There’s something ever so slightly eerie in seeing Ronald Reagan revived, like the Ghost of Republicanism Past, in this entertaining if slightly pointless movie about his public image, composed entirely of White House TV footage, with some revealing off-the-record “feed” material.
Reagan was a president who stuck to the script and became poignantly lost for words when the script wasn’t clear; the current president is, sadly, not lost for words when he leaves the script behind. Reagan shimmers enigmatically across the screen, increasingly unwilling to answer shouted questions from reporters as he gets off official flights, relying on deafening engines and helicopter rotor blades to allow him to do his trademark “Can’t hear ya!” gesture and a wave.
He would also do the smile, the point at an imaginary person in the crowd, and occasionally hold up some gifted T-shirt against his chest, and maybe all these mannerisms camouflaged the beginnings of dementia. (I myself saw him speak in Cambridge in 1990, and he did all these, before launching into a fluent, if autopiloted speech: it was weirdly like a living mirage.)
The movie omits the assassination attempt of 1981 and the Libyan attack of 1986; there’s a little on Iran-Contra, but it’s mostly about the nuclear talks with Gorbachev and suggests that Reagan’s SDI, or “Star Wars”, wheeze was a genius PR stunt that convinced the Russians to come to the negotiating table. Interesting, though I would have liked to hear more particulars. It’s a bit lenient and nostalgic about the Gipper – which is made easier by the current incumbent.
