The Reagans

I thought this was a very well made, interesting, and informative documentary. I think it's important to look deeper at powerful public figures, especially those who are revered as much as Reagan. It's disappointing to me to see so many people angry about this, calling it left wing propaganda and defamation. It's not. If you can't watch a well made documentary and make your own conclusions without getting defensive and irrational, well that just concerns me a bit. I learned a lot from this show, but I didn't come out of watching it thinking Reagan was some kind of a monster. I still think Reagan was a good man and a highly successful president. That doesn't mean, however, that we should ignore his shortcomings or deny the dangers of his success.

It is awful how the Reagans were to poor families while they spent money on themselves. It's INSANE that they gutted the New Deal and believed in Trickle Down economics. Obviously they were both spokespeople for evangelicals and corporations. It's also nuts they had so many gay friends and let AIDS just go unattended for so long. Or how he really felt he had not sold arms for hostages - when he had? It was good Reagan tried to deescalate nuclear tensions. The story comes off like a tragedy of a man who believed in the myth of America and the corporations who used him to hijack our political system.

This was a good documentary on the Reagans. I was a child and a teenager through most of Reagan's presidency, so I remember a lot of these events, (and even some of Carter's presidency) but it was nice to see it all narrated w/ more historical detail.

I think some of the good things Reagan did were downplayed (I mean he did turn the economy around significantly in his first term (compared to what a mess things were w/ Carter)). The program also had an overly ominous tone in general - as though the Reagan presidency was this dark awful time for everyone but the very rich - which was not the case. Things improved compared to Carter for many, many regular people too - thus why Reagan was so popular. However, these types of programs always like to make conservatives villains so the negative slant wasn't unexpected to me (got to just take it with a grain of salt).

I especially liked the commentary of Kitty Kelly, their son and Stu Spencer - was nice to hear their real life accounts. James Bakker was good too.

As a film fan, I knew nothing about Reagan's career as an actor, and as a European, I knew nothing about his political career before the presidency catapulted him onto the world stage

So the early episodes of this series were an education in both, revealing his political journey as following the same path his party and a significant percentage of his generation took, towards identity politics and adopting the ideology of the market (and its corollary, limited government) as a sort of second faith

Although the insights into how his wife's adoptive father's extreme views influenced Reagan's early political development are illuminating, editorial attempts to cite her taste in decor and fashion as symbolic of hypocrisy when contrasted with the administration's welfare cuts are tendentious

The role of Reagan's wife in his career appears to have been that of most women of her generation - supportive but ultimately passive - which renders the premise of the series as a whole (a biography of the couple, rather than Reagan himself) redundant

Although I'm essentially sympathetic to the criticism of the Reagan administration's idolatry of the market and raising deregulation to the level of a belief system, I can't argue with reviews on this page from politically biased commentators, which describe this documentary as a hit piece

I think it's perfectly valid for film makers to adopt a critical tone when interrogating their subject matter, but this series approaches every single topic with the aim of demonstrating that Reagan was wrong about absolutely everything

Maybe the film makers feel the contemporary narrative around the Reagan presidency is too hagiographic and needs to be countered, but producing an act of propaganda as a counterweight seems an ineffective way to address this imbalance

Since those who most need to hear a countervailing version of history are unlikely to stay with such a nakedly biased piece of propaganda long enough to hear any truths it contains

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"The Reagans" (2020 release; 4 episodes of about 55 min. each) takes a new look at the legacy of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. As Episode 1 "The Hollywood Myth Machine" opens, Reagan is in the White House taping a TV commercial for his 1984 re-election campaign. Ronald Reagan Jr. comments "My father was a strange fellow to be president of this country." We then go back in time to "1937" when Reagan, then 26 yrs. old is signed by Jack Warner to a studio contract. With the help of Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons, it is the beginning of a how "the story became the reality", as the Reagans' daughter Patti Davis puts it. At this point we are less than 15 min. into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: please do not confuse this documentary mini-series with the same titled (and controversial) CBS mini-series from 2003. It is equally important to note that this series is not just about Ronald Reagan, but it is just as much about Nancy Reagan. Episode 1 is fascinating for a number of reasons, none more so to understand how Ronald Reagan, who grew up a Democrat, eventually evolved into a Republican, and not just any Republican, but a Barry Goldwater-type conservative at that. Reagan changed from being a union guy to an all-out pro-business/anti-union guy because it was politically convenient. Episode 1 also examines how Nancy became the rock in Reagan's life that would propel him to the presidency. Episode 1 concludes with Reagan's stunning victory in the 1968 California governor's race. Can't wait to see the remaining 3 episodes. By the way, I immigrated to this country, arriving from Belgium in Washington DC for graduate studies in 1983, yes smack in the middle of the Reagan two term presidency. I was welcomed by this country with arms wide open, and I've lived in the US ever since. Fast forward to 2016 when this country elected a blatant racist and xenophobe to the White House. Thankfully now fired by the American people.

"The Reagans" premiered this weekend on Showtime, and Episode 1 is now available on SHO On Demand and other streaming services. New episodes air Sunday evenings at 8 pm Eastern. If you have any interest in politics or in the history of this country, I'd readily suggest you check out "The Reagans" documentary mini-series, and draw your own conclusion.