By DENNY DRESSMAN
After seeing the movie Reagan with my wife a few days after it was released in theaters, I wondered aloud if it would have any impact on the coming presidential election.
Left-leaning reviewers have panned the biopic for ignoring most of Ronald Reagan’s Commander-in-Chief warts and making him look too good.
But audiences disagree. The movie is far exceeding box office expectations and, at its conclusion, drawing applause and standing ovations.
The dual cautionary messages—the importance of standing up TO the world’s bad guys while standing up FOR America—can’t be missed.
It’s extremely difficult to condense a life into a film of industry-standard length (i.e. less than two hours, the duration for which most movie-goers are willing to sit still). But Reagan manages to hold their attention for 2:15.
Paul Kengor’s 2007 book, The Crusader – Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, on which the movie is based, fills 432 pages. At a minute of screen time per page of script, Howard Klausner’s screenplay runs roughly one-third of that.
Remarkably, Klausner packed glimpses of Reagan’s youth and a look into his early years as a largely undistinguished actor into a story that’s really about leading the Screen Actors Guild when a Communist organizer was trying infiltrate it, becoming a politician, being elected governor of California, and winning America’s highest office—while all the time resisting Communism at every turn.
There’s only one Ronald Reagan. But Dennis Quaid is a respectable on-screen facsimile.
For my money, though, Penelope Ann Miller steals the show with her portrayal of Nancy Reagan.
She’s believable throughout, though her entry into Reagan’s life seems a bit stretched and her barracuda-like nature when it comes to protecting her man, while visible at times, seems understated.
The key player is Jon Voight, cast as aging former Soviet KGB agent Viktor Petrovich.
Adapting a long book to the screen requires a device to bridge lengthy stretches of the more detailed account, and Petrovich’s narration is that vehicle in Reagan. It works beautifully.
There are moments most Americans—at least those born before the turn of this century, know well—such as John Hinckley’s attempt to assassinate Rawhide (his Secret Service code name) and Reagan’s famous “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!” demand in Berlin.
But the strength of the production is the in-depth examination of Reagan’s development from teenage lifeguard and collegiate radio announcer to national leader and world statesman of conviction.
There are similarities between the hero in the movie and today’s protagonist seeking to return to the White House—not to mention today’s entertainment industry climate and its resemblance to Hollywood in the 1950s—which is why I wonder if any undecided voters will be swayed in Donald Trump’s favor.
As my long-time boss often told me, timing is everything.
Both Reagan and Trump started out as Democrats. Both were shot and survived. Both are known for speaking up on behalf of America at home and bluntly challenging adversaries abroad.
Reagan, though, was smoother, less abrasive. That comes through in the story of his fight against “the evil empire.”