Reagan

 

February 3rd, 2025

Dear Movie-Goers,

 

            The movie “Reagan” dazzled many movie critics as it gave insight into the life of Ronald Reagan. The film, directed by Sean McNamara, is narrated by a former Russian KGB officer who tells the story of Reagan’s childhood, life before he was President, during his presidency, and after his presidency. Through this story, we learn about what Reagan’s personal life was like and how he went from a Hollywood movie star to fighting communism as the 40th President of the United States. Overall, I am raving about this movie because it manages to encapsulate almost all of Ronald Reagan’s successes and failures within just two hours and fifteen minutes.

 

            The theme of this movie is: when times are tough, never give up. This theme is shown throughout the movie in various scenes. Such as, when he lost the republican nomination for President to Gerald Ford in 1976 by only a few votes and, when you can hear the news reporter talking about how Reagan is old, making controversial decisions as President, and could be a one term President. In the next scene, we see how Reagan shocked the world and never gave up with his historic 1984 election landslide, beating former Vice President Walter Mondale 525 - 13 in electoral college votes. Reagan lost only Mondale’s home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. 

 

            As the story progresses, we learn more about what Reagan’s personal life was like and how the former KGB officer knew so much about him. Through the officer's dialogue, we learn that during his time working for the Soviet Union, his job was to research people who may become threats to the Soviet Union decades before they actually become one. Furthermore,  he tells us that Ronald Reagan was an FBI informant who helped crack down on the communist invasion of Hollywood during the early to mid-1900s. Finally, we learn how he transitioned from acting to politics and how he met his wife, Nancy Reagan.

 

A person who, in some cases, is highly overlooked but portrayed perfectly in this movie is Nancy Reagan. Penelope Ann Miller, who plays Mrs. Reagan, did a splendid job showing off her protective and supportive spirit. We see this in many scenes across the movie from when she supports Ronald Reagan’s decision to run again after losing the republican nomination for President. Also, when she yells at the staffers, who are helping President Reagan prepare for the 1984 Presidential debate, for cramming his head with useless numbers. She states, “Gentlemen, instead of cramming his head with useless numbers, why don’t you let Ronnie be Ronnie!” and they did just that which led to Reagan’s famous quote about Walter Mondale’s age and inexperience and how he won’t let it change the outcome of the election.

 

            The way McNamara showed how Reagan made and leveraged his allies was amazing. He did this by adding two of Reagan’s allies from real life. Margaret Thatcher, a former prime minister of England, was included throughout this move in many parts. For example, when Reagan was telling her about how he can fight communism in Europe with words and how they can work together. Another one of Reagan’s allies is Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr. Gorbachev was the leader of the Soviet Union and was influenced so much by Reagan’s outstanding speeches that he began to rid Europe of communism, which was shown perfectly in the film. We can see Reagan had a deep connection with these allies during the credits of the movie where there’s real footage of his funeral with both Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev paying their respects.

 

            This movie held true to many historical facts that happened during Reagan’s lifetime, including his war with words and speeches. During his presidency, Dana Rohrabacher wrote Reagan’s speeches. Reagan met Rohrabacher when he decided to camp out in Reagan‘s backyard for the night to talk with him. Rohrabacher wrote many of Reagan‘s most famous speeches, including his “Tear down this wall” speech. His unpreparedness to be the Presidential Speech Writer was portrayed perfectly during this movie in many parts. For example, when Rohrabacher shows up to the White House he is wearing casual clothes instead of a suit. Another good example shown in the movie is when Reagan is giving his famous “Tear down this wall” speech, it goes back-and-forth between him and Rohrabacher's office, which is very dirty and messy. 

           

            This film has positive parts and negative parts. A positive part is, how it shows what went on behind the scenes to make Ronald Reagan’s presidency such a success. They showed people who helped him, and what they did to help him. A negative part however, is how fast they went through his childhood and early adulthood. I would have liked to see how he got introduced to acting and why he liked it so much.

 

            The film “Reagan” is an outstanding movie because it manages to sum up Ronald Reagan’s entire life in just two hours and fifteen minutes. It has many memorable scenes and characters from real life, it shows exactly how his presidency went, and it was acted out perfectly by all of the actors involved. Furthermore, the theme is very clearly shown throughout the film and it is relevant to the movie’s topic. Overall, I would rate this historical movie 5/5 american flags. If you find time, I suggest you go and watch this amazing American history movie about one of the best Presidents of all time. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. 

 

Sincerely, 

Logan Adrian