Reds (1981)

"That’s a masterpiece that always moves me, every time I see it. I love epic films, I love epic theatre — bold, big stories, with intricate character work, but truth, you know? At the base of it all, something true. Whether it’s a raging spirit or style to the hilt."

"Warren Beatty directed, about the life of John Reed. Jack Nicholson is Eugene O’Neill, one of his greatest performances. It combines everything I love about movies: great acting, unbelievable romance, and politics. Sondheim did the music, Elaine May helped write it. It’s kind of the bar. I just think of what cinema can accomplish. It’s like a great, great novel, only better. And with one of the great endings of all time. Just so beautiful."

"I always see this every couple of years to remind myself how difficult movie making can be and how much hard work and vision can be rewarded. What Warren Beatty did in that to star, produce, write, and direct was just one of the most colossal achievements in moviemaking. And how he was able to offer such an incredibly strong performance and direct himself and create one of the most heart-wrenching scenes at the train station with Diane Keaton, I look at that and wonder how the hell did he do that? How does any human pull that off, let alone get the tens of millions of dollars for a movie about an American communist at the turn of the 20th century? On so many levels, that movie leaves me in awe."