Directed by Pacho Velez and Sierra Pettengill • 2017 • United States
Starring Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Walters

Composed entirely of archival footage, The Reagan Show is an ingenious work of media analysis about the original performer-president’s role of a lifetime. Teasing apart the spectacle at the heart of finger-on-the-button global diplomacy, the film follows Ronald Reagan’s rivalry with charismatic Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, tracing how the communicator in chief used his public-relations chops to overcome Soviet mistrust, the objections of a skeptical press corps, and the looming threat of World War III. Streaked with wit and political irony, and told solely through 1980s network news and videotapes created by the Reagan administration itself, this unique documentary dissects Reagan’s made-for-TV approach to politics as he faced down the United States’ greatest rival.