In the comparatively brief history of the United States, there are few presidents more highly lauded – or widely derided, in many circles – than Ronald Reagan. The 40th president of the United States, a modestly successful former actor turned conservative political crusader, left behind a complicated legacy with ramifications that impact the country to this day, both economic, social and otherwise. Even at a ponderous 135 minutes, director Sean McNamara’s (Bratz: The Movie, Soul Surfer) ineptly made effort fails to provide any actual insight into its subject’s life, instead opting for a bluntly one-sided hagiography which depicts Reagan as a near-godlike figure. Like many recent conservative cinematic efforts, such as Sound of Freedom or Nefarious, it’s an act of preaching to the choir. Entirely devoid of nuance or objectivity, Reagan not only disrespects the intelligence of a presumably multi-faceted viewership, but the life of a consequential figure who, regardless of opinion, deserved better than this cheaply made and lazy attempt at a biopic.
Adapted from the book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, written by Paul Kengor, Reagan was produced on an independently financed budget of $25 million, largely because of difficulties with financing. Shot in 2020, the film sat on the shelf for four years – never a good sign – and has already courted controversy due to a ban on its advertising on Facebook (ostensibly, the film’s promotional attempts were an effort to influence the outcome of the 2024 elections – an absurd notion; the film can barely convince one of itself). To be clear, Reagan is not a fun film to review. It’s a culturally loaded act of blatant idolatry with a built-in audience, meant to stir up visions of a bygone America that read more like your weird uncle’s Facebook posts than actual reality. The vision is shockingly regressive, out of line with our contemporary understanding of the Cold War, and completely unwilling to engage with any of Reagan’s political acts beyond how he handled the Soviet Union. This isn’t Reagan, it’s Reagan vs. the Commies.
Beginning in 1981, and then moving briskly from Reagan’s childhood through his eventual death from Alzheimer’s in 2004, Reagan is, on the surface, a fairly typical “great man” biopic. There’s nothing to learn from this movie that can’t be gleaned from a cursory reading of his Wikipedia page. Starring Dennis Quaid as the former president, the film depicts Reagan’s flailing career as an actor, his eventual marriage to Nancy Davis (Penelope Ann Miller), and his ascendency to the presidency, where he spars with Mikhail Gorbachev (Olek Krupa) and attempts to de-escalate threats of nuclear war. Perplexingly, the story is narrated by Viktor Petrovich (Jon Voight), a composite character meant to represent KGB spies from the Cold War era, who reflects on Reagan’s legacy as the man who defeated the Communist’s grand plan. Along the way, Reagan encounters various influential historical figures, many of them played by Hollywood C and D-listers such as Kevin Dillon and notable arch-conservative Kevin Sorbo (God’s Not Dead). Sorbo’s presence in the film, notable only because of the staunchly far-right views he’s espoused in real life, is predictable but surprisingly uninteresting. Reagan can’t even muster up the ambition to be entertaining propaganda.
Of course, the question is whether Reagan’s political slant is a problem at all. It’s a fair point. By and large, Hollywood is inarguably liberal. Movies can have enormous value beyond their politics, especially when filmmakers like S. Craig Zahler (Brawl in Cell Block 99, Dragged Across Concrete) are managing to make effective and entertaining genre films despite some (and this is subjective) troubling undertones. The problem is, Reagan is a crappy movie. The lack of subtlety wouldn’t be so offensive if the movie wasn’t so inept at delivering its messaging. For his part, Quaid manages a decent impersonation, but he’s never given the leeway to truly delve into the character. Howard Klausner’s screenplay is so slavishly unquestioning of its subject’s actions and achievements that Quaid ultimately has nowhere to go, resorting to rehashing noteworthy soundbites with none of the nuance and detailed historical context that made them significant in the first place. The actor, once respected in an increasingly bygone era, might as well be wearing one of those Reagan masks from Point Break – the portrayal is that shallow. As Nancy, Miller has even less to do, little more than a doting wife who unquestioningly supported her husband until his dying breath.
What’s most shocking about Reagan, though, is its utter and complete technical incompetence. Several moments, including the film’s very final shot, dip in and out of focus. Select scenes are overlaid with an iMovie-grade “vintage” filter that only serves to blur the image, and there are more than a handful of instances where the environments surrounding the characters look inexplicably digital in quality. Not even the color grading can be spared, since from shot to shot, the film’s color scheme will swing radically from warm to cool. Composer John Coda’s score, which could generously be described as stock music, is frequently misused to create false tension in moments that don’t warrant it. An early expository scene with Voight features odd, percussive booms that take it from unextraordinary to laughable, and though the music isn’t always that intrusive, it constantly tells you how to feel. A sequence towards the story’s middle says it all. “Of course, not everyone thought he should be president,” intones Voight’s Petrovich, as disconnected newsreel footage rapidly flashes across the screen with words like “AIDS!” and “WAR ON DRUGS!” It’s the only time the film ever touches on these criticisms, much less anything the president did outside of his dealings with Russia. A complex figure, Reagan remains both loved and hated; his film can barely muster an ambivalent shrug.
Photo courtesy of ShowBiz Direct
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