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--:-- John Bickley: Presidential biopics have long been a popular genre, with movies about JFK, Lincoln, and Nixon winning critical acclaim and scoring at the box office. Now, with the new film Reagan, America's 40th president gets the Hollywood treatment. Starring Dennis Quaid as the Gipper, it examines Reagan's legacy in light of his efforts to defeat communism and bring down the Soviet Union.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In this episode, Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham talks with Reagan star John Voight about the film and the qualities that enabled Ronald Reagan to win the Cold War. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, August 31st, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The following is an interview between Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham and actor John Voight.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, thanks so much for joining us, John. So I want to start out by talking about your character. You play a former KGB agent, and I would say that you're kind of the framing device of this film in remembering Reagan and telling his story. So why was it so important to enter the narrative through the eyes of this Soviet spy?
--:-- John Voight: I don't know if it was so important, but it's relevant. It's an interesting way to do it, because the people who were most interested in his rise in every corner of his career were the Soviets, because they were looking for the dangers that might appear to them from people across the globe. And they found talented people who were politically gifted and who also had an understanding of the world and made a decision against communism, which was him.
--:-- Megan Basham: So they knew he was an enemy in some way, philosophically, and they saw him coming. So they were very attentive on everything. One of the things they came up with was they knew that he meant what he said and he said what he meant. The whole world knew that aspect of him when he came into government. That's why after the Carter administration had been at sea about these hostages in Iran five minutes after he was announced as president, they released the hostages because they knew who he was.
--:-- John Voight: It's interesting. It's an interesting portrait to have at this time, especially, even though it wasn't supposed to come at this time. It was pushed back and pushed back because of COVID and different other things. And now it's coming out at this time and it seems very relevant at this time in many ways.
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, it definitely does. And you know, another thing that was really interesting to me as I read through some of the reviews was that a few of the larger legacy media outlets were somewhat negative, but the reason for their criticism seemed a little telling. So for example, the Washington Post said that the movie doesn't explain why Reagan was against communism. And I'll say that that surprised me a little bit that the Post reviewer thought people needed to have it explain to them why communism is a destructive ideology.
--:-- John Voight: Well, it shows their leanings. You know, they're very well confused because they're very communist leaning. I mean, that's what's going on today. We're resembling that kind of behavior. And it's a very negative behavior. Anywhere socialism or communism has grown in any part of the world, it's produced nothing but misery. And it's doing it here.
--:-- Megan Basham: But see, the reason why, by the way, the reason why it's come to this here is because of the KGB. The KGB had a menu to try to destroy us from the inside by taking over different things in our society. And they listed that menu in a book. In 1958, a former FBI agent wrote a book called The Naked Communist. And in that book, he shows you what's going to go on. And they took passages from that book and put it in the congressional record.
--:-- John Voight: So they knew that the communists were looking to take over our universities, take God out of the schools, create a disruption by dividing us by race, by gender, and by age, seeking to infiltrate both political parties and Hollywood. Well, it's all taken place, hasn't it?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, it has. And so it's resembling the communist line now. So this guy who's at the Washington Post, he doesn't know. He doesn't know he's representing those views. You know what I mean? He's confused.
--:-- John Voight: Why don't they talk about the, why are they against communism? Oh, okay. Anyway, it's amusing, but it's concerning. By the way, it's very clearly explained why he has that concern. There's a scene where someone comes back, escapes from the communist ghettos and comes back and tells him when he's a child, tells the parents all about the suffering that he's been through. Well, that's it, kid. That's a big chunk of the movie is explaining his concern about communism.
--:-- Megan Basham: And you know that scene and it was such a great scene. It did explain Reagan opposition to communism. And that was part of what made me chuckle a little bit when I read that review. But it was interesting that the scene took place in a church. And that was also something of a through line in this film, how important Reagan's faith was to him.
--:-- Megan Basham: And just coincidentally, as I was watching the movie, I also happened to listen to a podcast yesterday from Christianity Today, which was a magazine founded by Billy Graham. And their editor-in-chief likened Kamala Harris's joy theme to Reagan's Morning in America theme. So I want to ask, do you think that's a fair comparison to liken the Harris-Walls campaign to Reagan's 1980 Morning in America campaign?
--:-- John Voight: Well, I think they would try to make that connection, but it falls apart because it's simply not true. You know, there is no real joy in this past administration. Her laughter is not real joy. Just take one thing. I don't want to get too political, but I just want to say that the cancer that is that open border is all on their watch. And she was called the czar. Can you imagine the word? The czar of the southern border. This is a crime, a terrible crime.
--:-- John Voight: You know, the intention of it to get all those people in, and it seems like they're all trying to get them to vote, where they're buying votes and millions upon millions of people pouring into our border from, as people described, you know, they're sending the worst people in their communities into our communities because they want to get rid of them from the jails in the streets. So a lot of that and the dangerous people coming in from enemies of our country.
--:-- John Voight: And then, of course, the great tragedy, horror, the horror of fentanyl coming in and killing so many children. I mean, really. And that's that's that was her responsibility. So do you think Reagan's legacy is still impacting politics today? Is the Reagan era, in other words, still influencing us?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, I think there's similarities. The crisis in the economy and in government generally after the Carter administration was quite severe. A lot of fixing had to be done and he was the man to do it and we're in the same spot today. We see a lot of problems. Our economy is really in bad shape. It's much more serious than anybody knows. The world is coming very close to the possibility of a nuclear war. That's what the portrait seems to be painting.
--:-- John Voight: So there's a lot of things that are very, very deeply concerning across the world because of it, across the world. So somebody has to come in and fix it a little bit. Not a little bit. I say that a little bit. Well, he has to fix it. And I'm a spiritual guy. I say We really have to do a lot of we have to pray and we have to rely on God energy and get back to a moral society We losing it
--:-- Megan Basham: Well to shift gears a little bit from this film I love to ask you about the state of Hollywood more broadly. So I have noticed that just in recent months we've started to see maybe a little bit of pullback from the politicization of film that we saw in the last few years. We saw the Twisters director, for example, say that he didn't want to push a political message in that film. And we've even seen Bob Iger at Disney, Ted Sarandos at Netflix, kind of step back a little bit from that stronger, let's say, more woke political language. Do you think that maybe the fever has broken in Hollywood and will start seeing less political messaging in films?
--:-- John Voight: I think that the reason why you're seeing that is because of the box office. Follow the money, they say. In this case, the films have not been successful. So they're trying to change direction and get more people in the seats. And that's business. That's their business. And I think it will be helpful to have films that are more positive. And I think that will help the box office and return Hollywood to its proper business.
--:-- Megan Basham: Okay. Well, last question then, John. Obviously, we're a few years out from the pandemic now, but I do think it's fair to say that Hollywood still hasn't returned to its former glory. So do you think the experience of going to theaters ever returns to what it once was?
--:-- John Voight: Well, it's a complicated thing. One is that we have theaters in our homes now. We never did have that. We have very sophisticated equipment that is making our homes into a very comfortable theater. The problem with that is i mean in terms of being an audience is that you have many distractions when you're watching a film and that kind of storytelling and art should be attended to the subtlety of everything lends to the whole experience in a great film so you don't want people saying put some more mustard on that sandwich you know or somebody get me a whatever it is, you kids stop.
--:-- John Voight: You don't want to have that interfering continuously in the film. And that's what's going on at home. You know, you're not really watching the film completely. I think there'll always be a place where people can get, and it's always good to, I think, to have a group of 200 people or whatever it is, a thousand people, whatever, watching the movie together and experiencing it together. There's something quite magical about it, really. It's something, this shared humanity. And we find out we're laughing at the same places and we're crying at the same places. And it's a healthy experience. It brings us together.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, amen to that. And we hope that a lot of people gather around Reagan to experience it together. And we wish you the best of luck with this film. Thanks, Megan. Appreciate it. God bless.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham interviewing actor John Voight about the film Reagan in theaters now. And this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.
