Reds is a grand-scale historical drama based around the life and career of John Reed, a North American journalist who traveled to Russia to chronicle the Revolution. Based on his firsthand observations, Reed wrote Ten Days That Shook the World, his 1919 classic account of the events of the Revolution which took place two years prior.

Released in 1981, Reds is one of the best movies of its era. The most amazing thing about the film is perhaps the fact that Beatty was able to make it in the first place. Just consider: Reds depicts the Russian Revolution in the same heroic light as a Hollywood film might the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the invasion of Normandy. It presents Reed and Louise Bryant — played by Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton — as entirely correct and justified in giving up everything to support the Bolsheviks.

And although Reds hit the screens in the first flush of the Reagan era, with the Cold War still in full swing, it was both a critical and box office success. Incredibly, even Ronald Reagan himself liked the film when Beatty screened it for him at the White House — though the president did wish “it had a happy ending.” Nominated for a record twelve Academy Awards, Reds won Warren Beatty (who also produced and directed the film) Best Director.