Top 10 Movies to Watch for President’s Day

REAGAN stars Dennis Quaid as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. It covers Reagan’s life from his childhood to his death, with a strong focus throughout the movie on his life-long fight against communism, from his battle in the Screen Actors Guild against communist infiltration in the Hollywood unions in the late 1940s to his battle against the Soviet Union’s communist tyranny in Germany and Eastern Europe. Dennis Quaid gives a bravura performance in REAGAN as the beloved President, union leader and movie star, and the movie’s focus on Reagan’s fight against communism gives a strong narrative structure to the movie’s stirring story of faith and patriotism.

Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN focuses on President Lincoln’s efforts in January 1865 to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery in the United States and its territories. LINCOLN is a meticulous, captivating, somewhat nuanced, and brilliantly performed moral plea against slavery, racism, and prejudice, but it sometimes suggests that the ends justifies the means and contains too much strong foul language that seems anachronistic.

In AIR FORCE ONE, the President of the United States (Harrison Ford) must personally combat a group of Russian terrorists who hijack Air Force One. With a creative premise, riveting acting by Harrison Ford, good dialogue, and excellent cinematography, AIR FORCE ONE has superlative production values. The movie also upholds patriotism, but beware of the many killings.

LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER is an elegant but fictionalized historical drama inspired by the biography of the longest-serving black butler in White House history and the changes he saw. THE BUTLER is well acted, with some Christian, moral content. However, it keeps undercutting its positive dramatic points and contains too much politically correct revisionist history and foul language.

HACKSAW RIDGE is a great, emotive, powerful, touching Christian war movie about Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), a courageous conscientious objector who serves as an unarmed medic during the brutal battle of Okinawa in World War II. Brilliantly directed by Mel Gibson, HACKSAW RIDGE is a captivating, emotional movie about uncompromising faith and miraculous courage. It will make you laugh and cry, but strong caution is advised because of bloody violence and some foul language.

IN THE LINE OF FIRE is a taut and intense thriller which honors the skill and bravery of Secret Service agents working to unravel a complicated assassination plot against the President of the United States. Tough language in a number of scenes, and brief outbursts or cops-and-crooks violence, make this film off limits for many, but the overall emphasis on professionalism and self-sacrifice are laudable–and the finale is extraordinary.

THE PATRIOT stars Mel Gibson as a family man who wrestles with his desire for revenge and the just cause of the American War for Independence in the late 1700s. The violent battle scenes may concern older moviegoers, while younger moviegoers might chafe at the soul-searching, but at the heart of this movie is faith.

NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS stars Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Gates, the treasure-hunting historian, who must follow some historical clues in Paris, London and Washington, D.C. to clear an ancestor’s name and find a legendary treasure. NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS is a fun roller-coaster ride with some delightful surprises, but it doesn’t have quite the same freshness or excitement that the first NATIONAL TREASURE movie had.

JOHN ADAMS is the acclaimed HBO TV miniseries on one of America’s most important founding fathers, and the second president of the United States, who led a glorious, mostly positive life of great influence. The acting, writing and direction are superb, and this miniseries is rich in political, philosophic and spiritual dialogue that recognizes Christian faith in every critical moment.