Reagan

Reagan (2011)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very good HBO documentary from director Eugene Jarecki takes a look at the life and career of Ronald Reagan. The documentary follows him from his childhood all the way up to his death and covers just about everything one could hope for. This includes his time in Hollywood, his days as the leader of SAG, his cooperate salesman job, his getting into politics and of course his run for President of the United States. I think whether you love or hate Reagan, this documentary will leave you impressed even though I did find a few strange things in it. The film opens up talking about how wonderful Reagan was and it really makes you think that you're about to see some love feast for him. The documentary is pretty much this until the final twenty-minutes when it turns to show some of the negative things that Reagan did and this here caught me off guard because of how "kind" the film was being to him. I actually thought it was good that some of the other side got to question some of the things that the President did because it makes the film seem a lot more even. The majority of the running time takes a look at Reagan's eight years in the office as we see his popularity rise but then take a hit on the controversial hostage situation that he got into. We also see the assassination attempt as well as hearing some great stories about what he was up to after his acting career ended and his term in office began.