this fare undoubtedly proves slow for many readers who might find things such as the fascination with princesses for nine-year-old Nina Kulikova a bit tedious.

(From left, Amor Towles with his wife, Maggie Towles. Amor Towles wrote the novel A Gentleman in Moscow).

The book introduces an accidental yet real opportunity for Count Alexander Rostov to become a father when, in 1938, the married Nina Kulikova follows her husband Leo to the Gulag, where he has been sentenced to five years of hard labor. The presumption is that the crime that Leo is found guilty of follows a path similar to that of Alexander Rostov. Regardless, Nina follows Leo to a labor camp by the Eastern Siberia Sea and the Arctic Ocean, leaving her daughter Sophia with Alexander with the expectation of calling for the couples’ daughter later. Neither Nina nor Leo were heard from again, enabling a charming story that brings about compelling and interesting questions at the conclusion of A Gentleman in Moscow.

(Amor Towles wrote A Gentleman in Moscow, which was released in 2016).

Themes including parental duty, friendship, philosophical freedom, love, and more are the abstract reasons to find pleasure in the reading of A Gentleman in Moscow. A look into the historical notions of how social structures are constructed through time and place, as in the historical fiction part of the book, also offer the positives that can draw people into the narrative. If this type of fare works for you, then allow me to wholeheartedly recommend this book. I grant A Gentleman in Moscow as written by Amor Towles 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Monday, November 1, 2021