He serves as an enigma for the American people: a poor rural boy who made it to the big time Hollywood screen, who became a Union president, and eventually a president of the United States who was notorious for implementing the most extreme right wing nativism and economic policy combined with a seriously protective foreign policy during his administration. Views of the political commentator Richard Winters, who stated that Reagan’s success or the “Great Communicator” can be summarized as being able to present complex ideas in a simple manner, or does this mean that Reagan was nothing but a simple thinker. “Reagan”, a movie where Quaid’s casting is dedicated to bring that character to life, is a product of MJM Entertainment Group, filmmakers with a deep rooted Christian focus on their projects. It highlights Reagan’s strength, but rarely touches his weaknesses, shortcomings and failures.
Nonetheless, the same bona fide skeptics accept every released detail, event or star in the film as Gospel truth working in a biopic perspective. Therefore the film itself is only stages such a pilot life as chronologically carried events. Interestingly enough, this increase was contributed to viewing the world, this particular story is told by Soviet agents who have been observing Reagan for life, unsurprisingly, became Reagan’s biggest fan.
Though the depiction of the American president lends itself to this film through a vice‘’s point of view, I wouldn’t consider myself an authority on Reagan’s presidency. However, in his capacity as a lawyer, he operated approximately across the street from the White House, at a unit of the Executive Office of the President. On one occasion, I encountered the President together with the First Lady, who did not meet her spouse for the same reason, but I was involved in developing briefing materials for him. My fellow employees of political appointments did regularly see the President. But for all those who don’t have that experience and all those who are not even alive when he was President, there’s something baffling about this film especially considering this pixelated form praises the former politician unconditionally. One would imagine that clichés are not made of good film, and lack of dialogues and dull deployment of space time make it a drag.
Many biographical films have a similar structure, starting at a decisive moment before covering the subject’s early years this picture doesn’t follow this approach. This film starts with Reagan, having been president for a few months, and telling a group of union members a joke about a man who was made to change a diaper. For those who were there and follow the unfolding timeline, it is noticeable prior to departing the Hilton that Reagan and three others were to be shot at by a disturbed young man. The question that comes to mind is why such ugly scene incursions. A man stood in the crowd, it is true, and we realize that it is not a very intense incident because we already know that he lived. And apart from several of his typically humorous asides, “I forgot to duck”, he explains to his spouse; they do not even touch upon his general outlook or much on the course of events that shaped history.
To narrate his history, however, we need to focus on the Volkov’s former KGB associate who is older, now known as Viktor, played by Jon Voight. To a promising young politician, this ex spy shares his witty experiences from which fascinating tales can be spun. Now, there is a chance that a character of Viktor is, in fact, based on an existing figure: Viktor Petrovitch Ivanov, a defector from KGB. Still, he has never engaged in such discourse, nor acted in a manière described in the motion picture. In that connection, Viktor has elaborated that his duties entail an order to “profile those whom may emerge as adversaries or frighten the parents of the children he bullied his way in building a syndicate of ghosts. ” In the case of President Reagan this turns out to be in fact a very interesting story. It relates to his mother who was religiously dedicated and taught him to never surrender to bullies, no matter how many times one might be intimidated. To make a point to him, it can be observed how his mother emitted to him ‘every chance episode in my life even in a most bizarre manner, has got a heavenly explanation’. Mr. Reagan’s father wasn’t modest either; charming and telling great stories about his past but he was an alcoholic who walked away from his family. These are influences Mr. Reagan is going to accept and oppose for the rest of his life.
Also significant will be his time served as a lifeguard. The film does not seek to authenticate Reagan’s story of 77 rescues, but we do note that he was such a beefcake that some of the salvages likely were such girls in distress looking for a hunk to save them. But later it will turn out (or we will be telling, one hopes) that all those days spent staring in the water did not deprive him of any special perspective on the international security picture. Not to mention that he had a profound comprehension of currents. Amazing.
We then view Reagan as he is losing his stardom and his wedlock with Jane Wyman (Mena Suvari) is over. He is forced to sell out to supports from the big shot advertisers, with ambition in the meantime of heading the actors’ union and making Hollywood a fortress against communist penetration. That is how he encounters actress Nancy Davis (Penelope Ann Miller), who later becomes his radical supporter. Shortly after, he is seeking political office as the Governor then President. Oh and apparently coming up with the concept of trickle down economics despite it really having been the brainchild of Arthur Laffer, an economist and it being demonstrably, to put it mildly, blarney.
Quaid brings to life Reagan’s charm and vocal inflections, and the moments with Miller ring true with their love and respect as partners in life. Still, the film goes overboard in portraying his weaknesses and accomplishments, downplays the Iran Contra episode, and misses quite a few other failures completely. For his part, the former US president’s reaction to Iran Contra is quite like his utterly comprehensive neglect of the pet fish of a young child ‘Oh dear, what a pity. I do not know.’ It approaches the limits of ridicule and, indeed, reframes one of the comedy sketches on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ where Phil Hartman played a super intelligent behind the scene Ronald Reagan. There is a fair bit of time left to deal with the inquisition into Reagan’s presidency (presently the 16th in the rankings offered by the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey). We could use a lot more explanation of what exactly made him “the great communicator”, but there is the absence of that in this film which explains about the history and the man quite poorly.
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