The Postman Review
by Curtis Edmonds (blueduck AT hsbr DOT org)March 16th, 1998
by Curtis Edmonds -- [email protected]
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-
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Curtis "BlueDuck" Edmonds
[email protected]
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"
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