REAGAN stars Dennis Quaid as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. It covers Reagan’s life from his childhood to his death, with a strong focus throughout the movie on his life-long fight against communism, from his battle in the Screen Actors Guild against communist infiltration in the Hollywood unions in the late 1940s to his battle against the Soviet Union’s communist tyranny in Germany and Eastern Europe. Dennis Quaid gives a bravura performance in REAGAN as the beloved President, union leader and movie star, and the movie’s focus on Reagan’s fight against communism gives a strong narrative structure to the movie’s stirring story of faith and patriotism.

The movie opens with the March 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan’s life after a speech in Washington, DC. Then, to give context to Reagan’s eventful life, it cuts to present-day Moscow, Russia. Viktor Petrovich, a retired intelligence analysis for the Soviet Union, played by Jon Voight, begins telling a young Russian politician how President Reagan’s lifelong anti-communism led to the end of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union two years later. Petrovich tells the young man that the Communist Party had assigned him to follow Regan’s career and closely analyze his beliefs and behavior.

The flashbacks to Reagan’s life begin, of course, with his childhood, where Reagan, his mother and his siblings suffered because of his father’s bouts with alcoholism. As a young boy, Reagan adopted the Christian faith of his mother, Nelle, after reading a 1902 novel by Harold Bell Wright, titled THAT PRINTER OF UDELL’S. The novel tells the fictional story of a young man in a small town who becomes a Christian, reforms his small town and its people with the Gospel against multiple challenges, and ends up getting a political job in Washington, DC. After Reagan joined his mother’s church, his opposition to communism and the Soviet Union was awakened after hearing a Jewish defector in the church discuss the terrible persecution he faced under communism in the Soviet Union.

The first half of REAGAN details Reagan’s experiences as a lifeguard, at college, as a radio broadcaster, and in Hollywood. After appearing in two movies with acclaimed actress Jane Wyman, Reagan marries Jane in 1940. At the end of World War II, he returns to Hollywood from serving in the military as a public relations officer producing more than 400 training movies for the war effort. His boss at Warner Bros., Jack Warner, recruits Reagan in 1947 to run as president of the Screen Actors Guild, replacing another actor who resigned. Reagan teams up with Warner to stop communist infiltration in the union. Later, documents from the Soviet Union showed that this infiltration was led and funded by the KGB in the Soviet Union. The communists in the Guild tried to strongarm everyone, but Reagan was used to standing up to bullies.

Reagan’s wife, Jane Wyman, isn’t a political person, however. His involvement in politics irks her. She doesn’t know why he doesn’t concentrate on his acting career like she has, which resulted in her winning a Best Actress Oscar for 1948’s JOHNNY BELINDA. They divorce the following year after their second daughter dies the day after being born prematurely. That same year, Reagan meets actress Nancy Davis, who asks for his help when her name appears on a communist blacklist when she’s mistaken for another actress with the same name. They begin dating, and they marry in 1952 and have two children

The movie’s second half focuses on Reagan’s involvement in politics. In 1964, he makes a big splash delivering an important speech supporting Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential candidate. Goldwater loses, but in 1966, Reagan wins the race for Governor of California in 1966 and served for two terms.

In 1976, Reagan challenges President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination, but loses. According to the movie, Reagan and his wife think his political career is over. However, when the new President, Jimmy Carter, falters bigly, Reagan decides to run again for President and defeats the incumbent.

When he assumes the presidency, Reagan’s challenges the Soviet Union’s power more strongly than previous presidents. When someone asks him what he hopes to gain by doing that, he responds, “We win; they lose.”

Under Reagan’s leadership, the American economy starts to turn around, and he easily wins re-election in 1984. While negotiating arms deals with the Soviet Union’s new leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid 1980s, he makes a speech in West Berlin a few yards away from the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987:

“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Two years later, in November 1989, the German people tear down the Berlin Wall themselves. And, two years later, on Christmas Day, 1991, the Soviet Union fell, and Mr. Gorbachev resigned.

Dennis Quaid gives a bravura performance in REAGAN as the beloved President, union leader and movie star. Quaid is absolutely brilliant and deserves multiple accolades. He’s just as good during the more intimate scenes as he is in the iconic public scenes. He’s supported by a great cast, including David Henrie as the young adult Reagan, Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan, Mena Suvari as Reagan’s first wife, Jane Wyman, and Amanda Righetti and Jennifer O’Neill as Reagan’s beloved Christian mother, Nelle, and Lesley-Anne Downe as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Jon Voight is excellent as the former Soviet KGB analyst who explains the insight, courage, strength, and charisma of Reagan to his young countryman. Dan Lauria delivers a standout performance as Reagan’s gregarious nemesis, Tip O’Neill, in the House of Representatives in the 1980s

Political biopics like REAGAN can be rather boring. However, Director Sean McNamara has made a lively movie that hardly ever flags. He lets his actors carry the story. Also, the movie benefits greatly by focusing on Reagan, and his wife Nancy’s, stirring fight against communism. It gives the movie a strong, cohesive narrative structure to its inspiring story of faith and patriotism.