The Ending
I like thid film a lot. But the neding really threw me.
How could the country be back to "normal" in a mere 20 years?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0876294/board/thread/145503183?d=151268110#151268110
Well, two things:
1) how do you know it was normal? It was more civilised, but how is that 'normal'; and,
2) in the book it is probably explained a little better. The Holnists were 'on the move' north because they were receiving pressure from California. California had begun to prosper and were 'fighting back' and had their OWN postal service (a real one backed by a government with any army). So, from that I am guessing that EVERYTHING was getting better EVERYWHERE and so the cancer (holnists) that kept the country down was being erradicated. That's another key point made in the book, the holnists were the 'last straw'. The Postman makes it pretty obvious that the USA as an entity would have survived the war (although severely hammered) had the holnists not killed the last flickering flame.
SpiltPersonality
I'm really interested how much of the nationalistic tone of this film came from Kevin Costner or how much of it was already present in the book.
I'm reading one of David Brin's other books at the moment and I'm trying to make up my mind what I think of him.