Reagan

A political biopic that is far more interested in being worshipful than it is in exploring political complexities and moral conundrums, Sean McNamara’s latest film Reagan has moments that are compelling, but it’s derailed from a hurried and choppy structure that suffers from an over glorified portrait of Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States who is beloved by conservatives and some centrist independents yet held with many criticisms from liberals. Ideology aside, Reagan isn’t a bad film by any means, like some film critics are proclaiming. It’s handsomely made and well-acted, especially Dennis Quaid, who embodies the charisma, charm, and strength of Reagan. Sadly, the film doesn’t fully engage.

The film offers many insightful historical moments that are dramatically satisfying, like Reagan debating Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and Reagan’s era as the Vice President of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), along with some insightful Cold War history. Sadly, the film also holds many missed opportunities where many of Reagan’s criticisms and scrutinizes involve trickledown economics, the failed War on Drugs, increased incarceration rates, and his mismanagement of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. In other words, Reagan would have been a less watered-down version and rather stronger film if in the hands of a more fearless political storyteller like Oliver Stone—who helmed other political films such as the 1991 triumphant masterpiece JFK, as well as the underrated Nixon (1995) and W. (2008). Even Adam MacKay would have made a more fascinating political portrait of Reagan as his film Vice (2018) brought sharp scrutiny and satire to the VP while bringing some unexpected empathy as well.

Courtesy of Showbiz Direct

The film’s messy structure highlights Ronald Reagan’s (Dennis Quaid) as the President of SAG having infights with other unions attempting to infiltrate SAG with one centralized union that has Communist leanings and other forms of active measures that spread Communism. Very much like today, the Kremlin was meddling in American affairs back then too, but the ideologies and parties have reversed in ways of combating it. In Reagan’s efforts, he begins as a successful actor and then marries his co-star actress Jane Wyman. Reagan’s children never appear in the film or are mentioned, and if they did, I must have missed it in a blink of an-eye because the film’s structure is butchered loose, overstuffed, and choppy. There is so much history to cover, but Howard Klausner’s screenplay that’s based on Paul Kenworth Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism ends up feeling dramatically inert.

During Reagan’s terms as governor, he stumbles upon a large following of people against the counterculture. The film quickly hovers over the history of him sending the National Guard to thwart the Vietnam protestors; not much else is fully explored to its extent. To top off the messiness, the film is narrated from the perspective of Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight), a former KGB agent who narrates the film and explains how the Soviet’s aims to co-opt Hollywood and Washington, D.C., were quelled by Reagan. The film bounces around, and eventually Reagan meets and marries his second wife, Nancy Reagan (Penelope Ann Miller), and Nancy encourages Ronald to run for president, which results in a narrow- defeat to then President Gerald Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention. Nancy encouraged him once more in 1980, which led to Reagan getting elected against President Jimmy Carter, whom Carter blamed for the inflation that was created from the economic hardships and spending from the Vietnam War. Sadly, none of this rich history or glimpses of Reagan’s life has any real impact in the movie. The political motivation and aspirations of Reagan feel one-dimensional and like historic folklore and seem like they are Fox News talking points. There are shades where the film does capture Reagan’s belief in democracy, especially for it to draw lazy modern parallels to Donald Trump in shades of the film where Reagan was this anti-establishment fighter that had to stand up against the scrutiny from the press and law.

Courtesy ShowBiz Direct

When the film shows a hint at holding any moral conundrums or a slight sense of criticism during a montage of Reagan’s legitimate criticisms, it ends up becoming tone deaf once it shows an electoral map of Reagan winning 49 out of 50 states against Democratic nominee Walter Mondale. The montage doesn’t work because it feels like a “own the libs” montage than exploring any type of atonement or any type of great areas that Reagan could have endured in that period. Finally, when the Iran Contra scandal is covered, there are no complexities or dramatic consequences in the narrative or characterization for Reagan. Quaid is even filmed like a superhero as if he is in a Marvel or DC Studio film; he wears his cowboy attire and rides on a horse. Even Reagan’s battle with dementia is brushed over that shows no mental or cognitive decline. All attempts to humanize the 40th President is sidelined for folklore.  The film’s most intriguing moments are when Reagan visits Moscow to build up relations with Mikhail Gorbachev (Aleksander Krupa) during the height of the Cold War, but the scenes don’t fully ignite as the Soviet leaders are all portrayed as caricatures that feel like they walked off an 80s SNL skit. There are reattempts to deliver an engaging story here, but it never reaches the potential as the film feels like its tailor-made for Fox News viewers. In truth, Reagan would have been better if it were made in the 90s and directed by Oliver Stone during his peak. Say what you want about Stone, but he knew how to create a nuanced political film where he put aside his own ideology and knew how to humanize historical figures.

REAGAN is now playing in theaters