Public perception of the real world is usually one of shame. If not shame, then indifference. Either way, the decision to adapt the public and personal lives of long-dead politicians is no different to party-adjacent propaganda. Whatever the method, there is a sense of bias. Rare it is for a creative to come through with a true balance of the moral distance of professional decision, Reagan suffers from an uncontrollable optimism. A sense of regaining red, white and blue pride at a time when the country was suffering – just listen to Bruce Springsteen for further guidance on the malaise and difficulties across the water at the time. But the Dennis Quaid-starring film is an inevitability. One which falls in line with a Josh Brolin adaptation of George Bush and a Meryl Streep rendition of Margaret Thatcher. The point is not to exonerate but to understand.
But this understanding is trickier still when the fundamentals of filmmaking – those moments which should hook us in and leave us questioning – are overwhelmed by agenda. Wherever you may lay on a political compass, the fundamental trouble with Reagan, and the irresponsibility of it, is not giving the audience enough slack on their leash-led guide through the life of the USA’s fortieth president. With journeyman children’s entertainment director, Sean McNamara led the charge with an onslaught of famous faces looking to cover the blatant holes in their representation of Reagan as Saint. He was, at best, a flawed leader. Notorious for either side – but the fundamental failure of Reagan is in its greasy bias. At least with other films of a politically tense nature, there is some resemblance of pros and cons. But this piece from Quaid is a view of Reagan through those who supported his policies to the hilt.
Two hours and twenty minutes is a long while to spend with mouthpiece material, and though the quality of performance can sometimes outweigh the underlying notions, there are few moments which do benefit from the reappraisal of Reagan. Much of the slop trouble is the fault of McNamara, who holds out hope for the feel of the times with some decent direction but the sets look flimsy, it all feels a little too staged to feel at all like a real adaptation, even with the uncanny resemblance Quaid has and the little flickers of grain on the screen. Care has gone into this creation which makes it all the worse to see it fail to look at Reagan impartially, or at the very least disguise their leanings.
McNamara gets too big for his boots with the direction at times, zooming into lenses and offering blurred effects on most of the action-packed scenes. For a man who had an abundance of charisma and oversaw some of the world’s biggest events, it remains staggering that Reagan would try and paint an ultimately positive picture. If anything, it harms the Quaid portrayal as there is an out for any scene which could be deemed challenging for either actor or audience. Biography and hagiography are not the same. The latter depends on an understanding of why praise is administered. Between the hammy Russian accent Jon Voight is dispensing and the lifeless direction, it is easy to see why subtlety would fall through the cracks of this one.
With Bob Dylan on the soundtrack treading with caution and irony for his cover of Don’t Tread Me In, the mixed bag that is Reagan can, at best, be considered an adaptation of real life. Quaid works overtime to get as much of a sliver of interest out of this film – an often embarrassingly rosy-cheeked look at a controversial political figure. The very need for a biopic is to chart the highs and lows of a person’s time in office and post-leadership. Reagan’s omissions are telling. Quaid with that lipless smile swaggers through Reagan and leaves the rest of the cast, who are there for nothing more than blowing smoke, in the dust. Depicting Reagan cutting wood in his backyard and making the equivalent of those who chipped away at the Berlin Wall with a pickaxe is certainly a choice. Many such examples lay within Reagan, which is worth a watch more for the puzzling omissions and caricatures of the real world than it is for any factual interest.
