'THE POSTMAN'.........NOT SO SILLY NOW, IS IT?

 The Postman (1997)    We all remember how Kevin Costner's post-apocalyptic, shamelessly patriotic epic was roundly ridiculed and lampooned by one and all........

            It swept the infamous 'Razzie' awards for being just about the worst in everything......

             Coming on the heels of his previous, much troubled post-apocalyptic epic "Waterworld", it's as if Costner had deliberately set himself up to become Hollywood's new punchable fall guy......the ego-bloated superstar begging for a well-deserved takedown......

                My, my, my.........

              Look what the passage of time and rush of horrendous events had done to 'The Postman'.....

              It almost seems ripped from the current headlines.

              In this film's dystopian future, a lone drifter (Costner) wanders through a plague ravaged America, populated by remote bands of humans struggling to survive. They're preyed upon by a para-military, racist fascist band of goons who still worship their late leader who instigated most of the divisive misery that tore up the nation to begin with.

               Any of this starting to ring a bell?

                Costner stumbles upon a dead mailman's delivery pouch and then strictly as a way to con free food and lodging, proclaims himself a mail carrier representing the 'restored United States'. 

                He's later stunned to discover that his ruse has inspired and  touched a patriotic  nerve in the downtrodden populace.Young people become the equivalent of pony express riders, galloping from outpost to outpost.......to deliver....(say it with me)...THE MAIL!

                This does not sit well with the fascist bandits, brutally led by a tinpot Fuhrer who's anointed himself 'General Bethlehem' (well played with all the necessary hateful swagger by Will Patton).

                 Bethlehem rules by fear and cult-of-personality charisma......(his minion bodyguard, who always stays close by him, had his balls and tongue ripped out by Bethlehem when he dared to challenge Dear Leader)........

                  You could think of the minion as the equivalent of Republican senators like Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.......

                (Most tellingly, Bethlehem's an even bigger con artist than Costner's Hero-Of-The-Mails, since he spent his pre-apocalyptic life as a failed copy machine salesman......)

                 Any of this starting to ring a bell?

                So the battle lines are drawn with Bethlehem determined to literally kill off the new mail service (and its carriers) and squash the restored U.S.........while Costner undergoes that usual 'hero's journey' self-realization that he's got to live up to the myths he perpetuated.

                 And now we come to watching this again in 2020, where Costner's grand, shmaltzy, overproduced vision takes on an immediacy it never had in 1997.........depicting a crumbling society at risk from a lowlife, unhinged Bully Boy who's determined wreak havoc on every democratic institution to serve his own ends.......including the U.S. Post Office.

                    Any of this starting to ring a bell?

                  The movie itself?  Yes, it's way, way too long, clocking in at a hair under 3 hours. Yes, it's blatantly manipulative, corny and overwrought.  But unlike the filmmakers who assemble today's Hollywood corporate tentpoles, we give Costner credit for being unafraid to swing for the fences, even if he made himself and his movie look foolish and worthy of scorn.

                   (We couldn't help asking ourselves.......would any of the Marvel and D.C. comic book writers and directors ever go out on a limb like this?)

                   One final note of irony here.......in order to secure a copy of 'The Postman', we requested an online reserve for it at our local library.......

                   Once it became available, we had to drive to predesignated parking space at a predesignated time, where a mask-wearing library employee left it in front our car and quickly scurried back into the library........

                   ........which seemed almost satirically appropriate.......picking up a post-apocalyptic movie in the middle of a pandemic-wrecked society being ripped apart by disease, racism and the lunacies of a fascist strongman.

                     For all its many flaws, we had ourselves a fine old time revisiting 'The Postman'. The cast is superb, the James Newton Howard score is richly stirring, and there's even a funny, goofy cameo role for Tom Petty.  So we'll stick on 3 First Class Stamps .....(***)

                    If you want to boil it down to its essential message, it's simple.

                    Don't let anyone screw around with the mail. Or democracy.

                   And Americans can participate in their own version of this movie's climactic clash of good and evil......

                    Simply by voting in November.