Eugene Jarecki interview: HBO documentary explores Reagan's myths, mysteries By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 6, 2011; 9:47 PM
The filmmaker Eugene Jarecki was a teenager in Upstate New York when Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s. Looking back on those years, Jarecki says, it's clear that "already there was a caricature" of the 40th president, "and for a young person that caricature was largely negative."
So when Jarecki, now 41, began researching his documentary "Reagan," airing Monday on HBO, his views on the man many of his peers considered an "amiable dunce" underwent a profound transformation. In a conversation at the Sundance Film Festival, where "Reagan" had just made its premiere, Jarecki made a passionate case for remembering Reagan - who would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Sunday - not as a paragon or a pariah, but as a complex man in full.
"There are so many lies told to us today about who Ronald Reagan was and what he did, that, to a large extent, my discovery was the real Reagan," Jarecki said. "The real Reagan gives the lie to what virtually everyone says about him today."
For example, Reagan is often invoked by those advocating stringent immigration policies. "Correction," Jarecki said sharply. "Ronald Reagan was in favor of amnesty for illegal immigrants, [and] he signed a bill to give amnesty to 2.6 million illegal immigrants in the United States."
The very name Ronald Reagan has become a favorite shibboleth for anti-tax activists. "Correction," said Jarecki. "Reagan raised taxes six of the eight years he was in office. Why? Because he was a pragmatist."
From abortion-rights legislation he signed as governor of California to his support of nuclear non- proliferation and his practice of deficit spending, Reagan-the-man refuses to conform to Reagan-the- myth, a figure Jarecki maintains has been created by political opportunists to brand policies and agendas Reagan himself would likely oppose.
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