From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:36:09 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!Cabal.CESspool!bofh.vszbr.cz!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: David Sunga Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Postman (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 29 Dec 1997 05:09:31 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 58 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <687bab$ge5$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer20.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 883372171 16837 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10352 Keywords: author=sunga X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer20.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9724 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1714 The Postman (1997) Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars Debatable 2.5 stars Some people may like it 3.0 stars I liked it 3.5 stars I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga Directed by: Kevin Costner Written by: Eric Roth, Brian Helgeland, from a David Brin novel Starring: Kevin Costner, Olivia Williams, Larenz Tate, Will Patton Ingredients: Post-Apocalyptic world, lone man, beautiful woman, evil warlord Synopsis: It is the year 2013. The United States has been destroyed and is only a legend. Civilization is reduced to shambles. All that is left are pitiful isolated settlements in the American West and Northwest that pay tribute to a tyrannical warlord named General Bethlehem (Will Patton). Enter a traveling beggar named Shakespeare (Kevin Costner) who does stage performances for food, but is usually unwelcome in the suspicious towns. One day Shakespeare tells a grand lie. To get accepted into town he tells the people at the gates that he is a postman representing the restored government of the United States. To everyone's surprise, people really believe in the restored United States, and this eventually leads to a full scale revolt against evil General Bethlehem, with a reluctant Shakespeare caught in the middle of the situation. Opinion: Costner seems comfortable and in his element here, as far as acting is concerned. This movie seems part WATERWORLD and part DANCES WITH WOLVES, because the time period is post-Apocalypse like WATERWORLD, yet the story takes place in the vast Western wilderness like DANCES WITH WOLVES. Eric Roth, the screenwriter of Forrest Gump co-wrote the script to this movie so of course it features a gosh-darn humble American hero with lots of apple pie and cavalry scenes and flag saluting, and American values. THE POSTMAN tries to be a sweeping epic about a lone wilderness guy perpetuating a Santa-Clause-type lie that revives a fallen America. If you go for a lot of horse-riding and flag-waving, you'll probably like the movie, though it might seem about 30 minutes too long. However, If you're not into all that Americana stuff, you'll find THE POSTMAN watchable, but a bit corny. The way to approach this movie is to watch it as if it's a Saturday afternoon HERCULES adventure. Reviewed by David Sunga December 26, 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:36:13 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: James Sanford Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Postman (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.reviews Date: 29 Dec 1997 05:25:26 GMT Organization: None Lines: 61 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <687c86$h7e$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer29.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 883373126 17646 (None) 140.142.64.1 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10366 Keywords: author=sanford X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer29.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9739 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1718 THE POSTMAN (Warner Brothers) The postman doesn't deliver on Christmas Day, and "The Postman," Kevin Costner's Christmas gift to America, doesn't deliver much in the way of entertainment, regardless of what day it is. A bloated, overwrought telling of a simple --and jaw-droppingly corny-- tale, this attempt at a sort of sci-fi Western duplicates the thre-hour-plus length of Costner's directorial debut "Dances With Wolves" (1990), without summoning up one iota of the emotional power of the earlier film. Instead, "The Postman" is a textbook study of a director falling in love with a truly bad idea and desperately struggling to turn it into a playable movie. But despite giving a passable performance in front of the camera, Costner is not quite a skilled enough director to elevate "The Postman" to the epic status it so badly wants to claim. Adapted from David Brin's novel and set in 2013, following a second Civil War, "The Postman" depicts life in an America in which the government has fallen and a merciless warlord who calls himself General Bethlehem (Will Patton) roams the land with his "racially pure" troops, terrorizing the scattered settlements in the West, which seem --judging by the shabby wardrobes on view-- to be populated exclusively by people who have forgotten how to sew. When a nameless drifter (Costner) who has escaped Bethlehem's army pretends to be a postman to get free meals and hospitality on the road, his masquerade inadvertantly snowballs into a crusade against the General and his men. The spirit of America is resurrected along with the mail service, and, when he's not opposing tyranny, The Postman plays post office with frontier babe Abby (Olivia Williams), who first begs him to impregnate her and finally falls madly for him. If that all sounds more than a bit hokey, wait until you see how it plays out. Although screenwriters Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland have made ocassional stabs at trying to inject some humor into the proceedings, "The Postman" is the most heavy-handed piece of jingoism since director John Milius' 1984 camp classic "Red Dawn." Again and again Costner offers up crowds of downtrodden souls who beam and look skyward as The Postman delivers stirring speeches such as "Times seem tough right now, but suff's gettin' better"; at one point, a little girl, inspired by this mail-carrying messiah, bursts into a chorus of "America The Beautiful" and is quickly joined by the throngs around her. Even worse is a scene that shows anxious townsfolk applauding The Postman as he delivers the mail (no one seems to realize that with the postal service restored they'll son be receiving 15 years worth of overdue bills) and a laughably drawn-out vignette in which a little boy hands off a letter to The Postman as he gallops by on horseback. Director Costner shows a decided weakness for slow-motion, both in the action sequences and in the would-be tearjerking portions of the film, and the technique doesn't always enhance the scene. It should also come as no surprise that "The Postman" features a virtual gallery of Costner close-ups, all elegantly lensed by cinematographer Stephen Windon, whose camerawork is one of the picture's major strengths: here's Kevin by moonlight; Kevin through frosted glass; Kevin in mountain stream. Next to this, Barbra Streisand's "The Mirror Has Two Faces" looks like the work of a wallflower. Obviously Costner believes in this material and wants to share the qualities he sees in it with the masses. But "The Postman" collapses under the weight of its own preachiness and ponderousness. Treat it as you would a rancid fruitcake delivered by mail: Mark it "return to sender" and stay as far away from it as possible. James Sanford From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:36:18 1998 From: "Yen, Homer" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Postman (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 1 Jan 1998 18:42:40 GMT Organization: None Lines: 77 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <68go30$8q2$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer39.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 883680160 9026 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10431 Keywords: author=yen X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer39.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!news-peer-east.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9708 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1712 "The Postman" Doesn't Deliver by Homer Yen (c) 1997 It's funny - ironic really, how we take for granted one of our most established and tried and true forms of communications. I'm not talking about phones or faxes or e-mail. I'm referring to that great system that we call the postal service. In the mid-1800s, the brave riders of the Pony Express helped to bring the population of the United States closer together through mail routes that were both long and treacherous. A lot can be said of these intrepid riders, these tireless couriers, these postmen. We can easily romanticize an era when the postmen and the delivery of mail helped individuals embrace an entire nation. Oddly, there seems to be less of an imagination at work here in Kevin Costner's epic fable. Set in the not-so-distant future, after a great war that has decimated America's infrastructure and dissolved the American government, survivors are caught in a loose feudal system where the strong prey on the weak and take the spoils of their victory. Will Patton plays the evil warlord. As General Bethlehem, he leads his army, raids towns and demands tribute in the form of goods and men, whom he will train to become soldiers under his command. Costner, after being unwillingly conscripted into Bethlehem's army, soon escapes, stumbles upon a mail truck, and devises a plan to ensure that he survives as he continues to drift from town to town. Using his flimsy Shakespearean acting background, he conjures a fictional tale of how the US government has been restored, and how he is delivering the mail. The first town that he comes upon embraces him. "You're a Godsend," says an old woman. Amid the ruins of civilization, the Postman takes on a symbol of hope and renewal, something so desperately needed to counterbalance the tyranny unleashed by Gen. Bethlehem. Although the Postman is just an act, it touches, in particular, Ford Lincoln Mercury (Lorenz Tate) who wants to help usher in a new era of hope by being a Postman as well. His presence also attracts towngirl Abby (Olivia Adams). Through the rest of the movie, the legacy of the Postman grows, primarily through the efforts of FLM. The wandering Costner frequently tells townspeople that "things are getting better all the time," but is really only interested in a free meal. However, the growing illusion of a restored United States not only begins to slowly move Costner's eccentric and loner character, but also threatens the viability of Bethlehem's feudal principles. Bethlehem wants the Postman dead and mercilessly tries to hunt him down. The biggest problem with The Postman is that it brings to us another chapter of a loner who allies himself with a loose band of people that, against overwhelming odds, must defeat the enemies that symbolize oppression. We saw this eloquently done in the superior Dances With Wolves, and once again in Waterworld. The Postman doesn't stack up to either of these two. There are some good scenes that epitomize the slim threads of hope that the townspeople have. For example, just before men are brutally murdered in a firing line for not disclosing the whereabouts of Costner, one of them, who has always been cynical of Costner's intent, shouts, "Ride, Postman, ride!" But this is a 3-hour marathon that doesn't give us enough to believe in to sustain our attention for so long a period of time. There are shots of the post-apocalyptic wilderness; there is a slowly developing bond between Costner and Abby, who turns out to be a strong frontierswoman; and there are lots of scenes where Costner stares out into the horizon (probably thinking to himself that this is really a long movie). The final confrontation between the Postman and Bethlehem has 2nd Class stamped all over it. Throughout the movie, there seemed to be many times when greatness was just aching to come out, but ultimately the story was not nearly as rich (or as short) as it could have been. I give credit to the filmmakers for trying to give us something deep and moving. Unfortunately, the Postman left me feeling a little disgruntled. Grade: C From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:36:22 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.algonet.se!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Laurie D. T. Mann" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Postman (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Jan 1998 21:09:59 GMT Organization: CityNet, Inc. Lines: 72 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <68otr7$qm6$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: lmann@city-net.com NNTP-Posting-Host: homer09.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 883948199 27334 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10457 Keywords: author=mann X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer09.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:9743 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1719 I really wanted to like this movie. I loved the original David Brin novella, which was written in the early '80, and even Brin himself has said that the shooting version of the script wasn't too bad. The Postman was one of the most frustrating movies I've ever seen. Parts of it are close-to-brilliant, but it's terribly bogged down by too much Kevin Costner and by a very weak editing. There are times, especially early in the film, when "too much Kevin Costner" is very appropriate. The opening shots of Costner wandering in a desert wasteland and being overjoyed when he comes across an ancient 76 gas station to plunder is a fine bit of moviemaking. Setting up the lead as a somewhat sympathetic borderline-con-man works well. These early bits exhibit subdued humor - that you really need a sense of humor to survive in a post-apocalyptic society. The movie starts to bog down when Costner is captured by the Holnists. Costner, the director, felt it necessary to hit the viewer over the head by the violence and nastiness of the Holnists. It was frankly unnecessary. (Yes, it was necessary to show some of this, and to indicate some of the pecking order. However, information conveyed in this sequence telegraphed the ending 2 1/2 hours before the ending finally happened.) Once Costner has escaped from the Holnists and stolen the clothes off the skeleton of a postman, he doesn't immediately "become" "the postman." He's taken the mail as a diversion, and suddenly realizes he can use the mail to talk his way into getting dinner at a very suspicious town. That was a good bit, but catastrophe soon follows the Postman whereever he goes. Still, he's managed to inspire other survivors to think about delivering the mail. One particularly pointless sequence sends the postman and a woman he's impregnated into the woods for a few months. While it was necessary to the plot get him out of the way for a while, just simply having the occassional narrator say "And he stayed away for a few months, regaining his strength...." could have covered the situation. When the postman returns to what's left of civilization, he finds one of his followers has turned delivering the mail from a hack to a real service. The teenager, "Ford Lincoln Mercury," has banded together with other people, mostly teenagers, to restart communication between the scattered towns. It's a wonderfully-directed sequence, in which the postman realizes he's little more than a myth and it's the kids who are the true believers that things can get better. Costner's oldest daughter plays "Ponytail," one of the mail carriers, and she does a great job. Since things seem to be going well, that must mean the Holnists have to come over and cause trouble. Massacres ensue and Costner tries to disband the mail carriers to save their lives. The film gets even more muddled here, though there are some amusing sequences up on a high dam that's become a town ruled by Tom Petty ("Were't you famous once?" Costner asks). Finally, Costner leads an army against the Holnists, and guess what happens? In The Postman, it's almost as if different people directed different aspects of the film. The camera work was generally pretty good and the feel of a post-apocalyptic America is fine. Costner, the director, keeps making movies that open strong and ultimately fail. I enjoyed most of Dances With Wolves, but I thought the last half hour of the movie came close to ruining the whole thing for me. With The Postman, the directoral problems were much more apparent much earlier. I was noting unnecessary scenes as I was watching them. -- Laurie D. T. Mann *** lmann@ISPcity-net.com (Delete all caps to spam-bust the E-mail address.) Dead People Server: http://www.city-net.com/~lmann/dps From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jan 30 16:36:27 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.wildstar.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Gordon Hamachi Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.movies.reviews Subject: Review: The Postman (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Jan 1998 06:18:53 GMT Organization: Selectica, Inc. Lines: 63 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <69f10d$58u$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: hamachi@selectica.com NNTP-Posting-Host: homer06.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 884672333 5406 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10570 Keywords: author=hamachi X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer06.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1726 rec.arts.movies.reviews:9842 *** out of **** After seeing The Postman myself, I have a hard time understanding why the critics have been so savage with it. While not brilliant, The Postman is a good, solid work with some brilliant moments. After being led to believe that the theater would be empty, I was surprised to walk into the Saturday night late show and find it 80% full. Although it was dark in there, I didn't see anyone gagging, vomiting, falling asleep, or stalking out in disgust. The reviews prepared me for an unending sequence of slow motion footage. Surprise! The scene where he grabs the boy's letter is the only one that comes to mind. There may have been others; this one sticks out only because it was supposed to be so insufferable. Especially since this scene has significance to the end of the movie, I don't see the problem in emphasizing it. It would also make great trailer material. And what's all this I hear about the lousy pacing? I think too many reviewers have seen so many fast paced action adventures that they have no appreciation for a movie that takes its time telling a story. Everything fits together quite well. For example, the surreal touches. The sounds and images at the '76 station. The freed zoo lion as the Postman, aimlessly wandering the wastelands. The ending of the movie is cleverly foreshadowed in the scene where the Holnist follows the trail of blood into a thicket, expecting to find a cowering, helpless victim. Instead, he finds the lion, now fierce and dangerous. Another example is the much derided time Abby and the Postman spend in the woods. This is essential to the Postman's development. She makes the hard choices, like butchering the horse, so they can survive. He claims to be helpless. He remains immobile until, in an emergency, he discovers that he can get up and help. The whole movie is about a populace that thinks it is helpless, but discovers that it can get up onto its feet. We tend to like our heroes to be strong, intelligent, capable, and larger than life. The thing that must irritate a lot of reviewers is that the movie goes to great lenghts to make it clear that the Postman is not particularly smart, adept, or ambitious. He's not a very convincing con-man. He's even a lousy Shakespearian actor. If left to himself (and his cabin were not torched), he would be content to sit on his backside for a long time. The point of the movie is that common folks have it within themselves to do uncommon things. Although The Postman has been criticized as too long, my gripe is that it wasn't long enough. It urgently needs more footage of the final confrontation. I enjoyed the reference to Dances With Wolves when the Postman rides his horse across the enemy's battle lines; however, after all the audience has been through, the battle is bit of an anticlimax. The struggle could have been longer, more personal, and more intense. Perhaps it is just that my expectations going in were so low. For whatever, reason, I found The Postman far more enjoyable than I was prepared for. To echo the sentiments of a previous posting, see it yourself and decide. "What does it mean?" "I think it means, 'Live free or die'." From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Apr 3 21:43:46 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!news-peer-east.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Curtis Edmonds Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Postman (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 16 Mar 1998 06:04:02 GMT Organization: Hollywood Stock Brokerage & Resource Lines: 99 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6eifci$qmc$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer03.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 890028242 27340 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #11503 Keywords: author=edmonds X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer03.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:10801 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1817 by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org When you say the words "Frank Capra" and "Christmas movie", most of us are hard-wired or one response: It's a Wonderful Life. But there is another Frank Capra Christmas movie that gets overlooked as a result; Meet John Doe, starring Gary Cooper. Cooper plays a down-on-his-luck baseball pitcher, suffering through the Great Depression. A newspaper reporter, who has fabricated a populist political column under the name of John Doe, hires Cooper to play the part. Cooper ends up doing too good of an acting job, and finds himself at the head of a political movement -- which is soon sabotaged by rich and powerful forces. I mention the movie partly because I really like it and recommend that you rent it, but mostly because Kevin Costner has remade it, and called it The Postman. There are lots of bad things about The Postman: enough bad things that you could argue that it deserved every bad review it got -- and it got plenty. However, I'll confess that I enjoyed The Postman, not for what it is, necessarily, but for the sake of what it tries to be. Costner -- who directs, produces, and stars -- may have created an overlong vanity picture, but at least it's a well-intentioned overlong vanity picture, and that's worth a good review. The Postman's premise is that some nameless calamity has destroyed the cities, leaving the plague-infested population to cluster in small towns. The only political power is the power of the Rod and the Axe, wielded by a group of paramilitary white separatists led by General Bethlehem (Will Patton). (The group is called the "Holmists", and a misunderstanding had me scratching my head through the first half of the movie -- why are they calling themselves "the homeless"?) Itinerant actor Costner is captured by Bethlehem's band of raiders, and is indoctrinated in their merciless political philosophy. Costner manages to escape Bethlehem's rag-tag army, but has the bad luck to do so during a snowstorm. He finds shelter in an abandoned postal truck, and once morning comes, he appropriates the uniform and letters he finds inside, seeking to trade them for food. What happens next is straight out of Meet John Doe: he starts telling lies for food. Costner tells the impoverished and news-starved Oregon small-town residents that he's a postman, a representative of the newly restored government, and that a new President and Congress have been elected. Just as in Meet John Doe, the lies are believed enthusiastically. And just as the hope-starved Depression populace in Capra's fable starts a string of "John Doe Clubs", the restless teenagers of the post-apocalypse start their own postal routes, in imitation of their legendary hero, The Postman. It's at this point that the narrative starts to go all to pieces, and the movie disintegrates into a predictable contest of good versus evil. But there are a few good moments, where an utterly dumbfounded Costner tries to address his troops, and where he tries to keep them from saluting him all the time. Costner is a fine actor, combining Gary Cooper rectitude with Jimmy Stewart charm -- and he needs every atom of talent he possesses to help dig The Postman out of the ditch. He's a much better cinematographer than a director, though. Just as in Dances With Wolves, the scenery is diverse and fantastic, but the interactions between characters are weak at times. Patton, sporting a Civil War general's beard, is blustery and good as the murderously efficient General Bethlehem. As for the rest of the movie -- well, it's a mess. The other characters aren't well written, and the performances are uninspired. There are a couple of scenes that have absolutely no purpose whatsoever than to make Costner look like a hero -- and for some reason, these scenes include Costner friends (Tom Petty, in a cameo) or family (two of the Costner children find roles.) And where the no-way-out ending of Meet John Doe was touching and romantic, the ending of The Postman is as bad as it can be. I'm not a fan of movies ripping off other movies. I think it's a mistake for Hollywood to spend more time on overbudgeted ripoffs like The Jackal or Blues Brothers 2000 while making it difficult for original films like The Apostle or Good WIll Hunting or As Good As It Gets. But if you're going to rip off another movie, I think you at least ought to pick a movie that's worthy of the homage. The Postman is at least ripping off one of my favorite movies, and I've got to give Costner credit for that. (But be sure to rent Meet John Doe, OK?) Rating: B- -- Curtis "BlueDuck" Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org The Hollywood Stock Brokerage and Resource http://www.hsbr.org/brokers/blueduck/ "There's one thing that is forbidden on journeys by sled, and that is whimpering. Whining is a virus, a lethal, infectious epidemic disease. I refuse to listen to it." -- Peter Hoeg, "Smilla's Sense of Snow" From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Feb 11 16:29:33 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: tlcclp@aol.com (Christian Pyle) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: The Postman (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 30 Jan 1999 17:31:43 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 61 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <78vflv$k7s$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 917717503 20732 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #16380 Keywords: author=pyle X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:15576 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2247 THE POSTMAN (1997) a review by Christian Pyle When I first heard that Kevin Costner was making a movie called "The Postman," I thought, "An American version of 'Il Postino?' Starring Costner? God help us!" When I found out that it was not a remake of "Postino" but an postapocalyptic epic, I thought, "'Landworld?' Please, God, make him stop!" As it turns out, "The Postman" is a much better film than I had expected. Despite being set in 2013, the movie is, at heart, a western: a band of thugs terrorizes peaceful villagers; a wandering hero opposes the bandits and inspires others to fight back. The setting, however, allows that familiar plot to take on greater significance: American society has collapsed due to plagues and wars, and survivors live behind barracades in isolated villages. The struggle of a dead society to be reborn has a grand quality and deserves the epic scale Costner grants it. Costner's nameless character, a wandering actor, rides in from the vast wasteland and is soon shanghaied into the service of General Bethlehem (Will Patton), a former copy-machine salesman turned bandit king. Our hero escapes and discovers the body of a dead postman. Taking the uniform and bag of mail, he passes himself off as a representative of "the Restored United States." He is shocked at the hope that he inspires in the people he meets. One young disciple, Ford Lincoln Mercury (Larenz Tate), organizes a full-scale postal service. Ford spreads The Postman's message of hope until Bethlehem finds that the once-meek villagers are beginning to resist his rule. As war breaks out between Bethlehem's army and the postal workers, Costner's character steps into the legend he created and goes from self-centered loner to leader of the revolution. His lie of the Restored United States becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. "Postman" is an odd blend of a bleak setting and a message of wide-eyed optimism (sort of "Sergio Leone meets Frank Capra"), but its treatment of hope and renewal is compelling. What could have been another knock-off of "The Road Warrior" (like "Waterworld" was) surprises the viewer with a sensitively told story of nobility emerging from rubble. Tate is the stand-out in the movie's large cast. Ford Lincoln Mercury (self-named) is the polar opposite of O-Dog, Tate's character in his debut film, "Menace II Society" (1993), and Tate makes Ford's innocent belief in hope as convincing as O-Dog's cynicism and brutality. His performance sells the movie. Interestingly, as Tate moves from his usual street-smart roles to youthful optimism, the soft-eyed Patton, who usually plays nice guys, proves a disarming villain. Olivia Williams makes her film debut as The Postman's love interest, Abby. When they first meet, Abby asks him to father her child because her husband is sterile. Predictably, the husband is soon eliminated by the bandits, and Abby is thrown back into the company of the hero. However, their relationship develops slowly as the emotional conflicts of both characters are explored (she, torn by grief, guilt, and anger; he, resisting his destiny). "The Postman" is Costner's best work thus far. Perhaps that alone gives us hope for the future . . . Grade: B+ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Sep 13 11:07:02 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: pm@postviews.freeuk.com (pm agapow) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: The Postman (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 10 Sep 1999 06:08:54 GMT Organization: Infocalypse Lines: 83 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7ra79m$r7m$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer30.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 936943734 27894 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #20440 Keywords: author=agapow X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu User-Agent: MacSOUP/2.4 (unregistered for 102 days) Originator: grahams@homer30.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:19683 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2454 [video] "The Postman" A Postview, copyright 1999 p-m agapow Once again, Kevin Costner spends far too much time, money and seriousness on a slim tale. He plays an itinerant actor who reluctantly becomes a symbol of freedom. But then, everyone thinks they're an actor in this film. "The Postman" (or, as it is called on the arthouse circuit, "Ill Postino") was a project with "deadmeat" engraved across its forehead even before it left the studio. A po-faced film of epic intent, helmed by an actor everyone seems to love to hate, it is a worthy successor to "Waterworld". But is it really as bad as all that? Sort of. This is how it is. Kevin Costner is a scavenger, wandering the deserts of a post-comfy era. And not for the last time, you think about how far we have fallen where a world-famous actor is called "Kevin". But anyway, the Kevster finds an abandoned garage and lounges there for a while, talking to himself. "Things I like about my ass," he muses. But he's not talking about the famed Costner tush (which obviously was holding out for a more challenging role) but the mule that is our hero's only friend. Kev drags his ass down to a local town. It is revealed that he earns his living moving from grungy town set to grungy town set, doing Shakespeare for the locals. (Of course, there's only one of him, so he has to stick his ass on stage.) But just after Kev has finished acting with his ass, the bad guys ride into town for a bit of casual terrorism and extortion. Kev tries to sneak his ass out of town, but the army spots his ass. Conscripted into the army, Kev is imprisoned and can only stare longingly at his ass. He suffers as the army whips his ass. If only he could get free, he could save his ass. Then the sadistic army commander serves the recruits mule for supper. And so it is that everyone gets to have a piece of Kevin's ass. Enraged, Kev escapes and wanders into the desolate badlands. Travel is slow, for he has no ass. The opportunity for ass jokes having passed, the movie gets a lot duller after this point. And the story hasn't even started, with the hour mark looming on the horizon and as yet no mention of the eponymous postal employee. Actually, when the original David Brin story was written, perhaps postmen could be regarded as symbols of a smoothly running and civil society. Today of course, they represent something different - ill controlled homicidal rage and the need for tighter gun control. So who better to take back a country from its oppressors? Suffice it to say, Kev-baby eventually dons the uniform of a dead postie and thus bluffs his way into a suspicious independent settlement. There he is greeted as a symbol of hope and incidentally gets to have a medium level sex scene. The remainder of the picture (and there's an awfully big remainder) concerns how this brings hope back to the people of the USA, while simultaneously sapping it from the audience. It's not unwatchable, but it is the sort of film you follow out of the corner of your eye while reading mail, doing the dishes, playing pinochle or - in fact - doing anything else. I'm now going to attempt to rescue some message from this mess. "The Postman" is awful but it is certainly not much worse than a lot of films that do respectable box-office. It has a strong female lead, an ambiguous hero and the central story is small enough and cute enough to make a good film. So how did it go wrong, and why is it so reviled? I can only shrug. Maybe someone should have stepped in over the complaints of the auteurs and said "enough is enough." (Certainly that would have had a positive effect on the recent output of George Lucas and James Cameron.) Maybe the critics fed off each and condemned the picture without a chance. (As happened with "Heavens Gate".) Perhaps the process of making a Hollywood film is essentially stochastic, more a series of accidents than good judgement. I can only shrug again. [*/misfire] and revision for undergraduate economics on the Sid & Nancy scale. "The Postman" Released 1997. Directed by Kevin Costner Starring Kevin Costner, Will Patton, Larenz Tate, and improbably Tom Petty. -- Paul-Michael Agapow (pm@postviews.freeuk.com)