THE REAGANS on Showtime

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 1:29pm

Tonight on Showtime we can see what all the hoopla was about. Think what you will, but I am positive we can at the very least see a knock out performance from Judy Davis as Nancy.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 3:08pm

I agree with Sueleen. Wild horses -- Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter, and Peggy Noonan combined -- couldn't keep me away from La Davis in the red Adolfo suits. I hear she tells her kids they can't wear clogs, once they're in the white house. Clogs! Doesn't that moment alone justify watching?

By the way Sueleen, where's your old pic? (And was that Betty Hutton, or am I crazy?) Since this is the OT, I feel brazen, like I can ask, you know, anything.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 6:49pm

They are both Betty. This one is just in keeping with the season. Falalalalalalalala!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 12/1/03 at 1:55am

Well I just watched all three hours. All I can say is that CBS probably decided to pull it not because of the controversy, but rather for the fact that it was just plain bad. Judy Davis re-created her Judy Garland performance, which is still good, but made me want to see the Garland film again. Mr. Streisand was really very good as Ronnie. He played it fairly dumb but with a good sense of humor and warmth that made you believe why some people still think of him as our greatest president. The Lady Macbeth and her stoolie husband theme were a bit heavy handed, but they were not entirely un-sympathetic characters.

The film was very episodic, and the AIDS crisis took up only a very short segment. The line that everyone was so distraught about (Something about "They get what they deserve" or something along those sentiments) was deleted. I felt it made the scene stronger, because Nancy is trying to get Ronnie to confront AIDS. She gets more and more emotional but he just keeps reading his book, ignoring her and saying absolutely nothing. It was a chilling and succinct illustration of his response to an increasingly emotional nation in turmoil.

All in all it was a big let down. My expectations were pretty low but even the two strong lead performances could not save this Turkey from the spastic script, goofy direction melodramatic soap acting from the supporting actors and some of the worst wigs since The Brady Bunch Movie.

[Horsey!!!]

Posted: 12/1/03 at 2:03am

Ronald Reagan was a sick sick man. And Nancy was sick too. Am I right?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/1/03 at 8:43am

Sueleen says it all. I hadn't realized that it was Garland again until I read your post. She didn't know how else to play her (I also detected a little bit of her neurotic performance in that Woody Allen film, HUSBANDS AND WIVES. Nobody is better at playing barely-concealed rage, right?) The only section that had emotional weight was the Hinkley shooting and aftermath. You couldn't help but feel or their plight--fear, outrage, loss of power. That and the Haig attempted coup held me. But the Hollywood stuff with them playing themselves 30 years earlier was a traffic accident. And what was up with that Ron, Jr. actor (built like a pudgy member of Menudo, not a dancer!)

All the outrage toward CBS was sort of silly, since it was no less factual than any MOW, from the Jessica Lynch flick to the Eliz. Smart thing ... to made-in-20-minutes crap on Lifetime. The sub-genre has never been known for its painstaking attention to accurate details. Seeing Peggy Noonan on Today this a.m., sighing and telling Katie the backlash proves "freedom of speech" is alive and well. CBS didn't want to lose advertising, and tossed it on cable. Freedom of what?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/1/03 at 12:05pm

Auggie, your clogs line made me LOL. I don't have Showtime; I don't think I could bear watching the movie. I was yelling myself hoarse outside the White House in '87, the first display of the NAMES Project Quilt was happening, and thousands of gay people descended on DC to try to get something to happen. So any filmic attempt to take me inside that White House would be something I would resist.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/1/03 at 1:01pm

Yeah, Namo, the AIDS quilt crossed my mind last night--and Larry Kramer's harrowing NORMAL HEART, more than once. They tried to make a case for Nancy as a reluctant pillow talk AIDS activist. My cynicism kicked in. If Nancy was as concerned after the death of her hairdresser as the film suggests, she would've surely found her voice to speak ex-cathedra, rather than leaving it all up to Ronnie. I was reminded that among her best buds were Bill Blass and others. She was hardly cut off from gays, even if many of her friends where boys in the band-era upper east side closet cases.

But--the 80s were a different time, even for Republicans. The Reagans may have been callous, but they courted mainstream votes with fewer (obvious) ties to the far right and fundamentalists. When I stepped back from it, I was also freaked that, compared to Dubya and his regime, these 2 were practically "compassionate conservatives." But comparisons are odious -- in this case, literally.

[TheaterBaby]

Posted: 12/2/03 at 7:24am

I haven't watched the entire thing, but I did catch bits and pieces of it last night. Right away I felt I was watching Judy Davis playing Judy Garland again. It left no impression on me as far as the Reagan's (other than what I already thought about them), but it sure did make me wanna watch "Me and My Shadows" again.