I did not know much about Reagan except his attempted assassination, his wife consulting astrologers to help in making
decisions for the country, Starwar's, his memory problems, Iranian bits and pieces, and the Bitburg incident. The movie filled in some of my gaps so it was a history lesson to some extent, but to me, the movie seemed shallow and forced. As for a review I saw which said how how dare they sour the name of one of the geatest presidents we ever had for instance with the Bitburg incident, all I could say is I'm sorry.
This movie was made using public accounts as stated at the beginning, and it is totally true that Reagan said what the reviewer used not as a criticism of Reagan, but as a reason to
portray this president as perfect, and the movie producers as rot. How low can this reviewer go and how low did Reagan go as well to say that the Nazi killers buried at Bitburg were surely as much victims as those in the concentration camps! This reviewer is absolutely ignorant or a twistering idiot. The fact is that Reagan did say the above regarding Bitburg Nazi's and by saying this, Reagan has diminished his moral stature to say the least. See for example 'Chutzpah' by A.Dershowitz, pgs.134-135.

Much of the hype of this television movie lies in the fact that CBS refused to air it, apparently bowing to conservative pressure. This of course created a bunch of hype prior to the release of the movie, and its quick demotion to a DVD release. After watching it, it made me wonder what all of the fuss was about. The Reagans is a comprehensive, yet inch deep look at a powerful couple destined to greatness in the political world.

James Brolin plays an eerie, and I mean eerie, Ronald Reagan throughout his lifetime. His acting is spot on in portraying a Reagan who is both wonderfully amiable to everyone that he meets, and yet distant to everyone who loved him the most. This Reagan is an actor through and through, and he continues his performance during his White House years. Judy Davis turns in an admirable performance as a hyper-supportive, controlling Nancy Reagan. I couldn't help but still see shades of Judy Garland in her performance here.

Nancy and Ronnie struggle with many issues not uncommon today: the politics of blended families, the politics within a relationship. The movie dares to suggest that Reagan and Nancy weren't perfect demi-Gods that the conservative portion of our population elevate him to be. Perhaps it's too daring to show this man, this couple, as human, foibles and all, and perhaps, that is the nature of the controversy.

Overall, very little was surprising about this movie, other than showing the onset of Reagan's Alzheimer's disease into his second term, which long has been suspected. It certainly wasn't the tell all bashing of the Reagans as some would like us to believe. If you want a glimpse into the lives of the Reagan, perhaps a perusal of this DVD would be in order.

This movie doesn't deserve anything but a big fat F. Whoever made it probably never, ever picked up a history book in his life. Not only is it incorrect, it has almost no resemblance what so ever, to President Reagan and his admistration. The dress up is great, sure, Brolin looks exacly like Ronald Reagan, but that's about it.

How dare someone portray such a great President like this, it's an utter disgrace. Let me give you an example: When Reagan was going to Bittberg Cemetery in Germany, it was discovered that there where some SS Officers burried there. "The guys that gave us Auschwitz" - as someone tells Mike Deaver in the movie. When Reagan is asked why he's going despite this, he replies: "Those young officers under those Nazi uniforms, are victims of Nazi'ism, just like the victims of the Concentration Camps were!" Unbelievable! Outrageous! How dare someone say, that President Reagan would say such a stupid, senseless thing. It is the greatest injustice someone can do such a great President.

Now about the inaccuracies of the movie. If you pay just a little bit of attention, you can see, how little the producers bothered doing their research. One tiny example: In the movie we see Deaver telling Oliver North, that Ramadan is a Muslim Holiday when you fast 30 days. Well, check your facts Mister, you fast 40 days on Ramadan not 30. Another example: In the movie we see, Reagan speaking directly to Gorbachev in English. Gorbachev didn't understand a word of English, they always spoke via interpreter. The whole Iran-Contra scandal is so twisted up, it's not even funny. Which again proves, how little those prducers bothered checking their facts, and how little they understand politics. Also, at one point, the movie leads us to believe that Reagan was already suffering from Alzheimer's in '85, which is ridiculous and totally untrue.

What ever happened to the Cold War? What about the infamous "Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall" speach? What about the "Evil Empire" speech? There's hardly anything about the Cold War. Wasn't winning the cold war the President's greatest achievment?

The little there is in the movie about the Cold War, makes it sound like the cold war was won in one day. We have Shultz runing in to the President: "Mr. President, Gorbachev blinked, you ended the Cold War!". What is this some kind of joke? Any one who knows a little bit about Reagan and the Cold War, knows that it took so much negotiating, and there were so many setbacks, until Reagan finally got gorbachev to sign an arms agreement deal, and besides, the Berlin Wall only came down a year after Reagan left office.

The younger generation that didn't know Reagan, will watch this movie, and be led to believe that this is what Reagan was all about. I think it's a crime. They took a great leader and humiliated him.

I also think they owe a huge apology to the reagan family, particulary to Nancy, for portraying her as a mean mother who didn't care about her children, and to every one else in the administration they so falsly portrayed.

I liked this flick better than most made for TV movies but understand why Reagan conservatives were upset with it. For nothing about it supports the idea the Ronnie should be placed on Mt. Rushmore, an idea that was once given consideration inside the U.S. Congress. Fortunately, that was an idea that went the way of the dodo bird.

This movie was like a lot of biopics -- it skimmed over portions of the subject that had been discussed in other media. When showing Reagan's strongarm tactics with California college protestors while he served as governor of California in the 1960s, the viewer was given no insight into what made him the epitome of evil to college kids in that time. After all, Country Joe and Fish referred to him as "Ronald Ray-Gun Zap" at Woodstock!

Other vignettes -- including Nancy's "Just say no" campaign and her discussion with the president over funding AIDS prevention -- were equally superficial. Occasionally, however, a scene showed the heart of these two actors turned politicians turned power brokers.

In one scene, Ed Meese calls the president at 4:40 AM to tell him American fighter jets just shot down a couple Libyan jets that fired on them. "It happened five hours ago," Meese said. "It is handled." When returning to sleep, Nancy asked him what the call was. "Oh nothing," he said. "Ed handled it." That's followed by a scene of Nancy lecturing Meese and Mike Deaver on how they are to say the president is always aware of such events five minutes after they occur.

Other scenes of interaction between Reagan, Nancy, their two birth children and Reagan's children from his first marriage showed an uncanny insight into family dysfunction. These were probably the most hated scenes for those that wanted to cast the former president in stone in South Dakota.

Reagan lovers will be pleased to learn there aren't any scenes of him falling asleep at meeting! And while the flick focuses on Reagan's superficiality as both statesman and father, it also shows him to be a loving person and gives him kudos for ending the Cold War. In this respect it reminded me of the ESPN production about Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight, "Season On The Brink", that portrayed both his best and worst sides as a human being.

The plum of this film, however, is Judy Davis's performance as Nancy Reagan. While impossible to say if it was completely factual, it was certainly spiritually correct. This wonderful actress did a splendid job portraying the imperial "Quenn Nancy" wife of the governor and president, as well as her important role as person behind the power in the White House.

While James Brolin did a good job mimicking Reagan it is clearly Davis's portrayal that makes this film compelling and worth watching. Personally, I found the aura projected in the film to be accurate, as well. It played out the highlights of his presidency -- from the earliest budget-cutting and Evil Empire stomping to his eventual conflict with Iran-Contra -- as well as can be done in a few hours. I hope they do this well when they commit the life of two term president George Bush to celluloid!

I've voted Republican my whole adult life and view myself as a "Reagan Republican". I watched this movie expecting to get upset at the Barbara Streisand crowd but found it not only believable (if you go in accepting a negative bias of events by the filmmaker) but somewhat compelling. Hey, it is tough to rise above the crowd to become Governor/ President, and it takes people behind the scenes pulling levers to get it done. Most of us don't have the stomach to play politics, Nancy and Mike Deaver did and Ronny was the perfect front man- likeable, principled, simplistic but able to communicate a vision most people found desirable. We all came to respect Nancy deeply for standing by President Reagan in his declining years, but we also knew she played hardball with his staff, was an eccentric Hollywood type. That's the way the movie plays it and I can't see what the problem is. Brolin does an admirable job and Judy Davis is great regardless of how accurately Nancy gets portrayed here. Deaver seems to have screamed the loudest about this flick, probably because early-on he's painted as pretty slick, although that seems to change after Reagan fires/rehires him during the 1980 campaign. Watch it- it's complicated but that's the world we live in, folks.