<I>Ronald Reagan: A Legacy Remembered</I> uses interviews with Reagan's family, cabinet members, and political peers (including Mikhail Gorbachev) to paint a per ... more

<I>Ronald Reagan: A Legacy Remembered</I> uses interviews with Reagan's family, cabinet members, and political peers (including Mikhail Gorbachev) to paint a personal portrait as much as a political one. Home movies and photographs give clues into his difficult childhood and young adulthood, while a vast body of archival footage captures his film and television career (including commercials, in which he pitched appliances with the same smooth style he would later apply to the Republican agenda) and his political rise from governor of California to president of the United States. The program argues that Reagan was more than a handsome face mouthing the words of others, but also concedes that he led with big ideas (Communism must be destroyed, taxes must be cut) and had little interest in the details. However, the deep affection everyone around him felt is evident in every interview. <I>--Bret Fetzer</I> less