The Day Reagan Was Shot (2001)

Excellent and Stirring Film

The Day Reagan was Shot is a Great movie. I found myself tearing up as President Reagan (portrayed by Richard Krenna) was wheeled off to surgery--even though we know he survived the attack.

I found myself cheering Alexander Haig (Richard Dreyfus) as he moved to stabilize the White House, and feeling embarrassed for him as his historic, "I am in Control here..." press conference was dissected by the media.

I was somewhat concerned with the fact that Oliver Stone was involved with this movie, as with Hollywood in general being usually hostile to Reagan and Republicans. However much of what was included in the movie seemed to be in line with Secretary Haig's own biography "Caveat, Realism, Reagan and Foreign Policy" Caveat: Realism, Reagan and Foreign Policy that I read several years ago.

While I cannot be sure of the historical accuracy of the entire film, I found a moving film to watch, that made the players involved seem human, but competent in a crisis.

October 1, 2007

Crisis Control

Well, there were, in fact, a number of crises on the day President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley and, according to this movie, none of them were handled terribly well. The Soviets, whose troops are massing on the Polish border in what is expected to be a military invasion to crush the Solidarity movement, suddenly have a screenful of nuclear submarines inching towards the US shores. That may be because inexperienced Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger inadvertently put the military on Def-Con Three. Vice President George Bush can't be reached, he's in the air somewhere but the phones aren't working. The doctors at George Washington can't find the bullet, and then have reason to believe it's lodged near the President's heart. Nobody knows what happened to Reagan's wallet, the wallet with the plastic card that will activate the `football' in case the Alexander Haig led crisis control center decides to respond to those approaching subs. The Russian ambassador can't be reached, either, he left for dinner somewhere, and... well, you get the idea.

I don't watch movies to learn history. Movies compress time, heighten and exaggerate conflict, and do any number of other things to entertain us while distorting The Truth. It's enough that they touch the high and low points, and paint the emotions honestly. THE DAY REAGAN WAS SHOT does that, portraying a numbing series of crises and near-disasters that reach their nadir when Haig tells an anxious and agitated press room full of journalists that "I'm in charge here." Miraculously, President Reagan survived the events of that day. Not surprisingly, Haig was the one to shuffle off the national stage a few months later. Haig's ignorance of the 25th amendment, the one that addresses the issue of succession when a president is incapacitated, wasn't the first time he put his foot into it in front of the country. In 1973 Haig became President Nixon's chief-of-staff following HR Haldeman's resignation during the Watergate scandal. Haig's first major verbal gaffe occurred around that time when he told a congressional investigating committee that a suspicious 18-1/2 minute gap on a Watergate tape might have been made by `sinister forces.' To be fair, Haig may have been making a mordant joke. To be honest, he may not have.

Richard Dreyfuss brings the right amount of brittle intensity to his portrayal of Haig, and seems at time on the brink of a physical or emotional collapse. Richard Crenna, in one of his last roles, is effective as Reagan, even though he spends most of the movie under anesthesia. Crenna's main role is to clue us into Haig's thwarted ambitions ("Cap's my foreign crisis guy. You're my foreign policy guy,") and establish his style ("I'm a big-picture guy") in contrast to Haig's, who, when he hands the President a 2000-page report on foreign policies, is told "Can you narrow that down to one or two pages? Make it one." Crenna looks a bit like Reagan, and a few of the other actors, Leon Pownall as Ed Meese, for instance, look like the character they're portraying, too. Dreyfuss doesn't at all look like Alexander Haig, which was a little disconcerting for a while. Still, he's a capable actor and this is a high-tension docu-drama that seems to hew close to the facts. Strong recommendation.
July 20, 2006

LOVE THIS MOVIE!

I actually watched this movie on TV and it was one of the best movies i have ever seen! It was so intense and shows alot about the stress of working in the white house durring a major crisis. I am a 16 year old girly girl and i still loved this movie! haha even though im definetly not the type to watch a movie like this,,it just shows how good it was! May 1, 2006

Al Haig presented in a different light

Well, I thought Alexander Haig was vindicated somewhat by the film. It was the press of the day that portrayed him as a nut, but in this film there is some explanation, some background for his statements and actions that we never had. As the character states towards the end of the film, he played the good soldier and did not speak of the things that the film aledges went on that could have improved his public image.

Did it really take as long as it seems in the film for George Bush, Sr. to get back to town? I really don't remember, but that was weird. It wasn't so much that Al Haig was bullying to take over, but that the people who were supposed to step up to the plate were inexplicably NOT doing so at a time of crisis.

Also, what in the world was the deal with the guy who dressed up like a doctor and snuck right into Regan's room with no bother from security? The real doctor's caught him just in time. I don't recall that incident, but it sure makes fodder for some conspiracy theories.

A good film for a period of time that gets skipped by documentarians. November 14, 2005

Are any facts in a movie accurate? Well, some, but not all.

I would caution individuals to be wary of receiving historical information from a movie. Many individuals have rightly stated that Oliver Stone, as usual, changed the facts to conform with his vision of the world. With that said, it was interesting, even if many facts were untrue, to see how Hollywood interprets Reagan. Coldly, I'd argue. Reagan is portrayed as an unintelligent and uninterested president. Such a characterization is unfair, especially in light of the recent publications of Ronald Reagan's collection of letters demonstrating that he was a man of ideas, and this explains why he won every election in a landslide.

I felt that this movie gave the impression that our democratic system was being challenged and was in danger of falling into chaos. Historians would likely have a different perspective...

Michael October 5, 2004

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