Reds

Reds (1981) is Warren Beatty's sweeping historical drama — watch it online on iFILM. Beatty directs and stars as John Reed, the American radical journalist who witnessed the October Revolution in Petrograd and wrote Ten Days That Shook the World from the middle of it. Diane Keaton plays his companion and fellow writer Louise Bryant; Jack Nicolson appears as playwright Eugene O'Neill, hovering at the edge of their complicated partnership.

Reed and Bryant meet in Portland in 1915, both already impatient with the roles laid out for them. They move to Greenwich Village, argue about socialism and monogamy in roughly equal measure, then end up in Russia at exactly the moment history turns over. What Reed sees there consumes him. He brings it back to America and tries to light the same fire — with consequences neither of them anticipated.

At three hours and fifteen minutes, the film earns its running time. Beatty chose to frame a political story through the grain of a private relationship, and that instinct landed him the Oscar for Best Director. Vittorio Storaro's cinematography took another, and Maureen Stapleton picked up the Supporting Actress prize for her turn as anarchist Emma Goldman. Stream Reds (1981) online on iFILM.