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Reagan Movie, a Win for the Gipper

By John Kass

September 15, 2024

A number of years ago I wrote a column making fun of guys crying at movies. And I put together a list of cry movies, like “Brian’s Song” and “Rocky” and “Old Yeller” and “Where the Red Fern Grows.” Guys cry especially if the dog dies.

There was another genre that I considered to be guys-poke-your-eyes-out-with-a-spork-movie. And the absolute worst was a fantasy film for those morosely awful angry white chicks who loved “Sex and the City.”

“I don’t think SATC is just for girls,” I quoted one British Newcastle FC fan as saying. “I am a reasonably well-adjusted bloke and I am looking forward to seeing the film with my girlfriend. I am then looking forward to poking my eyes out with red-hot pokers, burning my skin off, and rolling around in salt for a while.” — Phil Mann, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Ouch.

Since my brain injury (and that’s what a stroke is, a brain injury) I’ve lost some of my emotional filter. The weak kind of filter that would make Spok blush. But I muddle on, turn my head away and bite my lips as best I can. Happily, at the last movie Betty and I went to see, she had tissues. I needed them.

It was the Reagan movie, made about our great President Ronald Reagan, about the Gipper who stood up to communists in Hollywood, and who defeated the Evil Empire, the Soviet Union. I loved the movie. The love story of the Reagans, her fighting spirit, his absolute courage and grace under pressure, cracking jokes with doctors after he was shot, saying he hoped that in the operating room they would all be Republicans.

Naturally, the media critics hated it, because, well, he fought the communist takeover of the Screen Actors Guild, and the hard left that dictates our metaphors is vengeful.

But the American people who watched it loved it—receiving 98 percent on the Rotten Tomatoes popcorn meter—and all the people seated around us loved it. Yet the film critics of the “mainstream media” didn’t care for it, because anything in popular culture that dares to applaud the conservative point of view is considered a threat to be stamped out and stomped on.

But I cared for it. And I hope you go to the theater and watch it. Is it a perfect movie? No.

“I’m glad I had some Kleenex,” said an old guy sitting near me.

Me, too.

As some of you know who’ve listened to the Palikari Project at johnkassnews, I was raised an anti-communist by a man who fought the communists. It was a fight to the death. Our entire family clan fought them. So, it is personal with me. And so, I was susceptible to President Reagan’s viewpoint.

Yes I loved President Reagan. And my entire family loved him. Why? He had the guts to stand tall against the Evil Empire while so many were telling him to back down.  There are many such quislings in American politics. But Reagan stood tall.

There are some of us still alive who remember the fear of the Soviets, their godless culture, their hatred of the West, their Iron Curtain, the KGB, Soviet style censorship (ironically practiced by the American hard left as they cry for ‘democracy’ and most  fearful of all:

The Soviet nuclear arsenal.

I remember we were trained to cover our heads at school from the Cuban Missile Crisis on, as if covering our heads in the hall at Kolmar School in Oak Lawn would actually do something. At least it gave us something to do as we waited to be fried to a crisp.

I’m not going to go into why the reviews are worthless, although Dennis Quaid is really good in this one. He’s becoming one of our great character actors. And he was superb. So was Penelope Ann Miller playing Nancy Reagan, but a softer personality who truly loved her husband, not the steely shrew as portrayed in caricature by the New York Times.

And when he stands at the Berlin Wall and publicly demands of Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall!” if you don’t feel goosebumps, you have no heart.

But what isn’t in the Reagan Movie is also critically important, the backstory of a dangerous spy war fought in the shadows between the KGB, and Margaret Thatcher’s Great Britain and Reagan’s CIA.

Oh, and an American traitor ordering the deaths of American agents as he pushed the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust:

Aldrich Ames

The Soviets and the U.S. had already built nuclear arsenals that could destroy the world many times over. Soviet leadership kept dying and Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was replaced by the increasingly paranoid Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov.

Andropov was head of the KGB. After Brezhnev suffered a stroke  in 1975, it was Andropov who took a greater leadership role in Moscow. He was convinced that the U.S. would use the pretext of NATO military exercises to launch a nuclear attack. And he was ill, and ready to push the button.

The U.S.S.R. was fighting a proxy war in our hemisphere, and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, led by U.S. Rep. Stephen Solarz, Democrat of Brooklyn, were helping them against the Reagan administration, meaning the progressive left was helping the Soviets against us. And the media was decidedly anti-Reagan.

Yet there are heroes in this backstory.

The high-ranking KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky had become an anti-Soviet double agent in the United Kingdom. not working for Western pay but for peace, trying to tamp down the ever growing paranoia among Soviet leaders itching for war. And the CIA’s Aldrich Ames, who was not a hero but a traitor who had been flipped by the KGB. Ames had access to all CIA plans and operations against the KGB and the GRU, Soviet military intelligence. Ames formally began spying for the U.S.S.R. His KGB handlers wanted Ames to tell them about this mysterious Western agent giving Thatcher’s government key info. Ames was trying to discover Gordievsky’s identity and then betray him to his KGB handlers.

And the mole hunters at CIA were in a desperate race to find the KGB mole (Ames) in their midst.

The great game of counterintelligence is perhaps too dry for modern audiences. Explosions and gun battles are rare.

It is a landscape of feral frightened creatures and diligent thinkers and puzzle solvers. Based on Ames betrayals, the KGB rounded up American agents. Ames was finally caught in 1994 after the Cold War ended and is serving a life sentence at the federal prison in Terra Haute, Ind.

Ames was arrested Feb. 21, 1994, on charges of espionage. He pleaded guilty in April of that year and was sentenced to life without parole.

 

The mole hunters don’t seem like superhuman action figures. They’re not Tom Cruise, or Matt Damon as Jason Bourne fighting off the superspy master-minds in action scenes from the back of a motorcycle flying over Istanbul’s covered market. Instead, they look like your neighbors. Because they are your neighbors.

They’re bookish people. But they are exceedingly brave and determined. They hunted Ames down.

And sometimes they save the world, by giving the other heroes a chance to save it.

I do hope you’ll see this movie about the late President Ronald Reagan. At the end of it there is read aloud a letter to his beloved Nancy and to the American people. That’s when many of you will wish you’d brought tissues.

I do know why media critics don’t like this film. Corporate legacy media hated him. And Regan was uncompromising in his hatred of Communism and its destruction of the human soul. He was all about peace through strength, and the left loathed him for it.  But for me and my family, reaching all the way back to the war-torn broken landscape of Europe after World War II, well, we loved him for it. Please see this movie at the theaters, before the November elections, a reminder that the world is always dangerous and we live in a particularly dangerous time.

Bring tissue, sure. But know that this one is worth the price. It’s a win for the Gipper.

7/21/1987 President Reagan Meeting with KGB Defector Oleg Gordievsky in the Oval Office

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About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

Comments 32

  1. Old enough to have gone thru “Duck and Cover” and lived thru presidents both memorable and important to mere occupants of the Oval Office. Reagan was a worthwhile movie reminding us of what might have happened had we a sycophant leader like we had for the last 3.5 years. My wife grew up
    Under Mao, another friend also was sent into the countryside. They both see the direction that the left is taking us. DJT is unlikable, yes, unpredictable yes, but that keeps our adversaries being wary of engaging.
    Excellent column. Go see the movie and see what peace thru strength looks like. Ronnie we miss ya.

  3. I agree: great movie, unjustly but predictably maligned by the usual suspects.

    It should be noted that Reagan’s accomplishments were enabled by his determination to build up our “military-industrial complex” to the point that the Russians couldn’t match it. Today’s critics of “forever wars” on the right (ahem) sound like the leftists who opposed Reagan. It is impossible to imagine that Reagan and Thatcher wouldn’t be doing everything possible to support Ukraine short of committing their troops.

    1. Thanks for finally reviewing.
      See another movie: “Am I a Racist?” Great movie making biting humor against the woke culture. Nobody in legacy media is reviewing it. MUST SEE.
      BTW it was Pope John Paul who defeated Russian Communism.

      1. You are correct, the Pope was involved along with the person who started the whole downfall of the Soviet Empire, Lech Walesa, along with Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

        Can you imagine the Pope we have now doing something like that. Pope
        Francis is closer to a communist than any Pope in history.

    1. The photo is from July . July in DC is pretty nasty, downright tropical, and not in a good way. And anyway the West Coast Casual was a thing in the ’80’s.

  5. I hope to see the movie. My first Presidental Election, I voted for him. In today’s times, I would vote for him 100X if I could. President Reagan could properly share his vision of what he wanted for America. I loved the way he could use that Hollywood skill of his in debate: choice words that left the opponent flustered and laughed at. It is sad to see where we are now.

  6. I don’t know if it’s the brain injury…my filter left at 50. I also remember the 1980’s, the Carmelites taught us and only Father Andy was a commie. The rest were hard drinking , poker playing lovers of our country, our Constitution and way of life. Fr Andy meant well, he was swept up during the 60’s and never got over the power of being the victim. My father fought communists in Korea, many of his off spring vote for communist candidates. Good people, but you can’t explain individualism to them. Communism is the cotton candy, big red balloon, on paper it sounds like a heavenly endeavor, in practice, it tortures and kills millions. I liked Reagan, the Sandinistas and Iran/contra were troubling, but so was fast and furious and what ever “policy” this walking corpse is enacting. I plan on going with mt Wednesday Jeopardy group, then we will hit Western Ave to expound on how our view of it is superior to the other guys view.

  7. Note the portrait of Old Hickory . With Jackson and Churchill looking on , a good president would look up and ask ” What would they do ?” The answer was most likely the right one, a good one . I wonder if the Jackson portrait has been ditched like Churchill’s bust .

  8. Sounds like a pretty good movie. My father complained about Reagan–mostly I think because he thought Reagan was kind of fake folksy, but Reagan was Reagan and not fake. He connected in a big way. That’s how to destroy the opposition in elections.

  9. I believe he was the best president of our times and maybe the best ever. I remember crying when he made the “tear down the wall” statement and thinking that my children were finally safe from the communist threat. Too soon I suppose. We have learned that we can never let our guard down. I’m more afraid now than I was then. Ronnie, we need your insight and intellect now.

  10. My first job off the farm in college was with a hospital in Wichita, KS. McConnell AFB, then was home to the 381st Strategic Missile Wing of SAC and I’d grown up its Titan II missile sites as part of the landscape.
    But the hospital job and the Reagan years brought a new perspective. In the vastness of the Kansas wheat fields the nuclear threat was always there but the mushroom cloud, if it did come, would be over the horizon, we’d have time, we’d survive.
    My hospital was just a couple miles NW of the base. The other two only four and miles away. I got an eyeful that year with my joint mass casualty disaster drills. Maps were made complete with blast radius and estimated damage and casualty percentages.
    When the 1983 ABC movie The Day After came out it literally “hit home” for us. We had family and friends living in Lawrence and KC. We also knew, due to McConnell, we were probably a higher target than Lawrence.
    Reagan’s strength and steadfastness got me and so many others through those years. Somehow I just felt that when it came to nuclear war, that was something that he just was not going to allow to happen.
    Now we have Iran and radical Islamists on the verge of a nuclear breakout. Unfortunately we don’t have Reagan. We’ve got Obama retreads and Biden/Harris appeasement.
    That nervousness of “it really could happen” is back. But what makes me angry is it never had to happen. Reagan never would have allowed it to happen.
    It’s not hyperbole to state that the coming election truly does, have this nation and the world itself on the line.

  11. The election will be about our own insidious wall the left has thrown up in our own country since the Reagan years.
    The alphabet agencies no longer engage against a foreign enemy. They are weaponized almost fully against the conservative populace that elected Reagan. Where have you gone, Dutch?

  12. I moved the US in 1987, I lived for several years under a communist style government in the 1970s. We had elections so the opposition had some opportunity to become the government, but we had severe food shortages. When I see folks clamoring for Communist government I know the communists have won in some ways. By the time I moved to the US, Pres Reagan’s second term was almost over. One of the things I learned over the past 37 years is Reagan was a funny person. I have seen numerous videos of him giving jokes, he had excellent self deprecating humor but aklso when he poked fun at the media and his opponents, yet the humor was not mean IMHO. Kinda like Johnny Carsons humor. The “humor” of the current late night hosts are not like JC or RR humor, the current humor is mean spirit and not funny. Anyway I might go see the movie, I tend to distrust Hollywood so I have been reluctant to go see any movies.

  14. I have been a Reagan fan since hearing his “A time for choosing” speech in 1964. His views closely resembled mine. I was always impressed with his toughness and steadfastness especially with the “star wars” tactic (great use of a non-existent weapon) . Loved the movie. Saw it on day 1. It brought back so many memories. Makes you wonder how we ever got from there to here.

  15. My wife worked in the Old Executive Office Building when Reagan was in office, we plan on seeing the movie. As a college freshman in 1976 I voted in my first Presidential election. Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon and Jimmy Carter appeared inept, Eugene McCarthy got my vote. My suspicion of Carter proved true and I thought America would never again have a President as incompetent as he. In 1980 Ronald Reagan spoke on our campus at Colorado State University, I sat 20′ feet from the stage and everything he said made sense; I’ve been a Republican ever since. Reagan became so popular that elected Democrats began declaring themselves as Republicans, obviously to save their political future. These RHINOs are numerous and must be weeded out. The GOP has forgotten Reagan’s #1 rule, do not speak ill of another Republican. I was wrong, not only has Joe Biden been more inept than Jimmy Carter, he makes Richard Nixon look like a choirboy. If Kamala Harris is elected we’ll get incompetence cubed.

    As a communications major and having worked in the print media business for 40 years, I’ve been saying our biggest threat to the United States in not China or Russia or Iran; it’s ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Washington Post, etc. If these legacy media outlets stopped their blatant bias, did their job and held ALL elected officials (D, R, I, L, G, etc.) accountable we would have better and more responsible politicians. Life for all Americans would improve too. A way to stop this bias is to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine (rewrite the law to make it legal) and repeal the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (exempts big tech from all copyright laws).

    John, I believe you need to turn the Palikari Project into a movie. You should also write a screen play about “the backstory of a dangerous spy war fought in the shadows between the KGB, and Margaret Thatcher’s Great Britain and Reagan’s CIA”. Subjects like this are the types of movies people will pay to see at a movie theater. Angel Studios is just the company to produce both of these.

    Thank you for all you do exposing the lunacy from the left.

  16. Thank you, John, for this column. I don’t see that many new movies, so I waited and saw “Reagan”.

    I’m of Polish descent and while growing up, would hear about Soviet Poland from friends in our Polish dance group who still had family in the “old country”. When John Paul II was elected Pope, there was a great joy in Chicago’s “Polonia” (expatriate Poland). It was said of JPII that he had many books on Marxism, Communism, etc., that his parishioners wondered about him. He would tell them, “it’s good to know your enemy.” Anyway, hearing “Soviet” stories built an antenna within me, that I became more and more skeptical about where our country is going/being guided.

    Being Democrat, I originally voted for Carter and Reagan won. For the second term, I voted Reagan. One of my friends, who was surprised to hear this, asked why I did that and I told her, “Because what’s he’s doing worked.”

    The movie was very respectful of this President who was the right man for his time. Not surprising that he met with Margaret Thatcher . . . as well as JPII . . . I always considered what was it about a solitary man dressed in white that the mighty USSR would be afraid of! He knew them better than they knew themselves. And Reagan was not afraid to stand ground for what was right.

  17. I too loved President Ronald Reagan, especially for his stance on Communism. My Grandparents on my Mother’s side came here in the early 1900’s from Lithuania to escape Communism. My Aunt who came here with them, eventually met an Opera Singer here from Lithuania on Tour. Just prior to the turmoil that led to WW 2, they married and returned to Lithuania and had a son. In late Winter of 1963, my Grandmother became ill and was not expected to survive. Of course my Aunt was told and she wanted to return to this Country to see her one last time. She was forbidden to travel here and was told that if she did they would kill her son. Years later, during the Chernobyl incident, my Mother who was on vacation in Hawaii, asked me to call my Aunt because she was not able to make that call from there. After trying for about 2 days, I finally reached her. I never had an opportunity to know her because I was born several years after she had returned to Lithuania, but we had quite a talk. I asked her if she could come for a visit as my Mother would love to see her and she told me no, she was too afraid they would carry out the threat to kill her son. She lived in Vilnius, quite close to Chernobyl and as a result passed away soon after from Cancer. I wish people would wake up and understand that Communism and Socialist policies are really not as portrayed by Politicians and the Media.

    Thank you, John for always trying to inform and stay informed. I will try to see this movie as soon as possible.

  19. Thanks John, for that review. As you point out, the film has gotten ratings from audiences of 98% while the ‘critics’ give it 18% – a record divide of 80 points. More proof of bias in the media and eroding what little trust people have left in the media.

    I’m proud to be involved in this film – and if you squint, you’ll see a familiar face swearing President Reagan in as President. As you rightly point out, President Reagan’s impact on the world in opposing communism was certainly a major element of his legacy.

    At the same time, his economic record is also key to what has happened in the world over the past 40 years. The movie depicts the relationship with Democrat Thomas “Tip” O’Neill to end up agreeing to reduce our high marginal tax rates down to just 28%. That meant that investors could retain 72% of their profits from making often risky investments. They also worked to eliminate abusive tax shelters that were attracting investment that otherwise might have gone into productive investments.

    What resulted? 40+ years of a rebirth in American investment and growth. Technological advancements have vaulted America’s economy and provided us with major advances that have extended life and made life more enjoyable. Our leadership in the world and our strength as a nation in many ways is tied to our economic success and the malaise of the Carter years – which the current administration is trying hard to repeat – would have eroded our strength and the safety of the world.

    We learn from painful experience that weakness invites war and a strong America is important for the safety and security of all of us.

  20. John, great column! My wife and I saw it last week. We both thought it was outstanding. A lot Grace didn’t know, she being 5 years younger than me. It really portrayed Reagan’s lifetime of leadership in a real way. The scene with the protesters at Berkeley was particularly revealing! Thx for the background on Aldrich Ames. Lots there I need to dive into. All Americans who are civic minded should see it before they vote! Thanks for your review!

  21. As an 18 yr. old boot at Parris Island S.C. we were designated to sleep in our uniforms… ready to ship out instantly to the “Cuban Front”to confront the missiles of October i.e. the Communist threat. Would the present regime order such a directive? Doubtful I think. Wherefore art thou Joe McCarthy…the communist sniffing windbag of the McCarthy hearings. Remember..it was Kruschev who blinked when nose to nose with Kennedy. That would possibly not happen today.

  23. Yes, it was a great movie, and yes, Reagan was one of our greatest presidents. The sad thing now is that so many people in this country either don’t know about his legacy anymore, or never learned about it in the first place. His most pertinent quote these days: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it down to our children in the bloodstream.” Unfortunately, his own children, Patti and Ron Junior, are proof of that!

  24. God Bless The Gipper! God Bless the man who dove into the path pf John Hinkley’s bullet.

    Tim McCarthy. Leo Class of 1967! Self-effacing hero and American.

    The real deal is always understated.

  26. I’ve been reading a book containing the columns Mike Royko wrote for the Chicago Tribune throughout his career. Although I agreed with many of the things Royko said in his columns, I had one major disagreement with him. It was undeniable that Royko disliked President Reagan. There were many columns where he disagreed with Reagan and openly mocked him in true Royko style. This continued through the subsequent administration when he mocked the first President Bush. I loved Royko, but in this particular case, we agree to disagree.

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