Truly Dreadful Film

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I watched this on Link TV, a liberal cable channel specializing in those such as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, so I expected it to be scathing. It certainly stripped away many illusions, but while strongly critical the results of trickle down, and the limits of his grasp of complexity of issues; it defined his positions fairly.He did evolve from a New Deal Democrat, leading his Actors Union against management, but also was viscerally opposed to global Marxism, and the social revolution of the 1960s.The insights of Morris, his official biographer for almost a decade, along with Cannon who wrote several biographies including when he was Governor, provide special scholarly insight.The current Republican conservatives forget that he pass what was an actual amnesty for illegal-undocumented immigrants, and actually increased both government spending and deficits.It could be that his hawkish policies early on allowed him more latitude to connect with someone eager to wind down the cold war, Michel Gorbechev. History doesn't allow for controlled experiments so we can't re-run events with a different leader at the helm.I commend this documentary for those who lived through the era, but events have become hazy.

This documentary was shown with a leftist viewpoint. Since I was born in 1949 and lived through 12 presidents I have more knowledge gained through experience than those who read about things. The country almost went bust during Carter's administration due to his fiscal policies and lack of respect throughout the world. President Reagan brought back the United States with his tax policies and strong defense policy. The words that basically said it all was that if you tax the workers and give money to those who don't work, people won't work. That is exactly what we've created today with free health care, free housing and free food. Granted, the War On Drugs was a failure just as the War On Poverty was as is the War On Terror. All in all, Reagan was a great leader of the United States. He was at least as good as Eisenhower. The country flourished during their presidencies.

ReaganThe reason an actor was chosen to assume the most powerful position in the free world was because he would work for scale.Which explains why the first thespian president featured in this documentary was also a corporate shill.Through interviews with friends, family and other politicians, the 40th President of the United States is placed under a microscope to examine the events that lead the charismatic actor to become Commander and Chief.From his early days as a liberal, to his compliance with anti-communism, and his spokesperson position with General Electric, Reagan's power to rouse patriotism set the stage for the actor's starring role.From the Cold War, to the Berlin Wall, this HBO documentary recollects, reveres and rips apart Reagan's most memorable moments in office.Incidentally, the best thing about being a movie star president is that your stunt double takes all of the assassination bullets for you. (Green Light)vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Ronald Reagan has become such a mythologised figure by the American right that it's hard for a documentary to present a balanced view. Moreover, Americans in general tend to treat their Presidents with a respect that is wholly absent from British politics; although Eugene Jarecki's documentary is actually not bad in challenging the myths (both that everything Reagan did was good, and also that he did everything that has been attributed to him), in it's tone, it can't help but add to them. In fact, it's pretty soft on his early years, and fails to mention that as Governor of California, his trick was really to talk like a conservative but to spend like only liberals were supposed to (although it concedes the same point with regard to his subsequent presidency). On the presidency itself, Jarecki's film delivers a harder verdict, as the critics are far more precise than the admirers, who can only defend Reagan through vague eulogy. It's a bit odd, however, that the final verdict on Reagan's years, and American society, is given by a former military officer who seems no more entitled to pass the definitive opinion than any of the rest of us. One interesting thing for me was to see that Reagan was, at his peak, a genuinely accomplished performer - dismissed as senile by his enemies perhaps before he truly was, he comes across as shrewder than popular perception allows, even if one can dispute the value of his legacy.