The Reagans [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of The Reagans [VHS]
Movie Review: Surprisingly good for a made for TV movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
This film got my attention because of the controversy, with conservatives demanding it not be shown on CBS. Being a liberal who didn't think much of the Reagans, I expected to see an unfavorable portrayal of the Reagans...but as I watched it, I felt impressed by Ronald Reagan, if he was actually the way James Brolin brilliantly captures him (voice, presence, walk). He comes across as a likeable, funny person who is not much for the details and appears to be mishandled by his cutthroat staff members. James Brolin and Judy Davis deserve Emmy wins for their portrayal of the first couple. Its touching to see how much they obviously love each other through the trials of a public life, even if their relationship to each other came at the expense of their children. I own a few Kennedy movies, and don't recall any attempts at boycotting/censoring those, even if they portrayed JFK's infidelity and health problems. This movie about the Reagans shouldn't surprise anyone who has read the autobiographies/memoirs by Ronald, Nancy, and Patti Davis. This film gave me a renewed appreciation for Reagan as a person and president. Conservatives should take note...if this film was a liberal slam against the former president, then it wouldn't have changed the mind of this liberal regarding him as a person. I still may not like most of his policies, but its hard to fault a funny, decent man that Reagan was. This film stands with "Jefferson in Paris" and "Thirteen Days" as must own movies about real American presidents.Movie Review: Fascinating if a bit aimless
Summary: 3 Stars
The problem with biopics is that in the real world events happen to people here and there. There is rarely a driving narrative to real people's people's lives. So you watch something like THE REAGANS fascinated by the detail (especially in its portrayal of the Reagan children trying to cope with their closed-off parents), but there's nothing to really be learned from the whole narrative. The Reagans meet and get married, have children; Ronnie runs for governor and then for the presidency four times (twice successfully); he gets shot in office and nearly undone by Iran/Contra, and then they go back to California. That's it.This miniseries was based on a book about the First Ladies of the US, so Nancy of course figures heavily into it. Judy Davis, inarguably one of the greatest actors living today, would seem born to play the ironwilled Nancy, and she approaches her part with a great deal of intelligence and makes Nancy seem enormously sympathetic even at her most imperious to her husband's staff or at her most firebreating to her children. She even gets to do a musical number, with great panache (Nancy's famous rendition of "Second-Hand Rose" for the Gridiron club), and she is allowed one exceptionally poignant scene (her meeting with her senile mother at a retirement home in the mid 80s). James Brolin fares less well: he looks very much like Reagan, and has the mannerisms and the voice down pat (he's even as good a mimic as President Reagan reportedly was), but he does not project the needed vitality. The Reagan children are well portrayed--lonely and needy Michael, upbeat Maureen, angry Patti (Zoie Palmer, in a particularly fine and furious small performance) and practical Ron Jr.--,but you feel they often get shunted off from the main narrative just as they apparently did in real life from their parents' all-consuming love relationship and political ambition. Republicans were furious before this miniseries aired about its antipathy towards the Reagans' politics, but the only real points it scores against the Reagan administration is in its willful obliviousness to the AIDS crisis.
Movie Review: James Brolin in a Reagan Mask
Summary: 3 Stars
The film was not as bad as I expected from the reviews, except that James Brolin looked like he was wearing a Ronald Reagan smiling mask. If one were to take any single still frame out of the film it would look like Reagan. If you listened to the voice, it would sound like Reagan. However, Brolin lacked the life and expressions of the real Ronald Reagan. The real Reagan captivated audiences. Brolin seems flat and empty.The film is limited in time and cannot cover all the facts, but at times issues were raised without fully addressing them. For instance, the film raised the issue of Reagan saying he had seen the holocaust while his advisors note that Reagan never left the US during the war. They don't tell you that Reagan saw some of the first pictures of holocaust victims because of his role in making films for the war.
Over all, it was an interesting film, but the flat emptiness in Brolin's presentation of Reagan was a big disappointment.
Movie Review: What's the controversy for?
Summary: 4 Stars
I went into this having a somewhat negative view of Reagan and a neutral opinion of his wife. I was quite surprised to find that it changed my opinion of Reagan for the better. Nancy, however, definitely comes off the worse. The portrayals all seem very honest and reasonable and the controversy surrounding it seems misplaced. In fact, all the hub-bub sourrounding this movie feels much more like an attempt to make sure the public only remembers the good things in Reagan's administration. Bottom-line, I would recommend this movie for what it is; a very good depiction of the events and a sometimes exaggerated depiction of the people in Reagan's life. Like the movie says, the roles are presented as a composite.Movie Review: Somewhat Unflattering but Not a Trashing
Summary: 3 Stars
This was a lot more balanced than I expected it would be, particularly with regard to Nancy Reagan. As portrayed by Judy Davis, she comes across as a tough but intelligent First Lady whose judgement and political instincts are sharper than her husband's. If anything, the Nancy Reagan of this movie is a toned down version of the real one. Except for the makeup. Judy Davis, a beautiful woman, is slathered in garish lipstick that makes her look like Faye Dunaway playing Joan Crawford playing a hooker. I can't figure out why her makeup is so outlandish while Brolin's makeup, which must have been much more of a challenge for the makeup artists, is so good.Brolin does look like Reagan, right down to the turkey neck, and he even sounds like him. But, while his performance isn't really bad, he lacks Reagan's natural charm and charisma. When Brolin-as-Reagan makes a speech to a group of people, his delivery is so ho-hum, we can't relate to the rapt expressions of the people listening to him. This is fatal to the film.
Virtually no character in the movie comes off completely untarnished except for Michael Deaver. Inexplicably, Gorbachev is portrayed as overwrought and animated, two characteristics I don't associate with him. John Stamos, an underrated actor overshadowed in recent years by his beautiful wife, is convincingly smooth and slimey as John Sears, Reagan's campaign manager. Alander Haig and Donald Regan are played as jerks, which may not be inaccurate.
One of the things that makes the movie look somewhat biased is that it portrays Reagan as more bumbling and disconnected than he probably was. It also suggests that Reagan's poor memory, in recalling the facts about Iran/Contra, and even in making the decisions that led up to that scandal, was due to incipient Alzheimer's. I don't think there are any facts to support this notion.
Although, the title "The Reagans" suggests that this will be mainly about Reagan's family life, that topic is secondary while politics and the key historical events of Reagan's presidency are the principal focus.
A better script could have made this effort more noteworthy than it turned out to be. But, in fairness to the scipt writers and the filmmakers, I think it's important to note that this movie is at times unflattering and, at other times, overly generous to the Reagans; it does NOT boil down to a hatchet job.