Mr Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!

Samuel reviews a film about Ronald Reagan

Last month, my family and I sat down at the local cinema to enjoy the film Reagan, a biopic of Ronald Reagan starring Nashville resident Dennis Quaid as the 40th President of the United States.  There are many reasons why I have always held Reagan in high regard.  The first is Reagan’s famous natural charm and optimism, a rare commodity in the bitter and zero-sum political environment of today.  Furthermore, Reagan, along with his Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, successfully led the American economy out of the infamous stagflation of the 1970s and into the prosperity of the 1980s.  According to economist Arthur Laffer, a member of Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board and also a new acquaintance of mine, Reagan implemented Laffer’s ideas of tax cuts and deregulation despite a constant drumbeat of opposition from a majority of his own cabinet.  For this effort, I clearly must applaud Reagan’s determination to stick to his guns.  Reagan’s filmmakers clearly presented the 40th President’s iconoclasm as a core trait that benefited not only him, but the nation and the world as well.

Speaking of guns, another pivotal endeavor where Reagan successfully defied his critics and skeptical advisors was his bold plan to take down the Soviet Union once and for all.  The filmmakers made the unusual choice of incorporating a retired KGB agent as the narrator.  While the movie critics lashed that artistic choice, this narration encapsulated another core theme of the film- Reagan’s uncompromising anti-communism.  The most dramatic moment vindicating a lifetime of battling what Ronald Reagan saw as an existential threat to freedom and democracy was his iconic (but advised against by Secretary of State George Shultz) 1987 Berlin Wall Speech.  While the film did not have enough time to detail Reagan’s plans to cripple the Soviet Union without firing a shot, it was ultimately his intervention that tipped the scales and allowed Germany to reunify, Eastern Europe to escape Moscow’s clutches, and the Soviet Union and communism to shrivel from a deadly threat to a chapter in the history books- if only our media were to give Ronald Reagan more credit.

Despite Reagan’s obvious achievements, the film was little more than a snapshot of his 93 years on earth, with many details scrubbed to accelerate his story from childhood to the Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 1994.  The critics savaged Reagan for this approach, even though I found the film’s execution to be highly competent for a product that only intended to scratch the surface of a beloved yet complicated man.  In my honest opinion, the film’s political posture, much more than its narrative flaws, contributed the most to the negative reviews. 

After all, film critics tend to overwhelmingly lean to the political left.  Since I have long considered, still do consider, and likely always will consider Ronald Reagan one of the greatest presidents in American history, I was bound to enjoy the film no matter the flaws.  If you can find a screening and appreciate Reagan’s crowning achievement of dismantling the Soviet Empire, I would highly recommend you take those two hours out of your time and see Reagan, despite Hollywood’s shameful blackout towards promoting the film.

So, you may be wondering, the film aside, what would Ronald Reagan think of this year’s presidential election?  After all, we have heard contradictory claims from individuals who claim to be executing Reagan’s legacy.  On one side you have Liz Cheney, the ex-congresswoman and daughter of the notorious Vice President, claiming that Donald Trump stands against everything Ronald Reagan stood for, and there was “no chance” that the 40th president would support the 45th president.  After all, Trump’s personal opinions on Ukraine and Russia belies Reagan’s history of lending support to anti-Soviet proxies.  On the other hand, you have the economist Art Laffer who has told me in person how much he approved of Trump’s economic policy, particularly the 2017 tax reform, as a continuation of Reagan’s tax-cutting legacy.  Therefore, it looks like Reagan’s own disciples cannot agree on how to answer the question.  Since even Liz Cheney didn’t claim that Reagan would outright support the Democratic ticket, it seems highly unlikely Reagan would follow her endorsement, yet Donald Trump’s odd fixation with an old KGB agent would certainly give the 40th president pause.

And if you admire Reagan’s work dismantling the Soviet Empire and freeing half of Europe, as I most certainly do, then you best hurry to see Reagan the film.