PATIENCE PAYS OFF WITH REAGAN

Paul Kengor waited a long time – almost 20 years – to see the presidential biopic Reagan.

The movie, based on the Ronald Reagan scholar’s work, opened in theaters nationwide in August to box office success and critical acclaim. The premiere marked the end of a journey “from page to screen” that began nearly 20 years ago when Kengor, a professor of Political Science and the executive director and chief academic fellow of The Institute for Faith & Freedom, got a call from producer Mark Joseph, who had just read Kengor’s 2004 book God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life

“Mark called to tell me that he had just read the book and wanted to turn it into a movie,” Kengor said. “He said that book was the one he was always waiting for on Reagan, especially because it understood, grasped, and informed the world of the paramount importance of Reagan’s Christian faith.”

Kengor and Joseph – whose credits include work on The Chronicles of Narnia, The Passion of the Christ, and other films –would spend the intervening years trying to get the movie made through sheer dedication and perseverance.

They faced struggles with financing, distribution, and liberal elites in the film industry who were not interested in making a movie about a successful and beloved Republican president. The fact that Reagan exists is considered a victory over Hollywood’s anti-conservative bias.

“It’s insane to think that it took this long to make a major feature film about the most popular president in our lifetimes, but such is the challenge in getting Hollywood to make a film about a conservative Republican icon,” said Kengor, who served as an adviser to the filmmakers. “Mark was doubted every step of the way, but he would not give up. This was his passion.”

The finished film, directed by Sean McNamara, is actually based on Kengor’s second Reagan book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, which was published in 2006. “When Mark first called me, I was already working on The Crusader,” said Kengor. “That book opens with the young Reagan lifeguarding at the Rock River in his hometown of Dixon, Ill. I told Mark, ’That’s the story that you want for a movie.’”

Dr. Paul Kengor, above, realized a dream of two decades when Reagan, based on his book about the 40th president’s long battle against the Soviet Union and communism, was released in August.

The movie stars Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan and parts were filmed at the Reagan Ranch in California, which is managed by alum Andrew Coffin ’98.

In a nod to the original work, a Soviet spy played by Jon Voight utters the words “the Crusader” at the beginning of the film.

Reagan does not lionize its subject. That is in large part due to Kengor’s strengths as a scholar and researcher, Joseph said. “A story about a perfect person isn’t very interesting so it was important that Paul painted a full portrait of Reagan that was even-handed. He obviously respects him but he’s a historian first and so he covers him fairly and doesn’t gloss over his failures … Paul is such a meticulous researcher and his book The Crusader was helpful in guiding us to tell Reagan’s story accurately.”

Along with Voight, the cast includes veteran leading man Dennis Quaid as Reagan, Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan, C. Thomas Howell, Mena Suvari, Nick Searcy, Kevin Sorbo, Lesley-Anne Down, Kevin Dillon, and Creed frontman Scott Stapp as

Frank Sinatra. Actors Tommy Regan and David Henrie portray Reagan as a young boy and teenager, respectively.

The movie traces Reagan’s American journey from humble beginnings in the Midwest to stardom in Hollywood and political power in Washington, D.C., where, as the nation’s 40th president, he was instrumental in bringing the Cold War to an end, advancing conservative principles, and restoring a nation’s confidence and power.

Kengor said he believes Reagan may resonate strongly with young people who have no first-hand memory of Reagan or the Cold War because of its treatment of the future president’s youth.

“Ronald Reagan was so deeply impacted by his childhood, teen, and college years in ways that clearly affected what he did as president of the United States in the 1980s,” he said. The young Reagan spent seven years as a lifeguard on the Rock River in his hometown of Dixon, where he saved 77 people from drowning, Kengor said. That, he said, instilled “a deep respect for the sanctity and dignity of every human life, as well as a confidence and literal lifesaving mentality” in Reagan.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that it gave Reagan a supreme, unshakable confidence that he could do the impossible and even one day rescue his fellow Americans and the world from the scourge of evil, atheistic Soviet communism.”

Kengor isn’t Grove City College’s only connection to Reagan. The movie was filmed, in part, at the Reagans’ Rancho del Cielo in California. Known as the “Western White House” during his presidency, the property is now operated by Young America’s Foundation and its director is alumnus Andrew Coffin ’98, who Kengor noted was sitting in the front row of the first class he taught at the College.

Coffin and the Ranch’s staff were a huge help, Kengor said. “They opened the ranch to filmmakers. Among the most touching, inspiring scenes in the film are the ranch scenes, especially as the film ends with Ronald Reagan on a horse literally riding off into the sunset,” he said.

A prolific writer of books and commentary and one of the country’s leading Reagan scholars, Kengor has served on the faculty at Grove City College since 1997. He is senior director and chief academic fellow for The Institute for Faith & Freedom, the College’s think tank and dynamic learning community that connects, educates, and empowers American citizens. Kengor is also the editor of The American Spectator.