Talk:The Postman (film)

References to use

 * Please add to the list references that can be used for the film article.



Theaters
"The film did poorly in US theaters, grossing only $17.6 million in spite of high quality performances by Costner, Patton and Williams coupled with an inspiring theme depicting how crisis can bring out an apparently ordinary man's latent courage and leadership abilities."

Article Rewrite
I tagged the plot summary section of this article with both the plot and grammar tags. I would rewrite the section myself, but I haven't actually seen this movie so I'm afraid that in fixing grammar I might mistakenly change a plot point. Hopefully someone will take the initiative here though. Ronark (talk) 03:11, 19 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Is Richard Starkey supposed to refer to Ringo Starr? If not, it should be delinked.
 * What's a bodyfather? AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 10:50, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

The Postman is asked to serve as a "bodyfather" for a couple, the husband being infertile, so it is used as a term for surrogate father. Naaman Brown (talk) 13:44, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Fallout 3
Is it just me or is the plot of this movie similar to the ones used in the Fallout video game series? Perhaps it's possible the games' story was based on this movie somewhat. 98.114.237.231 (talk) 00:08, 16 December 2011 (UTC)


 * The first Fallout game was released three months before this movie. There is no chance for them to have based the game off the movie, or vice versa. The only part that is similar is nuclear war. 184.89.179.138 (talk) 10:39, 10 February 2013 (UTC)
 * The setting of a Post-Apocalyptic World is also similar --77.0.187.132 (talk) 13:33, 9 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Fallout New Vegas would be a much better comparison. Both stories main characters are mail men, both are post apocalyptic stories set in the American West, and both feature a brutal medieval styled warlord who styles himself as a philosopher (Caesar and Bethleham). The book version is even more apparent since in the novel there is a super computer comparable to Mr. House and one of the main Factions that General Bethleham is fighting is a recovering and united California, comparable to Ceasars Legions vs the New Calirfornia Republic. Theres no way that the creators of New Vegas were not inspired by The Postman.Friedbyrd (talk) 15:53, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

Dunno about Fallout, but the "Delivery man rebuilding America" is literally the plot of Death Stranding. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.116.143.10 (talk) 02:13, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Plot cleanup
The opening bits of the article state that the movie is set in an undisclosed apocalypse, while the first line of the plot says it is a post-nuclear war apocalypse. Can someone who has seen the movie please clarify this? 184.89.179.138 (talk) 10:39, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Yeah another part mentions an environmental apocalypse... that's not true either, as far as I can tell. Pretty sure it's nuclear war. Drhamad (talk) 02:43, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

Significantly rewrote the plot section. There is little referance in the movie to the cause of the apocalypse. There are referances to "strange weather", "plague", "bugs", "3 year winters" and an implication that Nathan Holn exacerbated social trouble with no referance to nuclear war. I changed the first sentances to reflect that. 98.164.125.58 (talk) 19:44, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

Undid revision by Jojhutton. Continuing mentions of nuclear war is unsourced opinion unsupported by anything in the movie. Mention of cavalry and horseback in plot description as they are aspects of the artistic appearance of the movie. The original text had Abby rescued by the postman. In the movie Abby rescues the postman from execution by breaking captivity, capturing a weapon and firing, upon Bethlehem. I see no reason to eliminate the name of the actor playing Ford Lincoln Mercury. In fact wiki suggests mentioning the actor's name when the character is introduced in the plot section. The casualties are not when the postman disbands the carriers. It is immediately after the reprisal execution of civilians that the postman orders the disbanding. The letter written to Bethlehem doesn't say the government "is gone". It says the government doesn't exist. The differance between bridge city being "run" or "led" is that there can be several leaders. "Running" the city implies the Tom Petty character is the sole leader. The charater mentions he is "a town official". Nothing about him as the only town official. "Manages to rally". There is no "rallying" seen in the movie. After the cable car ride where there is a voice over of the Agincourt speech he simply appears with his troops to challange Bethlehem. I wrote it as such. These points are more accurate than the revision so I undid the revision. 98.164.125.58 (talk) 13:29, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I didn't make that revert. Another user did. Could you please review the page history and then redact your comment. I do agree that the section is already far too long so it's best not to add more information than is needed. JOJ  Hutton  13:59, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
 * I made the reversion, and, as I said in my edit summary, it is because the plot is already too long and you added more unnecessary details. Changing the nuclear war claim is easy enough and does not require that the summary be further expanded. --- The Old Jacobite The '45  14:24, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

The article had the too long tag on it beore my first edit. My first edit of the article shortened it by half. See here http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Postman_(film)&diff=580714638&oldid=579165540 Your edits only shorten the article a few words here and there but they significantly degrade the accuracy of the plot section. 98.164.125.58 (talk) 14:00, 4 December 2013 (UTC)
 * None of your revisions shortened the length of the summary, as every single one added text. You also lied in your recent edit summary when you reverted and claimed that "several days have passed without discussion.  In fact, it has been one day.  You are now being disruptive and violating WP policy on plot length.  None of the justifications you have offered above justify your plot expansion. --- The Old Jacobite The '45  15:40, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Extremely shortened plot summery.
A post apocalyptic film about a man pretending to be a postman who inspires a pseudo postal service and under equiped paramilitary oranization of young peopel who oppose an army that preys upon survivors. The postman eventally rallies enough troops to sucsessfully defete the army. The world is eventually restored to pre apocalyptic levels. 98.164.125.58 (talk) 14:00, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Copy-editing done
This article was added to the WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Requests in January 2015. I rearranged per WP:MOSFILM and reduced the plot summary per the request's statement that "The plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed, and the article may need to be made more concise".

— Molly-in-md (talk) 20:36, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

Cast list
We seem to be having some sort of content dispute regarding the members of the cast that should be listed according to WP:FILMCAST. I was hoping the related editors would comment here. At first we had an anon editor adding in pretty much every extra and minor role in the film. Now that same editor seems to have switched to removing cameos as well. THoughts and comments? Millahnna (talk) 01:54, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
 * The anon's removal of notable actors and characters just seemed petulant, so I have reverted and given them a final warning for disruption. The current cast list is of appropriate length and includes only notable roles. ---  The Old Jacobite   The '45  11:39, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
 * THat's my read on the situation as well based on other encounters with the same anon. But I thought it would be good to invite outside editors to to comment to see if you and I were missing something.  WP:ROPE, as it were. Millahnna (talk) 14:41, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Thanks, Millahnna. ---  The Old Jacobite   The '45  14:53, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

Fear of Feudalism
I noticed that in the description of both the book and the movie, the Holinist are described in these articles as being Fascist. The appropriate label for them would be to call them feudalist, or neo feudalist. This comes from Brin himself as the author of the novel describing them as feudalist, the character of Bethlehem describing his rule as a feudalist one in the story, and Brin in general basing a lot of views and writing on a fear of society deteriorating back to a feudal state.

Video of Brin describing the Holinist as feudalist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgWH0BTaOMg

Here is an interview with Brin giving his opinion on the 2020 election where he states repeatedly his fears of feudalism

https://ew.com/books/author-interviews/the-postman-trump-david-brin/

Interview with Brin where he discusses his fear of a return of feudalism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqUrJLI0C_c

Friedbyrd (talk) 16:15, 17 May 2023 (UTC)