A Soviet propaganda epic where the American hero is... actually the hero? Plot twist.
The second part of Soviet filmmaker Sergei Bondarchuk's epic biography of John Reed. It is October 1917 and the American journalist has found himself and his wife, Louise Bryant, in Petrograd on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution.
Production
Massive crowd scenes that probably used actual Red Army battalions.
Direction
Bondarchuk's operatic bombast makes every speech feel like a finale.
Costume
Louise Bryant's fur collection deserves supporting actress credit.
Director
Sergey Bondarchuk
Franco Nero
John Reed
Sydne Rome
Louise Bryant
Bohdan Stupka
Alexander Kerensky
Valeriy Barinov
Nikolai Podvoisky
Irina Skobtseva
Countess Panina
Olegar Fedoro
Colonel Polkovnikov
Boris Belyakov
Nikitin
Liliya Gurova
conductor
Nikolai Boyarsky
General
Yuriy Sokolov
Eremeev - newspaper employee
Sergey Dorogov
Red Army soldier
Aleksey Emelyanov
engineer (uncredited)
Elena Finogeeva
Alexandra Kollontai
Yulyen Balmusov
Felix Dzerzhinsky
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bondarchuk spent seven years on this Reed trilogy, which Soviet authorities eventually buried for being too sympathetic to Americans.
This was the USSR's answer to Warren Beatty's 'Reds' (1981), released the same year—Cold War cinema had dueling John Reed biopics.
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