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Watch one with the Gipper

This may be old news (and apologies to Corey Anderson if he posted it and I missed it), but here's the complete list of films watched by Ronald Reagan during his presidency. There appears to be about 350 in eight years-- that's less than one a week, which is surprising, considering the free time he must have had. A quick look at the list shows that it's a pretty even mix of Hollywood classics and new releases (give them their due, he and Nancy stayed current with developments in their real profession).

The list is actually quite interesting and could be a fun drinking and trivia game among politically-minded film buffs. I noticed that the list seemed to get more tailored to the Reagans' age and cloistered lives as the years went on: while there are a few R-rated sex-and-murder title like Bloodline and The Fan during the first year of the list, those stop appearing soon after. Apparently, his two favorite actors were John Wayne and Ronald Reagan (the last movie he watched as president was his own Cattle Queen of Montana). It's also noticable that the list is very light on Nancy Davis movies-- I mean, they watched The Karate Kid II but not Donovan's Brain or The Next Voice You Hear? For shame!

It's interesting, too, to see the people and titles omitted from the list. Martin Scorcese's King of Comedy got a screening, but not the much more popular The Color of Money, or, needless to say, The Last Temptation of Christ. And apparently the Reagans just didn't like Richard Pryor: I can understand not showing them his autobio, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, but why not the pablummy Moving, The Toy, or Superman III, especially since they watched Superman II? An even more popular movie star during Reagan's rule was Eddie Murphy, yet not a single one of his movies is on the list, either. But before you jump to conclusions, they also didn't seem to like Chevy Chase movies (but then, who does?) or even Steve Martin (although they did watch Roxanne). And while they didn't bother with Ishtar, they did watch the only other Warren Beatty movie released during the Reagan years: Reds.

Posted by Steve Monaco at April 22, 2006 12:19 AM

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