It took Warren Beatty's ferocious energy to even attempt this chronicle of the Russian Revolution, focused through a radical love affair, and come up with a final product that is so close to the project's original intentions. In telling the story of American journalist John Reed (author of Ten Days That Shook the World, which is regarded by many as the definitive account of the events) and his on-off romance with left-wing activist Diane Keaton, Beatty surrounded himself with massive talent: British writer Trevor Griffiths, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, composer Stephen Sondheim, the great editor Dede Allen and a scene-stealing Jack Nicholson as playwright Eugene O'Neill. Beatty won a well-deserved Oscar for best director but this intelligent epic should have garnered so many more.

An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed (1887-1920), who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant (1885-1936).