Reagan, the Movie (w/ Jesse Brenneman)
Added 2024-12-06 23:04:06 +0000 UTCWe wanted to offer something of a palette cleanser for our subscribers, so we decided to watch the recent movie, Reagan, with our intrepid producer, Jesse Brenneman. Even better, it's based on the 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, by Paul Kengor—who just happens to have been Matt's close mentor as an undergraduate student. Reagan clocks in at over two hours and twenty minutes, and it's a wild, even fantastical ride that offers a revealing glimpse into the conservative psyche and a faithful rendition of the most hagiographic version of the Reagan mythology, especially his personal responsibility for ending the Cold War and finally putting the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history.
Sources:
Reagan (2024)
Paul Kengor, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism (2006)
— God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life (2004)
Edmund Morris, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (1999)
Comments
Oops democratic legitimacy.
Rick Perlstein
2025-01-07 20:15:44 +0000 UTC...is what FDR and Truman did, is not an impediment to enlightened policymaking in a complex world. It's what gives it denigrate
Rick Perlstein
2025-01-07 20:15:28 +0000 UTCNoyce! But manachean, moralist simple storytelling on the stump--which id
Rick Perlstein
2025-01-07 20:14:24 +0000 UTCThe big melee between organized labor and studio henchman/mob toughs/the police was outside Warner Bros. Notoriously known as "the Battle for Warner Brothers," Oct. 5th, 1945. I've written a novel about this time in Reagan's life, so listened to the episode with interest! Nice work all. https://www.excerptmag.com/post/fiction-battle-for-warner-brothers-j-t-price
JT Price
2024-12-23 21:02:24 +0000 UTCSix degrees of Scott Stapp
Vincent
2024-12-16 20:46:44 +0000 UTCA propos of Matt’s last comment comparing Biden and Reagan as they slide into old age, Biden has to expend considerable mental energy suppressing his stutter, and maybe he loses that fight more often than not these days. You might say Reagan had the opposite of a stutter! It bothers me that people forget Biden’s stutter. Thanks for the episode! These movies are so revealing.
Gabriella Gruder-Poni
2024-12-14 12:24:51 +0000 UTCfun fun fun
giulietta karras
2024-12-13 11:15:01 +0000 UTCYeah there’s a line we didn’t mention where John Voigt says something like “communism isn’t Russia’s culture! It’s Chekhov!”
Tech Talk
2024-12-10 15:34:09 +0000 UTCAnother possible explanation for the framing of the film is the desire to find a way to hate communism but still like Russians. Wouldn’t want to turn off all the current Republicans who admire Putin and respect the Russian example of strongman politics
E.J. Pettinger
2024-12-09 22:09:26 +0000 UTCThe original Sam Raimi Spider-Man in fact does not show Peter Parker making the web-shooters, as they are produced naturally by his body in that version. And this is me being a pedantic film nerd, not a comic nerd
Tim Combes
2024-12-09 20:54:34 +0000 UTCExcellent episode!
Benjamin Pletcher
2024-12-09 19:34:30 +0000 UTCThis is an aside, but lmao that the upload of the "Don't Fence Me In" Dylan cover to the official Reagan movie YouTube channel has busted audio (seemingly only in 1 channel?) lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8DjCgZE8S8&ab_channel=ReaganMovie
Joel
2024-12-09 05:26:28 +0000 UTCThat's true, there's almost a sort of pulpy, Golden Age feel to it, in a weird way
Peter Aidan Byrne
2024-12-08 22:21:04 +0000 UTCYou’re absolutely right. There is zero internal conflict for Reagan to overcome in the movie. The closest it comes is a scene at (what should be) the second act break, when Nancy sternly tells him “You can’t doubt yourself in any way whatsoever, because you’re so perfect!” I’m reminded of more old school superhero stuff like FLASH GORDON, where the hero is utterly pure - and the entire society around him is corrupt… which he changes through sheer force of will… That seemed to be the movie’s take on Reagan vs. the Evil Empire
Aaron Lee
2024-12-08 20:44:31 +0000 UTCThe goldfish story reminds me of Alfred the Great burning the oatcakes.
John Batali
2024-12-08 20:40:23 +0000 UTCI completely understand the superhero comparisons, but I do think it's worth pointing out that even superhero films at least have character arcs, typically - yes, obviously you're coming in knowing that the title character will end up the hero, but even those movies at least understand that their audience probably wants to see that justified on screen in some way, where "Reagan" assumes the opposite. Much closer to a conservative Christian movie, where the refusal to question or justify the target audience's assumptions is an end unto itself.
Peter Aidan Byrne
2024-12-08 20:30:08 +0000 UTCFun fact: Scott Stapp’s wife has two sisters of note, one of whom served as an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan and Iraq before working for Bush, Obama, and Trump in various nat-sec roles, including as Trump’s Homeland Security Adviser from 2020-2021. She also was appointed as Florida’s “chief resilience officer” (ie. for the climate crisis) by Ron DeSantis and is married to Florida Congressman and Trump’s pick to be National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. The other sister is a doctor and former Fox News medical commentator whom Trump has nominated to be the Surgeon General.
Allen
2024-12-08 20:27:47 +0000 UTCAmazing! And makes perfect sense. -Sam
Know Your Enemy
2024-12-08 17:50:36 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing! Yeah the Devil and Karl Marx stood out on his CV to say the least.
Kirk Robinson
2024-12-08 16:31:17 +0000 UTCBy (future NRA president) David Keene and black YAFer Jay Parker along with a few hundred other libertarians and anarchists for booing Buckley at the keynote (and for being a pothead)
Lauren Lassabe Shepherd
2024-12-08 15:49:42 +0000 UTCDana was a YAFer, he was kicked out at the 69 convention
Lauren Lassabe Shepherd
2024-12-08 15:45:04 +0000 UTCHi Kirk, I don't mind saying I don't really have a relationship with Paul these days. We drifted apart some even before I moved left, partially because my academic work as a political theorist veered pretty sharply from his focus on the presidency and American foreign policy (to put it charitably). We last emailed after I published "Leaving Conservatism Behind" in 2016 in Dissent, but never had a falling out, exactly—it's more that we just realized the vast gulf now separating us. That said, I was genuinely shocked when I saw the Devil and Karl Marx book, and his earlier Obama book. (Matt)
Know Your Enemy
2024-12-08 13:42:33 +0000 UTCBecause you subjected Sam to this, I propose he gets to have a Dylan-centric episode for A Complete Unknown.
Taylor
2024-12-08 04:06:45 +0000 UTCThese film club episodes are my favorite ones KYE does. The films that conservatives make are actually useful for understanding what right wingers think. Way more average everyday conservative people watch this crap than read something from the Heritage Foundation or Bill Buckley
Garett Smith
2024-12-08 04:02:21 +0000 UTCF*** you f****** guys for making me watch this awful movie. I couldn't tell whether Quaid was trying to do a SNL style impersonation or play it straight.
John Batali
2024-12-08 03:12:43 +0000 UTCDon’t do it!
Tech Talk
2024-12-07 17:52:29 +0000 UTCHa - just listened and yeah, you guys hit the “superhero movie” thing. When you mentioned the “fan service” approach (“Look, that’s Dana Rorabacher!”) - you’ll be interested to know when my wife and I saw the film, there were only three other people in the theater - all seemingly in their 70s. And two of them were honest to God decked out in American flag clothing/ paraphernalia. They all had big smiles as they left the theater, so I guess the fan service worked! (My poor wife, meanwhile, said to me “I’ve never actually seen a film that bad in a theater”) 😂
Aaron Lee
2024-12-07 16:12:27 +0000 UTCI can’t wait to listen to this episode. I’m such a masochist that I saw REAGAN in a theater! I was amazed that it was a full hero story about a character with literally no flaws who brings down an entire evil empire - more like a superhero film than a biopic.
Aaron Lee
2024-12-07 04:30:16 +0000 UTCSam - What books do you recommend for someone wanting to learn more about US labor history without having to trudge through a million volumes of Foner??
Lane
2024-12-07 03:58:37 +0000 UTCSomething I was wondering, Matt...and if it's too personal to answer then please disregard: do you still have a relationship with Prof Kengor? I looked up his more recent books and they look to be pretty heavy on the evils of Marx and communism. Seems, at least on the surface, to be pretty objectionable. I suppose he'd qualify as an "enemy" in the universe of this podcast (which would make him a great guest potentially too). Love the pod cast! This was a great episode (all of them are, really).
Kirk Robinson
2024-12-07 03:51:36 +0000 UTCThere could have been more reflection on the timing of this campaign- film and how this Republican funded film seeking to Make America Great Again was actually about Trump as much as it was about RR.
his eyes just tell him lies
2024-12-07 03:00:47 +0000 UTCAll parasocial needs met. Who needs friends
Sam
2024-12-07 02:46:06 +0000 UTCWow this was unexpectedly rich, and intellectually nourishing
Sam
2024-12-07 02:45:43 +0000 UTCpsychologists could gain much from studying a parasocial bond so intense that it compels me to watch Sean McNamara’s “Reagan” (2h 15m) in its entirety
Molly Gardner
2024-12-07 02:32:30 +0000 UTCVery weird to me that Quaid was in The Substance at the same time, which seemed to have somewhat different politics.
Ben Thelen
2024-12-07 01:44:19 +0000 UTCThis confirms it: we NEED a KYE x Good Christian Fun crossover ep, as they just did a review of this movie a month or so ago. I’ve been convinced that Matt would make an amazing guest on GCF and this seals the deal.
Jenna Harmon
2024-12-06 23:17:13 +0000 UTCOh heck yes
Nate Ford
2024-12-06 23:11:33 +0000 UTC
