Movie Nights with the Reagans

January 15, 2018
This amiable political memoir recounts the movie nights hosted by President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan over weekends at Camp David. Former assistant press secretary Weinberg dedicates each chapter to a different screening, tying the films into aspects of Reagan’s presidency or personal life. Titles discussed include such hits of the era as E.T. (screened soon after the inauguration of the Space Shuttle Program), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (which lifted the president’s spirits after a stressful medical checkup), and Top Gun (which reflected growing esteem for the military after its post–Vietnam War fall from grace). Added to the mix are Reagan’s own Knute Rockne All American and Hellcats of the Navy, the only film in which he and his wife appeared together. As a longtime Reagan staffer, Weinberg has plenty of admiring stories to share about Reagan’s charm and leadership style, recalling how the president stood by him when the White House chief of staff tried to fire him. The author’s recollections tend to be less than revelatory, but in general he paints an intimate, pleasant picture of the Reagan White House. For those equally enthused about movies and the 40th president, this book will serve as a welcome change from today’s political climate.

February 1, 2018
An exploration of what Ronald and Nancy Reagan thought of Top Gun, Ghostbusters, E.T., Back to the Future, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and other iconic movies.In this sentimental but often revealing debut memoir, former Reagan spokesman and speechwriter Weinberg recalls his years with the first couple through the movies they screened for friends at Camp David. The Reagans were the first Hollywood couple to occupy the White House, and movies put them on familiar ground, especially when the president's own rosy view of America was beginning to take hold. Some, like Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first of the Indiana Jones movies, restored the rugged individualist to the screen and reminded Reagan--the eternal supporting player--of the roles he always lost to Errol Flynn. The Reagans wept along with the rest of the country over E.T., the poor alien who was forced to flee the planet to escape government interference. Others, like WarGames, made such an impression that the film made its way into speeches on the administration's missile defense program. "At one point," writes Weinberg, Reagan "put aside his notes and talked about WarGames and the dangers an inadvertent launch might pose to the United States. His concern, like the film itself, was dismissed by some in the room as far-fetched, even absurd." Saber-rattling entertainments like Top Gun, Red Dawn (a "stridently anti-Communist movie), and Rocky IV, which "coincided with the first real thaw in Soviet-American relations since well before President Reagan took office," echoed the administration's militarism and jingoistic approach to foreign policy. Sometimes, Weinberg seems to be compiling a brief in defense of his old boss--he's still a press flack at heart--but he also captures the personable nature of the Reagans and how they shifted and reflected the cultural landscape.A readable, mostly enjoyable walk down Memory Lane.

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