Review of “Reagan”: The story of a saint

Sean McNamara’s biography Reagan goes far beyond hero worship, as it portrays the 40th U.S. president as a saint among men. The film begins with Ronald Reagan (Dennis Quaid) quoting his mother off-screen – “Everything, even seemingly random twists of fate, are part of the divine plan” – and then cuts to a vision of John Hinckley Jr.’s attempted assassination of the president in 1981. The mix of slow-motion reenactment and archive footage is the first of many bizarre, unintentionally comic moments in a film that is not only determined to portray Reagan as The He is not a great man of the second half of the 20th century, but a man chosen by God to defeat the colossal, religion- and freedom-hating villain of our time: communism.

What is particularly strange is that Reagan’s life story is told from the perspective of the fictional KGB agent Victor Novikov (Jon Voigt), who amusingly has the same name as a Russian oligarch from the video game Hitman2In the present day, Novikov regales a young Russian agent (Alex Sparrow), who wonders how the USSR could have lost the Cold War, with stories from Reagan’s personal and political past, portraying him not only as an admirable opponent, but as a nearly invincible enemy, earning the initially sarcastic nickname “The Crusader.”

Reagan was inspired by Paul Kengor’s 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communismalthough the pervasive Christian undertones suggest that the filmmakers also drew on Kengor’s book from the previous year, God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life. A focus on Reagan’s spirituality could have been at least somewhat compelling if it had been presented with any complexity or depth. But since the film was written by Howard Klausner, co-screenwriter of Michael Mason’s ridiculous Christian drama God is not dead: A light in the darkness From 2018 onwards, it is not surprising that Reagan does not so much question the beliefs of its subject, but rather impresses upon the audience the idea that these were the decisive force behind its success and greatness.

Throughout, Reagan is reminded that he serves God with certain comments, such as when his mother tells him, “God has a purpose for your life, something only you can do,” thereby deifying him. To be fair, the Russians are portrayed as no less one-dimensional – strategically infiltrating Hollywood and the unions to destroy God and freedom, both of which the film stupidly considers to be entirely synonymous with America. So it’s no surprise that every Russian except Mikhail Gorbachev is portrayed as evil and heartless.

Far more disturbing than the comically villainous portrait of Russia is the film’s relentlessly condescending, duplicitous view of Reagan’s critics over the years. The protesters at the University of California, Berkeley in 1969 are portrayed as whiny brats encouraged by a weak, naive and idealistic faculty and administration. Even more offensive and tasteless is that the film passes off Ronnie’s “shhh” as a joke to the silent protesters, only to gloss over the one death and 128 hospitalizations that resulted from his deployment of the National Guard shortly thereafter.

Every pro-union liberal in McNamara’s film is portrayed as a mindless, freedom-hating Russian puppet, ready to resort to violence if it doesn’t get its way. And every politician and member of the press demanding accountability in the Iran-Contra affair is motivated not by a sense of morality or justice but by a bloodthirsty desire to destroy Reagan’s career.

Even if it’s just to portray Reagan as an unwitting victim, it’s shocking that the scandal is mentioned at all, considering how many other controversial issues that shaped his presidency are overlooked. The war on drugs isn’t mentioned, and in a suitably ironic tribute to the Reagan administration’s silence and inaction during one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, the film is silent on the AIDS crisis. As for trickle-down economics, the film’s childish attitude is summed up when Ronnie offers a choice piece of charming folk wisdom: “If the good Lord only charges 10%, why would Uncle Sam charge more?”

It is not only ReaganThe argumentative, clumsy, disingenuous and disinterested treatment of the subject and the sociopolitical realities that he lived through is what makes the film so unbearable. It is the unflinching complacency with which the film presents its distorted view of reality as indisputable fact, along with the utter contempt it shows for anyone who was not fully on Reagan’s side. In fact, this contempt often comes in the form of ridicule, but for a film by the director of Bratzand in which Scott Stapp from Creed also appears as Frank Sinatra, perhaps a biblical piece of advice would be appropriate: let he who is without sin cast the first stone.