Postman (film)

Movie
German title	Postman
Original title	The Postman
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1997
length	177 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Kevin Costner
script	Eric Roth , ; Brian Helgeland
production	Lester Berman , ; Kevin Costner, ; Steve Tisch , ; Jim Wilson
music	James Newton Howard
camera	Stephen F. Windon
cut	Peter Boyle
occupation
	Kevin Costner : The Postman; Will Patton : General Bethlehem; Joe Santos : Colonel Getty; Larenz Tate : Ford Lincoln Mercury; Olivia Williams : Abby; James Russo : Idaho; Daniel von Bargen : Sheriff Briscoe; Tom Petty : Mayor of Bridge City; Scott Bairstow : Luke; Giovanni Ribisi : Bandit 20; Peggy Lipton : Ellen March;

Postman is a 1997 American end-time film . Kevin Costner directed and also starred. The film is based on the novel of the same name by David Brin . The film opened in German cinemas on February 12, 1998.

action

In 2013, the United States was devastated and politically disintegrated following a civil war that included nuclear weapons. The survivors are being terrorized and exploited in their scattered settlements by a group of paramilitary bandits who call themselves holnists. During this time, a nameless stranger roams the country with his mule and earns himself food and accommodation with theater performances, in which he mostly plays Shakespeare plays. At one of these performances he meets the Holnist army. He is recruited against his will and has to join them. After a while he is able to escape the Holnists and their leader, a warlord who calls himself Bethlehem.

By chance, while on the run, the hiker finds an old postal uniform in a wrecked car and spontaneously decides to pretend to be a postman for the Restored United States in order to get warm food and accommodation in the fortified settlement of Pineview. After initial skepticism, the people of Pineview are enthusiastic about the delivery of the old letters and are beginning to believe him. At a party, the young woman Abby comes to the postman and asks him to sleep with her to father a child. Since her husband is sterile and loan patrons are often problematic within a town, he is the ideal "sperm donor" as the postman who is rarely present. After some initial reluctance, the postman finally agrees. Expelled from town by the sheriff, he moves on the next day, but that night, by chance and rather unwillingly, turned the young man Ford Lincoln Mercury from Pineview into the postman. He was enthusiastic about the idea of the postal service and became one of his most ardent supporters.

Bethlehem learns about the allegedly set up postal service during a raid on Pineview, burns down the post office set up by Mercury, stabs Abby's husband and kidnaps her. He then follows the trail of the Postman. Unsuspecting, he continues his scam as a postman and keeps visiting new settlements. In the Benning settlement, which - motivated by the allegedly restored United States - opposes the Holnists, he then meets Bethlehem's army. Bethlehem, which, through the Latin phrase Hannibal ante portas, equates itself with the general Hannibal from Carthage, invades the settlement and burns it down despite the postman's peace efforts. Abby is able to overpower a security guard and shoot others with his assault rifle, thereby preventing the postman from being executed. Together they fight to escape, but he is shot in the process. Winter is falling and he spends it with Abby, who is nursing him well, in a remote cabin in the mountains. The two only get a little closer, as Abby is still mourning her husband, whom Postman experiences as weak-willed and weak in drive and, on top of that, is suspicious of his holnist brand.

In spring they both set off again and meet the young postwoman Ponytail. During the winter, Ford set up a postal service on its own and encouraged more young people to join it. You have set up a postal service that already supplies many settlements. The Postman is more reluctant than enthusiastic and allows himself to be made the representative of the alleged President of the Restored United States. The postal service is setting up more and more postal routes and thus enables the isolated settlements and their residents to communicate with each other again, which is why they draw new hope against the Holnists.

Bethlehem, who was a copyist in his previous life, is enraged that the Postman established the postal service. The rumor circulating that a new president has been elected is a threat to his power base, which is why he wages war on the postal service. After Bethlehem had several postmen and several residents of a settlement killed, the postman stopped the postal service because he did not want to take responsibility for more human lives. He leaves the area with pregnant Abby in order to divert Bethlehem's attention from the people there.

When Ford wants to send a last letter to Bethlehem, knowing that he will be executed afterwards, Bethlehem is initially confident of victory and wants to end the war. However, when Mercury met another, unknown postman shortly before the shooting and introduced himself as the postman of the Restored Republic of California , Bethlehem realizes that the idea of the postman has spread and the resistance to his despotism will continue without him. With reference to the phrase tabula rasa , he therefore continues the war while the postman and Abby flee. In the Bridge City settlement, run by former musician Tom Petty , the postman realizes that he is still being persecuted by Bethlehem and must face it if he is to have peace. He recruited many former mail carriers and won over other men and women to join him.

In the final battle, postmen and holnists face each other as cavalry, with Bethlehem's army being much better equipped. The Postman relies on Bethlehem's old clan rules that were ingrained into every Holnist recruit. According to this, every clan member has the right to challenge the incumbent leader to a duel. Bethlehem is defeated in a duel against the Postman and is finally shot by his deputy when he tries to kill the Postman from behind. The postman returns to Abby.

The film ends with a time jump to the year 2043 in the St. Rose settlement. Civilization has returned to the United States thanks to the actions of the Postman, and Hope, the daughter of Postman and Abby, unveils a memorial there depicting the Postman riding a galloping horse, grabbing a letter from a young boy (a scene that actually appears in the film). One of the adult guests proudly calls out to the crowd: "That was me!"

reception

Production costs were approximately 80 million US dollars , while the film in the United States only about grossed 17.5 million.

The film was thus one of the biggest financial failures of the decade and was also received negatively by film critics.

James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that it is hard to believe that Costner, who directed The Dances With Wolves , was responsible for something so horribly mishandled. He found the idea of the film just as bad as the implementation, the script stupid ("dumb") and illogical.

“A utopia told without any trace of power, tempo or humor, whose phlegmatic hero is stylized as a messianic figure of salvation. No more than a self-enamored, cinematically uninspired, excessively boring attempt at staging by Kevin Costner. "

- Lexicon of international film .

On the other hand, the film received a rating of 6.1 out of 10 possible points on the IMDb .