The Postman (1997)

I like it and it has Tom Petty in it.

Both Kevin Costner post-apocalyptic 90s movies were pretty good and get unnecessary hate

Highly recommend reading the book. It’s really good.

Decent movie. I always liked how the villain was just some guy in normal life, but found his potential in a wasteland.

I thoroughly enjoy both Waterworld and The Postman Battlefield Earth is genuinely shit though.

As a movie it's pretty well made and well acted and everything. It's just...not that compelling. Its worst crime IMO is being overly dramatic without necessarily earning it.

YES! Another one has seen the light lol There are dozens of us. DOZENS. I love The Postman too.

One of the prime problems with The Postman is that if you had read the book it was based on first, you were disappointed.

I also like this movie and don't get the level of hate

It's better than advertised, but it's not a masterpiece. It's a decent recommendation, but not one that I think anyone "needs" to see. If you like post-apocalyptic or even western-style movies it's worth a watch.

I liked it as well. I also liked waterworld.

When the Postman was made, it was UNTHINKABLE that that storyline could come to pass. Now that it has, the story gained more relevance.

I agree that this movie and Waterworld both got a lot of hate when they came out. Neither are terrible. I think the shade was over their budgets, which were both over $100M which at the time was insane. Now it seems like most movies are over $100M but at the time there was this vibe of “WTF is Kevin Costner doing?”

I watched it ages ago when I was younger and I recall being totally sold on the post-apocalypse setting. I think this movie came out before Fallout released as I remember thinking it was very unique. I've been wanting to find a copy of it for my movie collection but since it didn't do well financially there aren't many copies available or much demand for it.

Will Patton is one of my favorite actors because of this movie.

I've been a fan of this movie since it first came out. Was one of my movie obsessions in college that I watched over and over on DVD.

I always liked it. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid when I first saw it. I never understood why it was hated, granted I haven't seen it in well over a decade.

the movie's plot, i felt was very sub-par to the actual book by David Brin, BUT the costume details, the settings, the actors playing survivors or the generation born in the aftermath were all so good! The children/young adults willing to sacrifice themselves to a greater ideal, Daniel von Bargen as the Sheriff that is hardened against outsiders to protect his people, wanting to have hope and showing his need to believe and his incredulity when he receives a letter from his sister. This movie totally gave me the black and white war movie vibes of the 50s and i still watch it at least a couple times a year. I also like to think Tom Petty would totally be a survivor, as well!

"You don't believe in anything." "I believe. In. The United States of America." And Ford. "Live. And let live."

The Postman is a great book, and a great movie, but the two are only vaguely related.

Totally agree The Postman is definitely underrated. It has a really powerful post-apocalyptic story about hope, rebuilding society, and how one small idea can inspire people again.

I will normally watch a Kevin Costner movies…Wyatt Earp, dances with wolves, water world, postman, that serial killer one where he kidnaps that kid, untouchables, no way out…I love them all lol

I love this movie. And it beats the hell out of the book it’s (very loosely) based on.

If you liked the movie, you'll probably LOVE the book. Way more depth. Even cooler plot and characters/ development, and overall cool shit going on all throughout 🤘🏼

I never listen to what other people think of movies. Mostly high appraised movies are 😩 and underrated movies often are masterpieces. I LOVE the postman and love Kevin Costner. I do feel he is famous but often highly underrated (especially before Yellowstone).

It was a great movie 

I thought it was better than its reputation allows but still suffered in comparison with the book, particularly the neoHippy characters and the augment concept. The climactic fight between the Holnist general and Powhatan should have been epic, almost godlike, but in the movie it was just kind of a wrestling match.

I liked it. I also liked Waterworld.

The novel was by one of my favorite authors, David Brin. It's his only adapted novel. We could use a movie of *Kiln People* or a series of *The Uplift Saga.* That said, *The Postman* was a shortened, simplified, but overall decent adaptation of the book. 

I enjoyed the way it portrayed the postal service as a unifying social force, not just a delivery service. It makes me sad to watch it today with the way things are going. The future of the post office is not looking great.

I like this movie. Waterworld too.

Talked a lot about this movie in college. Got a buddy to watch it with me one spring break. He hated it, dragged me to the bar where we, no shit, drank with three mail carriers. Like absolutely trashed. Couple cops stop us as we're drunkenly staggering home. Tell us they're driving us to my place, put us in different cars. Two blocks from my apartment the cop turns our car around and says "we gotta go back, your buddy just pissed on my partner." Just to say, it's not everyone's idea of a good time, but it is my idea of a good time. Ford Lincoln Mercury, Tom Petty, that line I can never quite remember from the final fight where Will Patton and Kevin Costner address each other by they're pre-appcolypse professions? The Newly Reformed United States Government Operating Out Of The Hubert Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis (always said like it would be written out as such)!? The weird looks the postman shares with the Vietnam vet? Perfection

I love the Postman. I thought General Bethlehem was a fantastic villain. The idea that he was a mere copy machine salesman is so interesting.

I think it was a tail end of apocalypse movies especially by Costner and people wanted something new. It is a great movie

Online hate brigades are shit, not the movies they talk about.

Yeah, no that was a bad movie at the time and it’s still a bad movie. It’s just that people’s levels have dropped since all those streaming c***. Definitely a bad movie. I worked on the marketing of that movie and my favorite note was OK. Don’t show horses. Don’t show mud. Don’t show guns. Don’t show in that list went on and on and on terrible movie gave me a stomachache.

I remember loving it as a kid, but I also loved Super Marios Bros. So there's that. Haven't watched Postman as an adult, probably should

A lot of people don't like Kevin Costner, myself included. But I liked the postman overall

Hated the book, the movie was fun.

People hate on this movie? I liked it.

Powhatan never appeared in the movie, IIRC.

It was filmed in the town I grew up in and some of my friends were horse riding extras. It was the biggest thing that happened there up to that point. And I’ve never seen it.

Any call outs to the soundtrack? I listened to that album a lot back in the day. One of my fist cds

I absolutely loved the book. Probably one of my favorite books by David Brin. I hardly recognized the source material in Costner’s movie. I suppose that’s the usual complaint: the book was better. I knew it would be different, but it was so different, it felt disingenuous to slap the title “The Postman” on it.

Love the overwhelmingly sappy song “Almost Home” by Jono Manson. Pretty good soundtrack overall too.

Better book. Much better book.

The Postman was supposed to be based on the excellent novel by David Brin. They are not similar in any way but the title.

I think everyone hates this because it was hot on the heels of Waterworld which was also panned.

People were hating on Kevin a lot back then. Between this and Waterworld, his leading man days were numbered. Eventually he became a killer supporting actor. Then Yellowstone basically made him a lead again, and now I don't know what he's up to. More mediocre movies like The Postman? :) Both of those movies were better when they were The Road Warrior. ;)

Not a masterpiece but thought provoking and entertaining to me.

Very different from the novel, but still quite enjoyable. The epilogue, 30 years later, though was a bit nonsensical.

I’ve always been a fan of this flick. I saw it in the theatre in 97.

Loved it since I saw it in the theater. For some reason it was cool to hate.

Ive had the Warner Bros release sitting in my library for years. I guess Im gonna have to watch it now. But Im watching The Warriors 4k Arrow release first and theres nothing you can do to stop me, pal.

I don't HATE it, but it definitely comes off as a vanity project for Costner. Particularly the scene where they send him a woman to breed because they think his genes are good.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there's a great 100 minute film inside the average 200 minute film I think it's the over saccharine parts where the people are looking on as the hero rides into the sunset - it tries too hard to beat people over the head with the obvious messaging when it could have just been implied in a much shorter film. I read the David Brin book when it first came out and thought well, it's ok at best... never could believe they made a film of it. but they did! A lot of the faults are also in the book

It’s not a bad movie at all, think people lump it together with waterworld, which was a pretty easy target at the time. Also the kid Ford Lincoln Mercury was silly

I like to think Kevin's character in Waterworld is a descendant of The Postman

My favorite part is that it's almost coming soon to real life 🤣

lol at masterpiece … Anyways the movie was a bit heavy and took itself more serious than it should have. That was a direct reflection on Costner - as the movie was, IMO, an expression of Costner’s ego. But it was a decent watch with some memorable scenes and characters.

It's not as bad as it was made out to be, but calling it a "masterpiece" is a bit of a stretch.

That’s what a bad movie was in 1997. Just a week after this came out, Titanic was released. That same year it came out, Oscar nominated (and winning) movies included not only Titanic, but Good Will Hunting, LA Confidential, The Apostle (personal favorite), Jackie Brown, As Good As It Gets, Amistad, The Full Monty - it just goes on and on. The Postman doesn’t hold a candle to any of those. It’s not a terrible movie, but it came out in one of the best cinematic eras ever, and it just wasn’t nearly as good. It’s like telling everyone your mom’s cooking is great and wondering why she doesn’t win a Michelin star.

I thought it was generally fine, but the thing with these epic long-assed movies is that they need to be exceptional to be watchable for most people. Costner is a serial offender on the mediocre epic charge. Just good isn't good enough once the runtime passes a certain mark.

Probably the most boring movie I've ever seen.

Yep. But I like the first 2/3 more. Suddenly the last 1/3 the movie just ends the way it does and it feels really anti climactic.

ITS a GREAT MOVIE IF you cut out everything from the time they go up on the mountain will the time they come down, try it on DVD

There is a scene in that movie that is audaciously Kevin Costner where it’s a solo shot of him standing in front of christmas lights staring into the camera that is so self-glorifying that it’s hilarious and turns the movie into a comedy for me.