The devil had taken Reagan to the mountaintop and offered a world of spoils, from peace prizes to popular acclaim and a glamorous place in history. To reject it took more than guts. It took a man who put freedom ahead of his own glory. This is not a biography but the story of a man who faced off against the 20th century's "heart of darkness" and won.
63
New York Daily News
New York Daily News
Bannon's film makes good use of historical footage to show how a B-list Hollywood actor made the unlikely ascension to commander-in-chief.
60
Village Voice
Village Voice
Overreaching in many of its laudatory appraisals, the film is mostly GOP-boosting rhetoric in the guise of a dull History Channel special.
A cinematic canonization that presents the 40th president as the 20th century's godsend.
40
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
What this Reagan movie really needed was . . . more Reagan. None of his admirers have his charisma, and none of the footage here is surprising. Fox News could easily produce a better film.
Archival material -- especially rare B&W Soviet footage -- is a knockout, though the assembly of talking heads, nearly all Reagan loyalists, is predictable and uninspired.