The Postman Review
by James Sanford (jasanfor AT MCI2000 DOT com)December 29th, 1997
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
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
