Film Review: "Reagan"
The wife1 and I saw Reagan at AMC Fullerton and the film was successful for the goal that it had.
The theatre was packed -- we had to get crappy seats and were there early (this is California, fyi) (don't give me any of that Red Wave prophecy crap, though -- I'm serious, I will zap you back to the stone age, there will be no such thing and I don't have the patience for that grade-inflated bullcrap) -- there were a lot of people there who remember Reagan and who seem to know the basics about him.
The film bit off quite a bit to chew. It's a lot of material to some how, some way, make entertaining. There was a strong cast, from Kevin Dillon to Yohann Sebastian Voight (who stole the show, in my opinion).
Structurally, the script took strong strategic position of having a Russian narrate the thing. This was the key that made the movie successful. It needed one knowledgeable voice to bring the entire thing together, and the narrator choice of a former Communist was the closet coat rack holding all of the hangers as the movie progressed onto the fall of Communism .
There were a plethora of key moments from which to choose, and I am pro-choice and think it's your right to choose which gun you take to the grocery store for self defense. The writers chose wisely from among these key moments of Reagan's life and career.
Key moments included his life-guard experience as a young man (yes, insightful), his major of economics in college (yes), his Mid-western childhood (yes), the speaker he heard at church who'd escaped the Soviet Union (yes, yes, and more yes), his union background and the reality of the Communist infiltration of domestic politics (HUGE), his becoming a Republican and seeing Goldwater for who he really was (KEY) despite how unpopular that was with many New-Deal sell-outs (hard to misunderestimate this), the election to Governor and the response to Berkeley (and this was a rare point in the film where Reagan's actual response, available on YouBoob, was more dramatic than Dennis Quaid's rendition), the loss to Ford (yes), the demonization of Republicans, especially him (yes, goes back to the response to Goldwater, people, has nothing to do with Trump, in fact, it goes back to Lincoln, who was shot and killed by Democrat culture warriors/actors/artists), the fear that the Soviets and the Socialist Iranians had of him, the nurturing, non-bullying, gentle grandpa-ish sense of humor, for instance, with the Mondale debate (Big Time), the Iran-Contra (very subtle, but would've been weird to leave it out), the special relationship with Nancy (hard to misunderestimate), the evil empire, tear down this wall thing, the fact that the real Reagan ranch was used as a set -- that was actually his home that they used, not a prop, not computer generated, it's owned by YAF (I was YAF faculty advisor at LMU, I still get the Reagan Ranch calendars every year), and of course, his dementia.
In an era when I can tell the grade-inflators and the grade-inflated are dominating the "film" industry and it sure seems like no one knows how to do anything with the medium anymore that doesn't require a fancy computer program along with the stupid, stupid thuds and booms they put in all the previews no matter what the topic because they're all copying each other, this film is simple, and relies on time tested film type stuff that worked for decades. A good topic, intelligently structured in writing, accurate, clean, sharp with the wardrobe , refreshing, real sets, and timely release. May other film makers go and do likewise. It's a reminder, Republicans can make films, and Democrats sure seem to miss lots of opportunities of low-hanging fruit right in front of them, so, go and do likewise.
I will add that I appreciated the California connection. May we continue to work toward the same goals of renewing our California politics and culture into a more healthy version of our ethnic American Constitutional heritage than the one ruining California now.
Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. is producer and host of The Republican Professor podcast. TRP podcast was rated worst (least good) in the world by Bolshevik Quarterly, the official publication of The Satanic Cult of America, an arm of the national socialist Democratic National Committee.
Footnotes:
Under “W” in the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2015.
