My wife wanted to go see Reagan. Me? I could wait until it came out whenever. Now I’m glad we went. Why? Timeliness. More on that in a bit.
First I’ll point out I did not take notes. I did not “fact check” anything for historical accuracy. As with any dramatic portrayal, I expect there were some literary licenses taken, some facts shaded, overlooked, or ignored. Yeah, okay, I get that. For instance Jane Wyatt was portrayed as a bit of a bitch before her and Reagan’s divorce. Maybe she was and maybe she wasn’t. At the end they did display several pictures with captions. One was with her stating she voted for Reagan twice for President. I remember she refused to comment on Reagan’s presidency at all until after his passing. Divorces can be a bitch. Maybe she was as well. Emotions run high. I don’t know the woman nor the circumstances but I feel they were a bit hard on her. As for this review, I’ll aim more for the “sense” of the movie – the overall feeling.
Let me tell you that “sense” is a mixed bag. Overall the movie was positive yet unafraid to show some of the negative side. Ron Reagan’s father Jack, for instance. He was a drunk and not a great influence. This may be to my own difficulty I have decoding audio – it is kind of like audio dyslexia – but I couldn’t’ tell if Ron called his father “dad” or “Jack”. It seems he always called him “Jack”. At times in the movie he surely did. Odd.
I have to admit my eyes welled up several times. Mostly I’m reminded of how much I miss President Reagan. No one, not even Donald J. Trump can compare to the Gipper. He was never once called this in the movie, by the way. Several times he was called “Dutch”. Either way, the quality, the genuineness of the man shone through.
Dennis Quaid did a masterful job in his portrayal. No, he didn’t look all that much like Ron Reagan most of the time. It wasn’t a pure mimic, but he had Reagan’s cadence down well and it was easy to see the man the film was about.
Penelope Ann Miller did well as Nancy Reagan. Her part was harder to compare as I didn’t know Nancy all that well. Penelope has always been a favorite of mine so I’m biased about her. The writer’s showed Nancy as decent and strong, and I expect that to be accurate. My wife commented that she actually liked Nancy Reagan where she’d never cared for her before. I thought the producers demonstrated the love and devotion the Reagan’s had for each other admirably and, I think, believably.
The other notable character for me was Tip O’Neil. Personally, I never could stand the man. Maybe I’m taking this the wrong way and the movie unveiled O’Neil for the phony he was. I never felt at ease with the way they made him likable. Maybe he was up close and personal but I’d still check my pockets and count my fingers after having a beer with him.
Why Watch Reagan NOW?
If the local movie house was any indication, you won’t be standing in line to see this flick. There were five others watching besides my wife and I by my count. This is a shame because given the current political environment, now is exactly the time to watch this.
The film opens with the attempted assassination of President Reagan. This is chilling considering the two attempts on Trump already. How or why the movie came to open with this is unnerving. It also fits even though Reagan’s story begins toward the end rather than at the beginning. Throughout the film the timeline shifts. Unlike many other films that try this, it works here.
As you watch, you’ll see other parallels and themes directly relating to up to the moment events. If you pay attention, you’ll also see misses – not so much by the producers but misses by Reagan and those around him. He nailed the tax cut and presented one of the best simple explanation of why tax cuts are effective I’ve ever heard. Some of what Reagan said in the movie are absolutely relevant today.
One notable thing Reagan missed – what we all missed and continue to overlook is the globalist agenda. Reagan was hell on communism. In the movie he stood fast against efforts to aggregate all of our nation’s unions into a single entity and led the Screen Actor’s Guild to vote to keep their independence. He also outlined his strategy of breaking the Soviets financially to Nancy before he became Governor of California. It seems the globalists are deploying this same strategy against our nation to this day. Even so, Reagan missed the bigger picture. Many contend Socialism leads to Communism and it does. What he and most fail to recognize is Socialism and Communism lead to globalization. A one-world government is the ultimate prize – one we are speeding towards.
The movie is well worth watching. It will move you, possibly inspire you. It could even help you make sense of what is happening to us in this nation today.
P.S. A couple of notes here.
The movie was loosely based on The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, a 2006 book written by Paul Kengor. Kengor himself said the script was “faithful” to both his book and history.
In the film, one book Ron Reagan read early in his life, the book that inspired him to accept Christ and “left an abiding belief in the triumph of good over evil” was That Printer of Udell’s is a 1902 work of fiction by Harold Bell Wright. I linked this title to the free version(s) from Project Gutenburg.