Pretentious , dull. The dialogue reads like an university essay. Beatty and Co are so busy establishing the political background to the movie that they leave the movie behind. The "witnesses" might have seemed like a good idea at the time but they just bring the rather loose plot to a complete standstill and add nothing. Plus they're filmed like it's an episode of 60 minutes. Yeah it might have seemed great at the time , but I doubt Reds is on anyone's top 100 films of all time list. Except maybe Warren Beatty's.