THE POSTMAN DELIVERS BUT NOT FIRST CLASS
The Postman A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1997 By Michael Redman
*** (out of ****)
[Warning: My opinion of this film is definitely in the minority of reviewers perhaps because it hits so many of my cinematic buttons: post-apocalypse stories, hope in a desperate situation, grassroots uprisings and Kevin Costner. Even worse, I thought that "Waterworld" was watchable. Read the following with those particular grains of salt.]
It's the year 2013 and things have fallen apart. Due to a world war in the late nineties, the resulting three-year winter and a devastating plague, life in the former United States has been reduced to isolated primitive fiefdoms.
Although this is the future, it looks like a western. As the film opens, Kevin Costner (his character's name is never revealed) is wandering the Utah wastelands with only his mule Bill for company.
Giving extraordinarily bad Shakespearean performances in exchange for food and lodging, Costner is an outsider in a land of outsiders. Running into even worse luck, he is forcibly conscripted into the racially pure Holnist army of General Bethlehem (Will Patton). The rag-tag retro-futuristic cavalry is the descendent of militia groups and is even called the "clan"
After a brutal boot camp, he (and you can see this coming a mile away) escapes. Taking shelter in a wrecked Postal truck, he liberates the uniform and mail bag from the skeleton in the cab who no longer has a use for either. Once he reaches Oregon, land of beautiful women, bright youngsters and rock and roll; he pretends to be a representative from the "Restored Congress Of The United States of America".
This scam gets him inside the walled towns where the promise of mail delivery renews optimism in the hearts of the inhabitants. Food and other opportunities come his way in the form of spirited Abby (Olivia Williams) who wants him to father a child because her husband is sterile. Shortly her husband is killed by Bethlehem and she and The Postman (as Costner is referred to for the rest of the film) become a reluctant item.
Although The Postman knows he's running a fraud, the concept of renewed communications sets the kids' imagination afire (especially Ford Lincoln Mercury (Larenz Tate), his second-in-command) and they form a new Pony Express dedicated to getting the mail through. The revived Postal Service doubles as an army to fight the Holnists' tyranny. The Postman has become a symbol for hope in a Rube Goldberg manner.
Although the movie appeals to my sensibilities, there are so many things wrong with it that they can hardly be counted. It's derivitive of Costner's own "Waterworld" and Clint Eastwood westerns. There's little here that we haven't seen dozens of times before.
The film is often down-right corny. A scene where The Postman is on horseback and grabs a letter from the hands of a bright-eyed child is embarrassing in its slow-motion banality. The film's final few minutes should have been left on the cutting room floor.
Despite the film's excessive three hour length, several things are never explained. What was the war about? How did civilization change so rapidly? Everyone has horses: where did all they come from? The "Law Of Eights" that Bethlehem lives by seems to have its origins somewhere beyond the film, but where? Are we to believe that the rest of the world is in the same shape and hasn't made their way west to help or conquer?
There is some jumbled symbolism here that doesn't appear to make sense. The tale is obviously saying that communication can defeat evil in much the same way that the internet has the potential to topple governments, but beyond that there are some oddities.
The evil army is called "Holnists" which sounds coincidentally like the New Age "Holism", but why? Is it another coincidence that it takes place in 2013, just one year after many ancient prophesies (including the ending of the Mayan calendar) predict a new world for mankind? Why is the general named "Bethlehem"? There seems to be some reason for that, but what?
Sometimes the movie feels like a joke. An army of Postal workers armed with guns? Considering the headlines of recent years, it takes a tremendous leap of faith to cheer for these guys.
It's even more difficult to accept those re-powering the federal government as the heroes. Given the current climate of the country and the distrust of big government, it's asking a lot for the audience to get behind the film's nationalism.
Even with its numerous flaws, the movie all comes together, if only for those who have the same weaknesses that I have. It's doubtful that "The Postman" is going to find much of an audience, but a few of us are going to have a good time. Besides we're all awaiting the fall of civilization caused by the Year 2000 millennium computer bug.
(Michael Redman has written this column for over 22 years and would like to announce that the "Michael Redman" arrested near Indianapolis last week for accepting an illicit package from Federal Express is, to the best of his knowledge, not him. Perhaps this similarly-named person should have used Kevin Costner's Postal Service.)
[This appeared in the 12/30/97 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be reached at redman@bvoice.com] -- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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