I have to concur in the opinion that the reverence for Reagan held by some people is ridiculous and not deserved. While he was in office, Reagan butt-smoochers were saying that his face ought to be on Mount Rushmore. Even today, some people say that he was the best president ever. Well, I remember the Reagan era really well, and it wasn't all that great.
Reagan's record is full of goofs, blunders, stupid remarks and downright falsehoods. This is part of the man that he was. He tended to repeat stories he'd heard, and seemed not to care whether the stories were factual. There were some in the media who deliberately tried to throw Reagan curve ball questions, just to see what kinds of goofy answers they'd get from him.
If you tried do a mini-series that failed to mention Reagan's propensity for sticking his foot in his mouth, then that mini-series would be unfair (despite the fact that this would be the kind of mini-series that Nancy Reagan would prefer). Similarly, if you did a mini-series that emphasized the errors and boneheaded remarks, then that would be unfair, too.
There seem to be two big complaints about the movie: one is the cast, who are unfairly presumed to act according to a political agenda rather than a legitimate portrayal of their characters; and the other is that Reagan showed a lack of compassion with AIDS victims. As I recall, Reagan DID show a lack of compassion for a lot of people, including AIDS vicitims. He may not have made the controversial "They that live in sin shall die in sin" remark, but his actions, and those of his administration, were consistent with that view.
Surgeon General Koop, for example, had to go to rather extraordinary lengths (some of them almost comical) in order to publish his AIDS information pamphlet to the American people. He also expressed his concern about facing the "They that live in sin shall die in sin" mentality of the Reagan administration. Koop basically said, "Look, I'm a doctor, and my attitude has to be 'Hate the sin, but treat the patient anyway.'" (Dr. Koop earned my respect for his courage on this issue, and because he refused to publish anti-abortion studies that were contrary to the weight of the evidence, even though he personally was strongly opposed to abortion.)
C.S. mentioned "Nixon." Well, long before "Nixon" came out, Woodward and Bernstein published "The Final Days" about the end of Nixon's term. There were a lot of stories in that book that were denied by Nixon supporters, and yet, many of them were later admitted to be true. Woodward and Bernstein rigorously checked their facts before typing anything, and used multiple sources to corroborrate stories. As a result, "The Final Days" has withstood historical scrutiny, for the most part.
It is not clear that the Reagan mini-series has been subject to such rigorous fact-checking.
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