Kevin Costner is a wonderful actor, producer, and director but even talented personalities tend to make mistakes from time to time. Over the years the Oscar winner has starred in multiple movies and series and even produced and directed some. While most of his prospects have received critical acclaim, some just failed to hit the mark.
One of his most criticized and negatively reviewed movies is the 1997’s The Postman, which was also directed by him. Despite having an 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Costner stands by his movie, expressing his love for the movie.
Why Kevin Costner’s The Postman Was A Critical Failure
Based loosely on the 1985 novel of the same name, Kevin Costner‘s The Postman was a post-apocalyptic science fiction film based in a future United States that has been ravaged and destroyed by war and disease. The movie featured the DC star as a Postman, who goes around delivering mail trying to ignite hope and faith in all he encounters.
While it might have achieved the level of a cult classic today, the movie was a commercial failure when it was released. The movie had an overall budget of about $80 million but only managed to make about $20 million at the box office, making fans label it as a disappointing and miserable failure, especially from an artist of Costner’s stature.
It was criticized on several points, such as its lengthy runtime, lack of coherence in the plot, and ambiguous storyline. Even the Dances with Wolves star’s acting and vision were criticized for being devoid of any real emotion, expressiveness, and charisma. Even though the movie failed to resonate with the audience back then, Kevin Costner still believed in the movie.
Kevin Costner Still Stands By The Postman
Even though The Postman was a failure back in 1997, there are people who fell in love with the movie ages after its release. Perhaps that is why Kevin Costner continued to stand by the movie. In an interview with HuffPost, the star had remarked,
“Well, I always thought it was a really good movie! I always thought I probably started it wrong. I should have said something like ‘once upon a time.’ Because it was just like a modern-day fairy tale — it wraps itself up with a storybook ending with the statue. You know, I thought it was a pretty funny movie set against the idea of a Superman — somebody stepping up. But in this case, it’s a very humble guy whose nothing but a liar — delivers mail and burns half of it just to stay alive. So, I like the movie.”
Despite the initial failure, the movie has gradually developed a devoted audience now and as for Costner, many viewers now seem to agree that it is in fact a modern-day fairytale in its own subtle way.
The Postman can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: HuffPost
