At long last the hysteria and hyperbole following Reagan's death on June 5th seems to be tapering off, while this week a lot of attention has shifted to Michael Moore's self-described op-ed piece, Fahrenheit 9/11. Moore's website is presently accusing a Republican PR firm, under the guise of a "fake grassroots front group" called Move Forward America, "to harass and intimidate theater owners into not showing Fahrenheit 9/11." He notes that this same organization is the one that successfully pressured CBS into canceling its scheduled airing of The Reagans (2003), a nearly three-hour TV-movie about the nation's 40th president (played in the movie by James Brolin) and his wife, Nancy (Judy Davis). The movie eventually ran on Showtime.

Looking at the program now, it's hard to understand what all the fuss was about. Where Moore's film unapologetically aspires to influence swing voters in the upcoming presidential election, it can be argued that The Reagans, ultimately, is a fair and sympathetic portrait. That the Reagans are shown as less than perfect human beings grappling with dysfunctional family issues, self-doubt, and other human frailties, only makes them appear more human and less like abstract political figures. It could be argued that The Reagans is less critical of its subject than Primary Colors (1998) was of its thinly disguised Bill Clinton -- and Primary Colors was ultimately pro-Clinton.

Though it has its share of delicious trashiness, the impression one is left with is that Reagan was a True Believer, that whether you agreed with him or not he genuinely, passionately loved his country and wanted to serve its best interests. One might not agree, for example, with his active support of the blacklist, but according to the film he puts his beliefs ahead of his own career, risking the ire of Hollywood's mostly left-of-center decision makers.

In one of the film's best scenes, Governor Reagan is shown almost hysterical in the minutes before California's first execution in four years. Refusing to stay the execution, he nonetheless pleads with his minister, his God, and himself for some inarguable confirmation that he's doing the right thing. It's hard to imagine Clinton or either Bush working up a sweat like that.

He and Nancy are shown as a couple deeply devoted to one another, still very much in love after four decades of marriage. Reagan let his guard down with Nancy alone; according to the movie, he was truly intimate with no else, at least in the years following his divorce from actress Jane Wyman. Throughout the movie he calls her Mommy and, most amusingly, "Nancypants." Nancy, who often came off as a cold fish in public, disingenuous if not a Livia-type power monger behind the throne, is shown here as loving her husband as much as he loves her. Despite her wacky dependence on celebrity astrologists, her power struggles on the campaign trails and within the White House are driven out of wanting to serve her husband's needs.

Most of what's negative about the Reagan family or his years as Governor of California and later as president come from first-hand accounts of the Reagan children or are part of the public record. The film portrays Reagan as an intensely private man, with an almost crippling inability to deal with personal confrontation. Both he and Nancy are generally disinterested in their children, the latter much closer to her gay hairdresser (who dies of AIDS) than any of her own children.

The movie's main shortcoming is that even at nearly three hours it tries to cram too much into its narrative. Though its focus is the Reagan's basic devotion to one another, it also tries to be about their children's painful efforts to reach out to them, about the Hollywood blacklist, the rise of MCA, the blurring of Reagan the performer and Reagan the politician, his political conversion, and the behind-the-scenes power struggles with Nancy, Alexander Haig, and Donald Regan. All the while, the iconic images from the '60s through the 1980s flash by, almost by rote: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, the hostage crisis in Iran, etc. Highlights (and lowlights) from Reagan's years in the White House zip by at such speed nothing, including Iran-Contra, is covered with any real depth. Surprisingly, Reagan's life in the 1950s plays far better than his years in the White House.

Though the movie was seen mainly as a vehicle for Judy Davis, whose flamboyant performance is about as subtle as Joan Crawford's in Johnny Guitar, it's James Brolin's Reagan that sticks with you. He does a great job capturing Reagan's essence without reducing it to a joke. Both Brolin and the script paint Reagan as a man more comfortable chatting with co-workers on a movie set than at home dealing with his troubled children, a man who'd rather sit around swapping jokes with his pals than running the Free World.

In the end, The Reagans works best not when dishing the dirt on Iran-Contra or Nancy's spending sprees once inside the White House. Rather, it's little moments like the minutes before Reagan's primetime admission that his administration did in fact trade arms for hostages. Seconds before going on the air, Reagan seems to slump over in some kind of narcoleptic trance. "He's concentrating," Nancy assures Ron Jr. As the seconds tick down, one sees the performing coming to life, the curtain rising once more.

Video & Audio

The Reagans is presented in 1.77:1 / 16:9 format and looks very good throughout. There are two soundtrack options, a Dolby Digital 5.1 track and a Dolby Surround 2.0 track, both in English. There are no foreign language options and no subtitles of any sort.

Extra Features

The main extra is actually located in the audio setup, area, an Audio Commentary with Executive Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, and Director Robert Allan Ackerman. The commentary is a little dry, though it does delve into the controversy during and following its production.

Also included is a 10-minute, 4:3 matted featurette, James Brolin on Being a Republican, in which the actor provides some background on his approach to the character. He only briefly touches upon the controversy and mostly seems genuinely attracted to the character.

Also included are 11 Extended Scenes, which vary from the innocuous to the fairly significant. One sequence, for instance, has Ron and Nancy watching Reagan's deathbed, "one for the Gipper" scene from Knute Rockne All American (1940). In its longer form, the scene demonstrates how sentimental they were (both sob unabashedly) and segues better to the end of the scene. In its current form, the Reagans appear to be sobbing over the death of Robert Kennedy, a scenario that's hard to swallow.

Parting Thoughts

For all the controversy, The Reagans is neither as inflammatory as the right would have everyone believe, nor is it as revelatory or insightful as one might hope. But Judy Davis and especially James Brolin hold it all together, and mainly for them it's worth a look.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. His new book, Cinema Nippon will be published by Taschen in 2005.