After a recent screening of "Reds" at the New York Film Festival, Warren Beatty's 1981 epic about the Bolshevik Revolution, newly remastered for the "25th Anniversary Edition" DVD (Paramount), Beatty recalled showing the original for Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan in the White House screening room. Considering the starkly contrasting political perspectives of Beatty and the president, the film's director and star said he was surprised at Reagan's reaction.

"First he said he was very admiring of what we had done and how we had made it," Beatty said. "And then he said he was kind of hoping for a happy ending."

While radical American journalist John Reed dies at the conclusion of "Reds," the staunchly anticommunist president saw a happy ending with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union.

Yet it's easy to understand why the old Hollywood hand could admire Beatty's achievement. Though "Reds" has been little referenced since it won Oscars for best direction, supporting actress (Maureen Stapleton) and Vittorio Storaro's stunning cinematography, its panoramic look at the rise of the American left and the socialist promise of post-World War I Russia has a depth and passion few historical epics ever capture.

At the center of the 194-minute saga is the politically fueled romance of Reed and writer Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton), a relationship that becomes a triangle when she leaves him to live with playwright Eugene O'Neill, played by Jack Nicholson.

But "Reds" is one of the most entertaining history lessons put on film, its relevance greatly underscored by Beatty's original and much-imitated use of real-life witnesses such as author Henry Miller, historian Will Durant and Congressman Hamilton Fish, nearly all of whom have died since the film was made.