The Postman Review
by Tim Voon (stirling AT netlink DOT com DOT au)February 14th, 1998
THE POSTMAN 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
3 :-( :-( :-( for poor mail service
I don’t understand Kevin Costner’s fetish for legendary, bigger than life heroes. We look at his work DANCES WITH WOLVES where ordinary soldier becomes legendary Indian liaison officer. In PRINCE OF THIEVES he is a legendary social worker. In WYATT EARP, a legendary police officer and WATERWORLD is no exception with a legendary mutant. So it’s not surprising that a picture titled THE POSTMAN starring Kevin Costner, will be about a legendary postman. Sorry Kevin, but I’m getting tired of all this legendary stuff. I just like my mail delivered without much ado legendary fuss.
Costner who directs this movie, has tried to recreate an epic as big as the American Civil War in the future. He fails miserably especially when he tries to draw on that all American patriotic spirit, by burning a couple of US flags and getting one of his kids to sing the national anthem. This doesn’t draw much of an emotional response, especially if you’re foreign and carry little American sentiment. Still it is difficult to believe that in the year 2012, 14 years from now, one will be faced with a post-apocalyptic way of life. Chaos runs amuck. The survivors of this 3rd WW holocaust now live in small towns isolated from each other. Evil shows itself in the form of a Hitler like General with an organised army of mercenaries. A man rises against the General’s totalitarian rule, the legendary POSTMAN.
The problem seems to arise from overcrowding the story with too many events. This results in a patchy story line with garish errors. An example is what I call the re-instillation of the ten commandments scene. Rule number 1: ‘No more killing’, the postman yells aloud, and this is followed by Rule number 8: ‘Live and Let live’. Hello, but isn’t rule number 1 the same as rule number 8 and what about rules 2 to 7? The middle of the movie is filled with the recreation of ‘The Pony Express’, before a North meets South ending where the geriatric/adolescent army confronts the mercenaries. There is no great finale, just a fist fight showing who is the better man. If I wanted a history lesson I could have gone to the public library, and if this is the way that legends are made, I’d rather not.
My final comments are severe. THE POSTMAN is unoriginal, poorly written and unimaginative. An over all waste of precious time and money.
Timothy Voon
e-mail: [email protected]
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.
