This review of the Postman is by Matt Allard

A lot of people including film critics slammed this movie when it was released in 1997. It received almost as much bad press as Waterworld. Few people remember that Waterworld made over $300 million at the box office, pretty impressive for a so called dud. I didn't think Waterworld was that bad, even though I went into the movie thinking the worst. I quite frankly think The Postman is Kevin Costner's best effort since Dancers With Wolves (few people remember that Dances With Wolves was slammed by some critics when it was first released.

In the tradition of Dances With Wolves this movie is long- 178 minutes to be precise. Kevin Costner plays a post-apocalyptic hero of sorts wandering a not so barren landscape in the year 2013. Armed with nothing but an old mule and knack for shakespeare he drifts from town to town performing plays until he is captured with many others and called up to become one of General Bethlahem's (Will Patton) urban warriors who rule the once united states of America. The rules are simple, obey the rules or die. Costner eventually escapes and after finding a old postman's truck complete with dead postman- he becomes the new world's postman. Initially he does this to get free room and board as he travels from town to town, but what he doesn't realise is that he is becoming the peoples hero without really knowing it.

The Postman is full of clever little ironies from the previous worlds history. From the Nazi's, to religious persecution, biblical hero's, Vietnam- right down to the made up president the Postman tells everyone exists; who he say's is named Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr for anyone who's not a Beatles fan).

This movie is beautifully shot and edited in the same style as Dances With Wolves. The soundtrack is good but even it fails in parts to help move the film along. You just get the feeling that it could have been about 30 minutes shorter.

There are some good performances from Will Patton, Larenz Tate and a good cameo performance from Tom Petty. Kevin Costner seems to lose the acting plot in a few places, but with also directing the movie he can be excused with not being fantastic. 

All in all it's a good movie, not a great movie. This is a film that you can sit down and enjoy, and appreciate the camera and editing work. Don't be put off buy the bad press, it's definitely worth a look- it surprised me. 

The movie transfer to DVD is very smooth indeed. Warner has really started to get their shit together, as their last few releases that I have seen ( Sphere and U.S Marshalls) have been excellent. The colour rendition is fantastic and the long sweeping pans across some tricky scenery for DVD come across very well indeed.

The audio track in Dolby Digital 5.1 is punchy and tight and perfectly flows with a high quality picture. The general quality of DVD movies coming out of America in my opinion keeps getting better and better- can it get much better?

Review equipment:
Sony 84cm TV.
Sony DVP-S7000 DVD player,
Yamaha RXV-992 dolby digital reciever,
KEF front and centre channel speakers,
rear Cambridge Soundworks
Bi-polar, Jamo sub

Date Reviewed 21 October 1998