RONALD REAGAN Biopic.. Win One For The Gipper?

Those of you Rama’s SCREEN readers who lived through the 1980s, were you fans of the late President Ronald Reagan? You probably weren’t fans of the 2003 miniseries about Reagan starring James Brolin huh? Even I don’t remember much about it. I did remember the 2001 TV movie The Day Reagan Was Shot starring Richard Crenna as the president. Well, according to Hollywood Reporter, there’s going to be a big screen biopic brought to you by Mark Joseph and Ralph Winter, scribe Jonas McCord wrote the script. The story is based on two biographies, The Crusader and God And Ronald Reagan by Paul Kengor.
This $30 Million budget production will start with the 1981 assassination attempt and then it’ll tell the story through flashbacks and flash-forwards. They’re already planning this to be released sometime late next year. Some might argue he was a terrible actor, a terrible governor or a terrible president. Whether you’re Democrat or Republican, you gotta admit, the man lived a full life. Will this be an interesting movie? I’d rather watch Spielberg’s LINCOLN.. if it would ever happen…

Here’s the synopsis of the book THE CRUSADER: RONALD REAGAN AND THE FALL OF COMMUNISM
“A groundbreaking reassessment of Ronald Reagan’s life and presidency, exploring his lifelong struggle and ultimate victory – against the tyranny of Communism

In this dramatic meditation on the life of Ronald Reagan, historian Paul Kengor presents an account of the fortieth president that has never been written – one that details Reagan’s campaign against the Soviet Union, which lasted for more than forty years. Tracing Reagan’s anti-Communist sentiment to his days as president of the Screen Actors Guild, Kengor illuminates how this experience first emboldened the actor to speak out against the oppression of the Soviet Union and describes Reagan’s multifaceted efforts to prevent Communism from taking hold in Hollywood. Ultimately his SAG tenure paved the way for his burgeoning political career, which, from its inception, had but one purpose: the end of Communism.

Utilizing reams of recently declassified documents, Kengor assembles a striking mosaic of Reagan’s words and actions that toppled the Soviet Union. From Reagan’s covert support of the rebels who defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan to his secret oil collusion with Saudi Arabia that devastated the Soviet economy, Kengor reveals how Reagan’s eight years in office did more to bring down the Soviet Union than any single administration in the history of the Cold War. With painstaking detail, he also explains Reagan’s crucial move to escalate the arms race with the Kremlin, a decision that, though politically un-popular, proved vital to the Soviets’ eventual downfall.

Revisiting many of the administration’s principal characters, Kengor speaks with the individuals who helped shape foreign policy under Reagan. These testi-monies give unfettered access into the hearts and minds of those closest to Reagan, revealing how this group translated Reagan’s ideas into a comprehensive strategy to destroy the Soviet Union. In addition, Kengor delves into never-before-studied Soviet documents and propaganda, uncovering how the other side perceived Reagan’s advances and attempted to counter his progress with its unique brand of disinformation. Also told here is an incendiary revelation of the liberal American politician who reportedly reached out to the Soviets to derail Reagan’s 1984 bid for reelection.

With unparalleled research, this fascinating book tells the story of a man who believed that it was his responsibility to save the world from Soviet oppression. It’s a story that demonstrates how one American’s fight ended the twentieth-century’s longest war. It’s a story of one man who changed history. It’s the story of a crusader.”

Here’s the synopsis of the book GOD AND RONALD REAGAN..
“Ronald Reagan is hailed today for a presidency that restored optimism to America, engendered years of economic prosperity, and helped bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. Yet until now little attention has been paid to the role Reagan’s personal spirituality played in his political career, shaping his ideas, bolstering his resolve, and ultimately compelling him to confront the brutal — and, not coincidentally, atheistic — Soviet empire.

In this groundbreaking book, political historian Paul Kengor draws upon Reagan’s legacy of speeches and correspondence, and the memories of those who knew him well, to reveal a man whose Christian faith remained deep and consistent throughout his more than six decades in public life. Raised in the Disciples of Christ Church by a devout mother with a passionate missionary streak, Reagan embraced the church after reading a Christian novel at the age of eleven. A devoted Sunday-school teacher, he absorbed the church’s model of “practical Christianity” and strived to achieve it in every stage of his life.

But it was in his lifelong battle against communism — first in Hollywood, then on the political stage — that Reagan’s Christian beliefs had their most profound effect. Appalled by the religious repression and state-mandated atheism of Bolshevik Marxism, Reagan felt called by a sense of personal mission to confront the USSR. Inspired by influences as diverse as C.S. Lewis, Whittaker Chambers, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, he waged an openly spiritual campaign against communism, insisting that religious freedom was the bedrock of personal liberty. “The source of our strength in the quest for human freedom is not material, but spiritual,” he said in his Evil Empire address. “And because it knows no limitation, it must terrify and ultimately triumph over those who would enslave their fellow man.”

From a church classroom in 1920s Dixon, Illinois, to his triumphant mission to Moscow in 1988, Ronald Reagan was both political leader and spiritual crusader. God and Ronald Reagan deepens immeasurably our understanding of how these twin missions shaped his presidency — and changed the world.”