Ronald Reagan is having a moment — but not without controversy
A movie about former President Ronald Reagan, which opened in theaters Labor Day weekend, is being met with acclaim from many Republicans, who consider Reagan the best president of the past four decades, slightly above Donald Trump.
The film — which stars Dennis Quaid as Reagan and Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan — focuses on Reagan’s inspiring rise to the White House, hand-in-hand with his devoted wife. Although it is set during the Cold War, a time when Americans were less divided, it has not escaped partisanship sniping. Both Quaid and country singer Clint Black, who performs a song in the film, said they have faced pushback for being involved with the movie, with Black telling Megyn Kelly last week that he had to block haters on social media.
Quaid was asked by podcaster Joe Rogan if he was afraid that taking the role of Reagan would hurt his career. Quaid replied, “I don’t care anymore,” adding, “In this election, everybody’s got to choose a side. And in order to have this exchange of ideas and dialogue, we have to speak up.”
Although “Reagan” is about a man who was president in the 1980s, it has somewhat bewilderingly been linked to the current election. Earlier this month, it was reported that attempts to boost Facebook posts about the movie in order to get wider exposure were rejected by Meta. The reason given, according to Quaid, was that the posts were “an attempt to sway the election,” to which Quaid replied, “the last time Ronald Reagan’s name was on the ballot was 40 years ago.”
The post in question, Newsweek reported, showed an image of Quaid as Reagan, along with the quote, “Don’t let anyone tell you that America’s best days are behind her — that the American spirit has been vanquished. We’ve seen it triumph too often in our lives not to believe it now.”
A similar situation happened on Facebook when the film’s promotion team tried to boost a clip of Quaid talking to Jordan Peterson, Newsweek reported.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan podcast recently, Quaid said, “Reagan was a great president, and he gets compared to Trump — there are comparisons when you get down to policy, and maybe they see this as influencing an election by that comparison.” But, he went on to say, “The movie is not about ideology at all. Reagan was a Democrat for 40 years. It’s about the Cold War and about his fight against communism. You know, we won the Cold War under Reagan.”
Calling Reagan his favorite president, Quaid described once traveling up “five miles of the worst road in California” in order to visit Reagan’s ranch — “You got to the top of the mountain and come through that gate, and I could just feel him. I could feel him on every inch of that place.” He also said he was struck by the simplicity of the ranch. Although known as “the Western White House” while Reagan was president, the house is only 1,100 square feet.
Quaid told Rogan he wanted to play Reagan “warts and all” and that he took a while before accepting the role. The late president’s son, Michael Reagan, wrote after seeing the film, “It’s a warts-and-all rendition of my father’s successes and failures in life and politics as told through the eyes of an old KGB agent (Jon Voight).”
That’s not how some reviewers saw it, with Variety calling the film “worshipful” and The Hollywood Reporter calling it “reverential.” “Although it’s only September, the Daily Beast has already pronounced it “the worst film of the year.”
Reagan is also the topic of a new biography set for release Sept. 10. Written by columnist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Max Boot, “Reagan: His Life and Legend” is drawn from more than 100 interviews with the president’s aides, friends and family members.
According to Pew Research Center, “About four in ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (41%) say Reagan has done the best job as president over the past 40 years. Slightly fewer (37%) say Trump has done the best job.” (Most Democrats pick Barack Obama.)
