{"id":8625,"date":"2026-06-03T03:10:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T00:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imgist.ru\/kevin-kostner-sluchajno-razvyazyvaet-grazhdanskuyu-vojnu-i-pohishhaet-vashu-zhenu-v-postapokalipticheskom-filme-s-rejtingom-r-puteshestvie-geroya\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T12:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:00:05","slug":"kevin-costner-accidentally-starts-a-civil-war-and-kidnaps-your-wife-in-the-r-rated-post-apocalyptic-film-the-heros-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/kevin-kostner-sluchajno-razvyazyvaet-grazhdanskuyu-vojnu-i-pohishhaet-vashu-zhenu-v-postapokalipticheskom-filme-s-rejtingom-r-puteshestvie-geroya\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Costner accidentally starts a civil war and kidnaps your wife in the R-rated post-apocalyptic film "The Hero's Journey."."},"content":{"rendered":"

I have so much that I don't even know where to begin when talking about in the film "The Postman"\u00ab<\/em> 1997 The first thing I'll say is that Kevin Costner has proven himself to be a reliable leading man. \u00abField of Dreams<\/em> \u00bb (1989) and \u00abDances with Wolves\u00bb<\/em> (1990) made a splash on the big screen, and \u00abYellowstone\u00bb<\/em> was never the same after he parted ways with Tyler Sheridan to focus on his massive Western project,\u00ab Horizon: An American Saga\u00bb<\/em> . However, I have noticed that Kevin Costner has a serious hero complex and never seems to show much interest in participating in ensemble films.<\/p>\n

This approach can be traced back to film "Waterworld"\u00ab<\/em> 1995's Mad Max, essentially a boat-themed film, was considered a flop at the time of its release due to its bloated budget and disappointing box office receipts, but audiences eventually embraced it for its unique, slightly kitschy charm that's hard to replicate. <\/p>\n

\u00ab"Postman"\u00bb<\/em> \u2014 it's a completely different film because Costner is both director and star. He's not just an actor following someone else's vision, and he's so dedicated to creating his own mythology for his character that he could easily be Steven Seagal. Oh, and the film is nearly three hours long, which is worth mentioning because money comes and goes, relationships change, but time is the one thing you can never get back.<\/p>\n

177 minutes of Kevin Costner thinking he's amazing.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Action film "The Postman"\u00ab<\/em> Set in the future in 2013, it tells the story of a drifter, played by Kevin Costner, who travels from one settlement to another, reciting Shakespeare in exchange for three meals a day and a bed. He knows almost nothing about Shakespeare, but that's enough to impress General Bethlehem (Will Patton), the leader of a militia group known as the "Golnists," who captures him and attempts to indoctrinate him. <\/p>\n

Postman 199<\/p>\n

It's no joke: when Kevin Costner faces off against Bethlem, he utters the line, "To be or not to be...," and apparently that's enough for him to consider him an intellectual and scholarly figure worthy of respect, as long as he doesn't overstep the mark. So, Costner escapes and seeks refuge in an abandoned mail van, burning letters one by one for light and warmth, hiding from Bethlem and his loyal army. Suddenly, he gets a brilliant idea: he'll disguise himself as a postman, show up at the nearest settlement, and, using his new guise, procure food, drink, and a place to sleep.<\/p>\n

He accidentally ends up in a small town called Pineview, and his plan works even better than expected. So well, in fact, that his very presence threatens Pineview Sheriff Briscoe (Daniel von Bargen), who knows he's just a drifter working as a prostitute but can't prove it. During his stay, Kevin Costner, a terrific guy, is approached by Abby (Olivia Williams) and, without wasting any time, asks him to get her pregnant. Abby's husband, Michael (Charles Esten), is infertile and has no objection to Kevin Costner sleeping with his wife so they can finally have a child. <\/p>\n

Postman 199<\/p>\n

After Kevin Costner, whom I now happily call "The Postman," promises everyone in Pineview that he's a completely honest man, definitely not a crook, and is ready to deliver mail to and from their neighborhood, he runs into one of the local youths, a young man who calls himself Ford Lincoln Mercury (Larenz Tate) and wants a piece of this lucrative mail delivery gig. Lacking any official credentials, because he doesn't actually have any, The Postman recruits Ford Lincoln Mercury, and the two of them essentially pretend to be mail carriers for the rest of the film.<\/p>\n

When your plan fails<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The previous part may seem like a plot summary, but I must remind you that this mess is three hours long, and we're barely even into the first act. For the sake of brevity, I'll pick up the pace and get to the real conflict in \u00ab"The Postman"\u00bb<\/em> : General Bethlehem. I literally forgot about General Bethlehem after what I would call an excessive amount of world-building for a movie about a guy who wants to work at the post office. When he showed up again, my first reaction was, "Oh yeah, that guy.". <\/p>\n

Postman 199<\/p>\n

Despite his intelligence, General Bethlehem somehow fails to realize that Kevin Costner, disguised as a mailman, is the same Kevin Costner who impressed him earlier in the film with his limp, primitive rendition of Shakespeare. Unwittingly, or perhaps not willingly, this entire conspiracy escalates into a full-scale civil war, as the Holnists seek to maintain their power, and Bethlehem becomes convinced that the American government is gradually returning to its former glory, as the postal service supposedly functions again.<\/p>\n

Absolutely right. In his view, delivering mail on horseback from Oregon to New York in a matter of months meant his dynasty was about to collapse. <\/p>\n

Postman 199<\/p>\n

On the way Postman<\/em> and Abby fulfill her husband's wishes, and she becomes pregnant. He eventually leaves Pineview, but is attacked by Bethlehem's men, leaving him seriously injured. Abby finds him, and they take refuge in a small hut while he recovers, making fun of her cooking whenever he can. Abby nearly drowns in an icy river, and Postman<\/em> saves her. She burns down the hut so he'll be forced to continue his work, because she thinks it's the smart thing to do. The mail gets delivered, word spreads of a "restored U.S. government," and Bethlehem grows increasingly enraged as war approaches.<\/p>\n

The best unintentional comedy of the 90s<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As ridiculous as it all sounds, that's how it is, most of the time, depending on \u00ab"The Postman",<\/em> I laughed so hard. The most obvious reason is that everyone plays completely seriously, and James Newton Howard's music is so whimsical and solemn. It's essentially a story about a postman. He reminisces about Tang and the astronauts before telling Abby she's weird or that she has a pretty face. Meanwhile, the string section builds to a magnificent crescendo, the kind you'd hear in The Lord of the Rings before the epic battle. <\/p>\n

Postman 199<\/p>\n

Even funnier is the Postman's entire hero's journey. He literally dons the dead postman's clothes and wanders the city, trying to lay low before eventually pulling the same scam elsewhere. Days later, he leads a resistance movement against General Bethlehem's swollen army, trying to restore the long-lost sanctity of American sovereignty. They fight on horseback. Molotov cocktails are thrown through post office windows. Tom Petty makes a brief appearance, and I still don't understand why. Kevin Costner goes ziplining.<\/p>\n

It's just hilarious because this guy just wanted to wander from town to town, picking up free beans and crackers wherever he could find them. But his little scheme worked so well that he somehow became the most important person in post-apocalyptic history. It's like if I tried to scam a "buy one, get one free" coupon for a bulk order of paper towels at Kroger and somehow became president. I can't adequately express how stupid this whole thing is. <\/p>\n

Look, I'm not asking you to drop everything and watch \u00abThe Postman\u00bb<\/em> . It's currently not included in any major streaming service subscriptions. But if you have four dollars to spend, you can rent this wonderful flop on demand through Apple TV+, YouTube, or Fandango at Home.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have so much to say that I don't even know where to begin when talking about the 1997 film The Postman. The first thing I'll say is that...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kinoindustriya","hvn-theme-has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8625"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152467,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8625\/revisions\/152467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}