I remember back in the 80´s when i used to get hand written letters sent to me. It was two girls ( who were actually both interested in me, is that even possible ? ) and sent me shampoo bottles and other shower products. I remember telling my mom:- Do i smell that bad ? My mom laughed and said:- No Daniel, they want to be nice to you, because they like you. Looking back today, i am not sure i believe that, i think i must have washed my hair too little. But i did enjoy getting the letters, especially because they smelled really nice. Moving into the 90´s i used to have a penpal from America, her name was Debbie and she lived in Ohio. I got to know her through a penpal magazine, where you could read people´s penpal requests. I had no idea if she would ever reply me back, but she did. And we probably talked through letters for at least 3 years. The reason why we stopped is because of her boyfriend who got jelaous, and he did not want her to have a penpal from Sweden. Too bad it had to end that way, but 3 years is still a pretty long time to write letters. And i might actually have one of the VHS tapes she bought me as a gift, because she knew i loved action films in the 90´s. When the 2000´s entered, it was beginning to change about writing letters. Internet was taking over everything, so i only sent hand written letters at special moments to family members. Nowdays, i have actually tried to bring back the hand writing letter, by sending each actor who pose with our tshirt for our Project The Golden Boys Of Sundsvall, a hand written letter each. And from what i understand, they really appreciate reading a letter like this. Speaking of letters and the 90´s, how many of you remember the Kevin Costner film The Postman, released in 1997 ? Swedish TV Icon Dennis Magnusson requested a review of this film from me, so of course i wanted to make sure his wish comes true. I have not seen this film since the 90´s on VHS, and to be honest i don´t remember much about the plot either. So this will be interesting to see, is The Postman a film that is actually better than i remember, or has this film aged more than Mike Pence´s wrinkles ?
In 2013, an unnamed enters the Oregan flatlands, trading Shakespearean performances for food and water. In one of the towns, the nomad ( Kevin Costner ) is forced into the ranks into the predominant neo-fascist militia in the area, known as the Holnists and run by General Betlehem ( Will Patton ), who schemes to take over the fallen United States with his regime. When the nomad escapes, he takes refuge in a long-deceased postman´s mail vehicle. The nomad dress into the postman´s uniform and mail bag, he arrives in Pineview claiming to be from the newly restored US government. Now known as The Postman, he brings hope in a world where General Betlehem wants to control everyone and everything.
Knowing that this film was released 2 years after Waterworld,( that i consider to be one of my personal favourite films from Kevin Costner ), you can tell that this film is also inspired by post apocalyptic stories, and in this case it is a story focused on a mail man. There is an interesting idea behind The Postman, where you realise that without a postman in society, the way to communicate would be lost forever. With that said, this film has a lot of other subjects thrown in here as well. You have the story of Kevin Costner´s character, who is struggling to find his way in society, and manage to get some respect as a postman. But you also have other stories in here, that are connected with the postman. My major problem with this film is that you can´t really feel how important it is to be a postman. This film clearly try and show how important the title is behind the occupation of being a postman, and i can understand why they wanted to bring this up in an apocalyptic future. But the main story gets lost with such a long playtime, almost 3 hours long. Some scenes feels drawn out to fill in some of the plot holes, and it does not really help the film become more interesting. A few details that this film manage to do, is have some interesting angles on an apocapyptic society. I also enjoy some of the costume designs, that are simple but effective for the story. And most of all, this film do have an evil and interesting character under the name of General Betlehem, played by actor Will Patton. He is actually one of the highlights of The Postman. Kevin Costner is not horrible in this film, but as a lead character he does not feel as strong as he did in Waterworld. The Postman do have some good ideas, and there are some scenes where we get a sense of a story that do have something important to say. But with a play time of almost 3 hours, it takes too long to tell this story, and this film does not leave the big impact you were hoping for. Director Kevin Costner probably had a great vision for this film, but gives this film way too much space until he reaches his goal. If you love Kevin Costner films, you might find some reasons why you would want to watch The Postman, i personally would recommend checking out Waterworld instead.
Rating: DD
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