The Postman Review
by Gordon Hamachi (hamachi AT selectica DOT com)January 13th, 1998
*** 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'."
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.
