Movie critics and audiences do not at all times see eye-to-eye — however not often have they appeared as divided as they’re over “Reagan,” a extremely flattering biopic of the Republican president launched simply months earlier than one other deeply polarized U.S. election.
The movie, starring Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan, got here out final week and boasts an viewers score of 98 % on the Rotten Tomatoes web site. But it impressed simply 21 % of critics.
Professional reviewers largely trashed the movie as a clunky hagiography that omits a controversial chief’s flaws, whereas 1000’s of fan responses accused elitist critics of knocking an “uplifting” and “patriotic” movie due to their very own left-wing politics.
“You add the politics into this one, and all of a sudden it gets extremely skewed,” agreed director Sean McNamara.
Reading most of the evaluations, “I find that they definitely are attacking Reagan… as opposed to just the filmmaking,” he advised AFP.
But reasonably than draw back from it, the filmmakers and publicists behind “Reagan” have actively leaned into the film’s cut up reception.
One press launch this week boasted about “the greatest gap between critics and fans in the history of Hollywood theatrical films.”
A veteran Hollywood publicist, who just isn’t concerned within the movie, advised AFP that declare “sounds like PR spin to me.”
Regardless, the timing of the film in a febrile election season has actually helped to attract consideration.
Independent field workplace analyst David A. Gross mentioned the movie’s $10 million opening weekend gross was “above average” for a political biography.
Based on Paul Kengor’s 2006 e-book “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism,” the movie chronicles the fortieth U.S. president’s life story from childhood, via Hollywood, and into state and nationwide politics.
Filmmakers say the timing of the film’s launch so near probably the most tumultuous U.S. presidential campaigns of all time is coincidental.
The film was first introduced in 2010, lastly shot in 2020, after which delayed additional by the COVID-19 pandemic and Hollywood strikes.
“If you watch this movie through the lens of a non-election year… you would have just watched it, I think, more as a movie,” mentioned McNamara. “But I think now, when people look at it, you can’t help but see the similarities.”
Indeed, the movie begins with Reagan being shot in 1981, echoing the assassination try on fellow Republican Donald Trump’s life simply this summer time.
It additionally portrays Reagan going through down campus protests, and locking horns together with his Democratic rival in presidential debates over points such because the incumbent’s advancing age.
“Those things happened in the last few months, and all of a sudden,” mentioned McNamara. “So even when I watch the film now, I go, ‘Wow, that’s kind of happening today’… I was shocked at the similarities.”
Further stoking the movie’s divisive repute, Jon Voight — the distinguished conservative Hollywood actor, who co-stars within the film — alleged that Facebook was censoring commercials for the movie.
Parent firm Meta advised AFP “a handful of ads” for the movie had been incorrectly recognized by an algorithm as election-related posts — which might require prior authorization and labelling — and so had been quickly restricted. But they had been swiftly restored.
As a maker of a number of Christian faith-based films, McNamara is used to creating movies “for the audience” that won’t essentially enchantment to critics.
But for the director, the gulf in responses to “Reagan” has been better nonetheless, underscoring the stark divisions wracking the nation.
While Reagan’s Nineteen Eighties heyday was a time of “a lot of vitriol” too, it was nonetheless a “kinder, gentler nation” the place folks might disagree politically however nonetheless meet for drinks or a barbecue, mentioned McNamara.
Older audiences are notably connecting with “Reagan” as a result of they keep in mind that period, and “they see something that was going on in America back then that isn’t happening now,” he mentioned.
What would Reagan himself make of the present local weather?
“Reagan was a great communicator, and I think he would have tried to bridge that gap, and talk to people,” mentioned McNamara. “I think the biggest thing he would look at the world today and go, ‘I wish they would try to compromise just a bit more.'”
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