In 1983, director Lawrence Kasdan cast a young actor in the role of the suicide victim in "The Big Chill." He eventually cut down the part to just a few glimpses of the body being dressed for the funeral and we never saw the actor's face. That actor was Kevin Costner and while he later went on to having his face seen and became a big star, many critics claimed the role he played in that early movie was a precursor for the "stiff" acting that would later follow.
Kasdan later gave him a break again in 1985's "Silverado," and Costner was on his way to stardom. Relatively impervious to the critics' attacks, Costner went on to star in some big films such as "The Untouchables," "No Way Out," and "Bull Durham." Then he got this idea in his head that he could direct a film. Not just any film, but a Western epic about a civil war soldier who befriends the American Indians. Oh boy, the critics and industry insiders had a field day, calling the film "Kevin's Gate" (after the disastrous studio busting Michael Cimino film, "Heaven's Gate" -- also a Western).
Despite all of the pre-release flak, Costner surprised everyone and delivered what would become the biggest hit of 1990. "Dance With Wolves" would dominate the Oscars that year, with Costner receiving one win (for directing) and another nomination (for acting). That certainly silenced the critics and Costner went on his merry way with starring performances that were both good ("A Perfect World") and not so good ("Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"). Yet, despite the varied quality of his performances, fans for the most part stuck with him and made the films hits.
Then, in 1995, along came a little film called "Waterworld," directed by Costner's friend, Kevin Reynolds, who directed him in two previous features. After Reynolds left the movie midstream, Costner took over and finished the film as the uncredited co-director. The most expensive film of all time (up to that date), the film made some money, but was generally considered a flop -- partially due to the post apocalyptic plot where Costner plays a half man-half amphibian loner.
All of which leads us to "The Postman," Costner's sophomore directing attempt. The question on everyone's mind is whether "Dances" was a fluke, or whether Costner really knows what he's doing, and could create another critical hit. Considering this is just his second feature, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but this film is a big, overblown dud.
The first strike against it is the plot. Post-apocalyptic stories are nothing new, and besides having already appeared in "Waterworld," many other superior films already existed -- in particular, the first two "Mad Max" movies. Why he chose this picture that's essentially "Waterworld" in the dry west is only known to him, but other than that film and the "Mad Max" movies, none have fared that well critically or financially. And if you're going to do it, at least avoid the now stereotypical trappings of the genre where a loner must battle a traveling group of rogues who have a dictator- like leader.
Strike two comes from the plot element added to the main story and from whence the title comes. (Before we continue, let it be known that we admire the U.S. Postal service, its employees and the hard and demanding jobs they perform. The following is in no way an attempt to disparage the good name of the Postal service or any of its employees.) That said, why on Earth would you make your character a postman? Sure it's all symbolic for the plot as these new "Pony Express" riders reestablish communications lines and the survivor's spirits, but c'mon! Most people's views of postal workers are in the form of the character Neuman from TV's "Seinfeld" or the stories on the local news about an employee "going postal."
While we can accept how Costner's character starts being the Postman -- finding a uniform and wearing it to get some food -- it becomes unintentionally ridiculous when the young characters in the film fervently want to join him. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work and it only gets worse as the story progresses. Additionally, audiences haven't historically been keen on mainstream movies about postal workers -- last year's "Dear God," for instance, was a huge flop.
The third and final strike is that the film just isn't very good. It's long, laborious, and scenes just pop up out of nowhere as if Costner and screenwriters Brian Helgeland ("Conspiracy Theory" and co-writer of "L.A. Confidential") and Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump") figured they could have the Postman simply travel from place to place without any apparent goal other than survival. While that's an important goal, it doesn't make for great drama, and throwing in Will Patton and his team of thugs is too simple to hold the story. While I haven't read David Brin's original novel, I certainly hope and expect that there was something more to it than this.
Part of the problem comes from keeping Costner's character passive for too long during the story. The "deal" in this genre is usually that the loner kicks some serious butt throughout, but the passivity here only makes the story so much slower. We understand that the anger's building inside and will eventually erupt, but it takes too long to do so. This isn't to say that I advocate violence, but if this is the sort of story they're telling, they should play by the rules or they'll have a dud on their hands. To top it off, Costner pulls a William Shatner move straight from the old "Star Trek" series. About to finally kill the bad guy, he suddenly and melodramatically says something to the extent that the killing has to stop and the violence will end here. Captain Kirk would be proud.
Ignoring the melodrama and the entire postal worker plot (which unfortunately constitutes a great deal of it), the movie isn't horrendous and does have same decent moments. The image of a lion standing alone on the great salt flats of the west is impressive and initially makes you think things have really gone haywire, but a line of dialogue later destroys that apocalyptic impression by explaining its appearance. The rest of the film also cinematically looks good thanks to Stephen Windon's camera work and composer James Newton Howard's score is also effective.
Costner as director occasionally delivers some nice scenes, including one where his character rides by and snags a young boy's letter from his outreached hand. Certainly the signature scene of the movie, it's no surprise that it's later immortalized in a somewhat goofy postscript follow up. There are some other decent post-apocalyptic bits of humor, including a line about who the new president is, where the Capitol's located, and a funny bit with Costner's character partially recognizing singer Tom Petty who plays the mayor of a town. There are even a few bits of postal humor thrown in for good measure.
Yet for every minor bit of that, there are overplayed moments of postal worship, melodrama, and happy townsfolk who dance and sing in ridiculous hoedowns, all of which is worsened by the film's length at more than three long hours. While it's not as bad as other lengthy films have been, there are many times when the plot just meanders around, or gets stuck in a long sequence that does nothing for the movie (such as Costner and Williams shacked up in a log cabin for a long winter where his beard grows full but her pregnant belly never expands). Other odd bits include some "drive in" type movies shown to Bethlehem's workers who always want to see "The Sound of Music," and some horrendously sappy dialogue such as a blind woman telling the Postman, "I had a feeling about you...I know you'll do what's right."
The unofficial postal worker's creed states "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." While there's no question the Postal Service will love this movie that glorifies and nearly deifies their workers (and might just make them have tapes of it playing in their lobbies), I'm sure Costner has amended their above creed to include "nor critics." Considering his treatment by them in the past (and the fact that they couldn't drub him for "Dances"), there's little doubt many of them will see this movie as ripe for their picking.
While you have to give him credit for certainly not slouching when it came to making this feature, the end results just aren't that good. Although the film eventually becomes more of a western than a true apocalyptic story, you should go back and rent either of the first two "Mad Max" movies to see superlative examples of the genre. Probably the most interesting thing about this movie will be how many reviewers include the phrase "Return to Sender" in their write-up. We bet it's a lot, and although we won't make that official proclamation, we'll give the movie only a 3 out of 10.
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