Reagan: It's Morning Again at the Movies, As Sunshiny and Teflon as Ever
By Chris Knight
Rating: C-
It seems logical to discuss a film about a former American president in presidential terms, so let’s start there. Reagan, a biopic about the ol’ Gipper himself, was first announced almost 15 years ago, early in the Obama administration.
Director Sean McNamara joined the production in 2016. (John G. Avildsen had been in consideration but passed away.) Filming didn’t begin until Trump was in office. And, after a COVID shutdown, it eventually wrapped during Biden’s term. Any more delays and it would premiere under a new president, whoever she may be.
Dennis Quaid as The Gipper in the hagiographical Reagan
So, was it worth the wait? Well, if you’re a fan of the Teflon President it certainly was. Most of the cast and crew have said in interviews that this is not meant to be a hagiography, but if that’s the case then why does it sound like literal choirs of angels singing Take Me Home, Country Roads, over the closing scene?
And why ignore anything that might besmirch the president’s image? You’ll remember how he botched the federal response to the AIDS epidemic? That’s good, because the closest the film gets to addressing that debacle is a couple of images of ACT UP protesters, part of a larger montage of general ’80s unrest.
When it comes to Iran-Contra, Reagan is shown as well-meaning, under-informed and, ultimately, aghast and apologetic when the facts comes to light — possibly the truth, but also the best possible face one can put on the commander-in-chief’s role in the scandal.
Dennis Quaid stars as Ronnie, although two other actors portray the future president as a young boy and as an adolescent. It still makes for some odd moments, as there’s no way today’s Quaid can pass as a young movie-star playing a football-star. Reagan was not yet 30 when he played the Gipper (in 1940’s Knute Rockne: All American) — though he does look natural at the other end of his career.
Still, between the facial prosthetics and actors in cameo roles as Tip O’Neill, Caspar Weinberger, Leonid Brezhnev and the like, Reagan probably has the biggest jowl-and-makeup budget since Nixon.
Other performers include Mena Suvari as Reagan’s first wife Jane Wyman and Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy, Reagan’s First Lady. But give scene-chewing howlingly-bad-accent pride of place to Jon Voight as Viktor Petrovich, a (fictional) retired KGB agent who spends the movie narrating the story of Reagan’s life to a (fictional) up-and-coming Russian politician (Alex Sparrow) in the present day.
Why does a politico in Putin’s Russia need to know the story of a Cold War U.S. president from 40 years ago? It’s never quite explained, but the reason for the movie is simpler.
Back in 2003, CBS made a miniseries called The Reagans, which conservatives slagged as an unfair portrait of the president, beginning with his portrayal by a man (James Brolin) who did not adore him. CBS partially caved, pulling it from its schedule, cutting it down to a truncated TV movie and burying it on the then-cable-gulag channel Showtime.
Thus, were sown the seeds for this revisionist tale, featuring an actor (Quaid) who has called Reagan his favourite president of his lifetime, and another (Voight) who, since his liberal awakening in the ‘60s, has leaned to the right faster than a one-legged sprinter.
Voight told Newsweek about this film: “The indoctrination of children and everything else perpetrated by the left, (Reagan) understood that danger. We’re fighting an important war against leftist forces and we must prevail. That’s the story to me.”
Reagan the man may have been known as The Great Communicator, but Reagan the movie delivers its message stridently and with little nuance or room for debate.
Reagan. Directed by Sean McNamara. Starring Dennis Quaid, Jon Voight, and Penelope Ann Miller. Opens in theatres, Friday, Aug. 30.