Reagan Movie, A Review

4 stars. Suitable for families. It is a delightful, historically fair, inspiring, well-acted, accurate biopic and love story. Dennis Quaid is up to the role he almost rejected.

The bus driver struggled to climb the steep, barely paved, narrow road to Rancho del Cielo (“Ranch in the Sky”) atop a hill near Santa Barbara, California. At least it was a beautiful, sunny Fall morning.

Our group left the Reagan Ranch Museum in town to visit the legendary 688-acre Rancho del Cielo. No place better defines or explains the man. Ronald Reagan practically built much of the 1,500-square-foot house with his own hands (plus a garage and a couple of other facilities, including one for the Secret Service), striking not only for its stunning vistas but also for its remarkable informality. The Reagans bought the ranch in 1974 during his second term as Governor of California.

When my wife and I visited more than a decade ago, the house was in the same condition as it was on the day Reagan died in 2004. I was eager to visit the place I’d only seen on television, including the signing of the Economic Recovery Tax Act in 1981 and visits by Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, and many other world leaders.

Confession: I didn’t support Reagan in 1976 (I was a raging, foolish, lefty Democrat then supporting a candidate named Harris) or in 1980, when I worked for George H. W. Bush’s presidential campaign. My then-boss, the late US Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt (R-AR), was a close personal friend of Bush’s and arranged a minor volunteer role at Bush’s Alexandria, Virginia’s national headquarters. No matter.

The Reagans and the Gorbachevs at Rancho del Cielo

I remember looking into the very humble living room with the old-fashioned television, where the President and Mrs. Reagan (I cannot bring myself to call them “Ronnie and Nancy”) would prop their feet, turn on what looked like a 20 or 25-inch TV, and watch old Hollywood shows.

I remember walking into their bedroom, which featured what seemed like a full-sized bed (not a queen or king), and noting the extension off the end. The bed was too short for Reagan’s 6-foot, 1-inch frame.

Then, I had one of those rare “aha” moments. I finally understood the man, and I loved and respected him all the more. You can take the man out of the rural Midwest, but you can never take the rural Midwest out of him. Those of you with roots in Oklahoma, rural Illinois, and places in between will get it.

Ronald Reagan was a genuinely humble man. It’s what we don’t have, or at least see, in any of our political aspirants today, at least for the presidency. And that’s what we miss most about President Reagan.

Reagan’s favorite movie was “The Sound of Music,” the musical starring Julie Andrews and the late Christopher Plummer. I know that because it was in the Reagan Movie, now in theaters across the United States. It doesn’t capture the man as well as a visit to the Reagan Ranch, but it’s close. Much of the movie was filmed at The Ranch.

I just saw the movie and am happy to report that it is enjoyable, entertaining, and inspiring. It’s not perfect; no movie is. The pace sometimes plodded. While the production values are excellent, the portrayals are sometimes rough. Why couldn’t they get Meryl Streep to play Margaret Thatcher?

Dennis Quaid superbly portrays Reagan, given how challenging this role was for anybody. I get why he almost turned down the role. I wasn’t as impressed with Penelope Ann Miller’s portrayal of Nancy Reagan as my wife was.

The movie is based on a book by Grove City College’s Dr. Paul Kangor, “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.” Kangor is an unabashed Reagan conservative and historian whose works are at the American Spectator. Everyone I know who has studied under him at Grove City loves him. He’s a terrific writer and respected historian. There’s no question that the movie places Reagan in a very positive light. I think that’s deserved, but lefty critics will be lefty critics.

The movie starts with Reagan concluding his speech before trade unions at the legendary Washington Hilton on March 30, 1981, just three months into his presidency, where John Hinckley’s nearly successful assassination attempt occurs. But it quickly segues to a scene featuring Jon Voight in a fictitious role as Viktor Petrovich, a now-retired KGB agent who tracked Reagan throughout his career. Plenty of scenes are features of Viktor’s unsuccessful attempts to alert Soviet leadership, including aging leaders Leonid Brezhnev (played by Robert Davi), Yuri Andropov, and eventually Mikhail Gorbachev on Reagan’s intention to fulfill his objective: “We win, they lose.”

The implication is obvious - Reagan brought down the Soviet Union and knocked back communism a peg or two (warning: it’s back).

A two-hour movie can only cover so much, and this one barely scratches the surface. It spends much time on Reagan’s youth in central Illinois (vacation recommendation: travel the “Ronald Reagan Trail” in Illinois from his youth in Dixon to Eureka College, then stop by and visit the Dirksen Congressional Center in Pekin, Illinois. Yes, I know this is nerdy).

Yours truly visits with Ronald Reagan at his Century City office in August 1996

Interestingly, it spends as much time on Reagan’s narrow loss to President Gerald Ford for the 1976 GOP nomination as it does on his 1980 and 1984 electoral triumphs. It ignores the 1982 recession, which cost his party many of the seats they’d won in Congress just two years previously. It highlights both his best debate performances from 1980 and 1984.

It portrays some, but not a great deal, about the Iran-Contra scandal that almost brought down his presidency. However, the real attraction of this movie is the love story of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. The movie’s ending, with Nancy at Reagan’s coffin, with her final goodbye, should bring tears to your eyes. It did mine.

It concludes with his final days on the ranch, including three poignant moments: 1) the fall of the Berlin Wall (which happened early in the George H. W. Bush presidency); 2) his Alzheimer’s diagnosis; and 3) the painful moment when his Secret Service companion, John Barletta, tells him that he needs to give up his love of riding horses. Quaid’s portrayal of Reagan’s response brings out his best and makes his performance worthy of an Oscar or Academy Award nomination he most assuredly will not get.

Not aired was what I consider the finest political ad ever by a presidential campaign, in 1984. Disclosure: my wife not only worked for President Reagan, but we met at the White House during his first term, when we were both very young congressional press secretaries. We have a special connection to President Reagan. And we were married in the very year this ad aired.

Hollywood has blacklisted Quaid, just as Facebook reportedly censored the movie’s promotion. You know why, the “long march through the institutions of society” we’ve been warned about, and is now painfully real. As the movie describes Reagan launching a war against the Soviet Union but without bombs, so has the left through America’s school, churches, corporations, and now at least one major political party.

This is a terrific biopic. It will win no awards, but if you’re the parents of teenagers, take them to see this if only to learn a little history. And when election “season” rolls around later this month, remember the famous line from the movie and the final 1980 debate between President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. It may be 44 years old, but it rings true as much today as it did then.