By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS, Rafu Arts & Entertainment
A main strength of any biographical film, especially one focused on a major world figure, can be how it elicits feelings in the hearts of audiences. In tackling the life of Ronald Reagan, those feelings can really run the gamut, although time may have softened much of the criticisms he faced while in office.
“Reagan was like everybody’s dad at the time that he was president, and, like all families, that’s either you admire your dad or you’re rebelling against your dad,” Dennis Quaid told Fox News last month.
The veteran actor stars in “Reagan,” the first major feature focused on the life and career of America’s 40th president. After years of delays that included wrestling with the pandemic during production, the film was released last weekend to generally lackluster reviews but solid box office receipts.
For one of the movie’s featured actors, the tug of nostalgia is very real, as he portrayed another world leader who had a famously friendly relationship with Reagan.
“When I think back to the 1980s Showa era, I think of it as kind of the good old days,” said L.A.’s Hideo Kimura, who plays Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. “It was a simpler, more straightforward time. Now, life is more convenient in some ways — with smartphones, online shopping, YouTube – but back then, everything was much less complicated. It was nice, and I think a lot of people who grew up during that part of Showa miss that.”
Nakasone’s partnership with Reagan was a defining feature of his tenure, giving rise to the popular term “Ron-Yasu” in Japan.
“President Reagan is the pitcher and I’m the catcher,” Nakasone said of his efforts to cooperate on equal footing with America.
Alongside Quaid, “Reagan” also features Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan, C. Thomas Howell as Caspar Weinberger, Lesley-Anne Down as Margaret Thatcher, Aleksander Krupa as Mikhail Gorbachev and Robert Davi as Leonid Brezhnev.
“Reagan” has arrived in theaters just over two months ahead of one of the most polarizing presidential elections in American history. While Quaid has said it is not at all a political film, a clear devide is seen in its reception. Audiences have responded favorably – buying $10.3 million worth of tickets in its opening weekend – despite critics panning it as hagiography that ignores negative aspects of Reagan’s legacy.