Reds Without Politics

Two young, politically engaged film-makers, Julia Reichert and James Klein, with one successful documentary (Union Maids) to their credit; a subject full of human and political complexity; seven years in preparation, including 400 interviews (only about a dozen make it into the film); an Academy Award nomination—combine all this and we have every right to expect a stimulating result. Unfortunately, Seeing Red, a documentary about American Communists, doesn’t live up to...