Postman, The
- Synopsis
- Feature film. Set in 2013, after World War Three has destroyed most of USA, including the government. an itinerant actor nicknamed Shakespeare (Costner) who wonders between villages performing scenes from Shakespeare, is captured by a fascist military group called the Holnists led by General Bethlehem. When he escapes from the Holnists he finds an abandoned mail Jeep and uniform, and starts to travel through small cities, telling them he is a postman, a representative of the restored United States. No one believes him at first, but soon he has followers, and they start to prepare a revolt against the Holnists.
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Film
- Technical information
- Colour / Sound
- Year of release
- 1997
- Duration
- 177 mins
Credits
- Director
- Kevin Costner
- Producer
- Jim Wilson; Kevin Costner; Steve Tisch
- Cinematographer
- Stephen Windon
- Screenplay
- Brian Helgeland; Eric Roth
- Music
- James Newton Howard
- Production Design
- Ida Random
- Art Direction
- Derek R. Hill; Scott Ritenour
- Cast
Kevin Costner The Postman Will Patton General Bethlehem
Additional Details
- Production type
- Fiction Films
- Keywords
- Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Notes
- General
- Based on the novel by David Brin.
- Reviews
- Lanier, Douglas ‘Shakescorp Noir’ in Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol. 53, No. 2, Summer 2002, pp 157-180 writes ‘THE POSTMAN, concerned with the issue of cultural transmission in a post-apocalypyc America, pits an itinerant Actor nicknamed Shakespeare against an army of terroristic pillagers whose mad leader, Bethlehem, takes his inspiration from, irony of ironies, a corporate-management manual entitled Seizing the Way to Win. The film metaphorically links the (re) information of an imagined internal community through the restored postal system with the potential for cultural continuity offered by ‘Shakespeare’s opening half-parodic performance of Macbeth, both of which are cast as parallel acts of defiance against Bethlehem’s crypto-corporate fascism’.
Production Company
- Name
Tig Productions
Distributor (Sale)
- Name
Retail outlets
How to cite this record
Shakespeare, "Postman, The". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av67007 (Accessed 03 Oct 2024)