The president survived "The Day Reagan Was Shot," but Secretary of State Alexander Haig did not. And, while the former comes off looking pretty good in the Showtime movie by that name (Sunday, 10 p.m.), the latter looks like a man who was properly jettisoned after what had to be one of the worst television performances by a high government official — ever.
On March, 30, 1981 — a mere 70 days into his administration — Reagan was shot and seriously wounded by John Hinckley Jr. With the vice president out of town, Haig took the podium in the White House briefing room and, with a tremor in his voice, announced, "Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the president, the vice president and the secretary of state, in that order. As for now, I am in control here in the White House, pending the return of the vice president . . ."
Which was both untrue and unwise.
"Day" focuses on the confusion that ensued after the assassination attempt, as Haig and other members of the Cabinet and White House staff bickered like petulant egomaniacs — while, at the same time, worrying that the Soviet Union was about to launch an attack and attempting to conceal just how badly wounded Reagan was.
Writer/director Cyrus Nowrasteh said most of the information is in the public record.
"That led me down a path that led me to the Reagan Library (and) that led me to new information that has come out via the Freedom of Information Act only in the last 10 years," he said. "A lot of that stuff is Secret Service files, et cetera (and) once you start to piece it all together you realize — my gosh, we came that close that day to losing the president, to getting into a nuclear confrontation, et cetera. And it was just waiting there to be told."
If Reagan (Richard Crenna) is the hero of the piece — displaying wit, humor and courage despite facing death — Haig (Richard Dreyfuss) is the anti-hero. He's a blustering, bullying, condescending jerk.
"We knew that General Haig had a volcanic anger. He lost his temper," Dreyfuss said. "And we knew when and where. He's a human being. He's not bigger or smaller than that. So I played what was there."
Although, apparently, the actor has ambivalent feelings about the man he portrayed.
"I don't think it was that he's out of whack. I just think — I guess I do," Dreyfuss said, reconsidering. "I think he's out of whack, but the show isn't.
"I thought that the most interesting thing about this script is that, in a funny way, it's very balanced. It's very fair. You know, the incompetence and pomposity is spread all around pretty equally."
Indeed, nobody in the Reagan administration comes out looking good — including Vice President George Bush (Michael Green), Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger (Colme Feore), CIA Director William J. Casey (Jack Jessop), Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes (Patrick Galligan) and top aides Ed Meese (Leon Pownall), Michael Deaver (Michael Murphy) and Lynn Nofziger (Neil Crone). When they weren't fighting with each other they were lying to the press — and, through the press, to the American people.
Even first lady Nancy Reagan (Holland Taylor) has time to lash out viciously at Treasury Secretary Donald Reagan (Sean McCann) when she's not trying to give her husband jelly beans.
While there have already been complaints about the accuracy of Nowrasteh's script, he defends it.
"It all came from my research and sources and testimony from different accounts of participants," Nowrasteh said, adding that he only took license with exchanges for which there is no record. "Like, if I know that an argument occurred in the situation room about a certain subject, I wasn't in the situation room so I have to re-create the argument. But I know who the principals are and what their positions were."
He said he "came across plenty" of conflicting testimony, which he also had to balance.
And, recently, Richard Allen (Reagan's national security adviser) went on CNN's "Larry King Show" and played tapes he made that day that corroborate Nowrasteh's accounts.
"It just a wonderful irony," Nowrasteh said. "No one knew he had a tape-recorder on in the situation room that day, which I think is pretty amazing. . . . And he hears about our movie and decides to release these tapes."
But "The Day Reagan Was Shot" is more about Haig than it is about Reagan, who, of course, was injured and unconscious for most of the day. Dreyfuss said he watched a tape of the "I'm in charge" speech repeatedly to prepare for the role.
"I felt sorry for him," he said. "I think the sin is a venial sin. It's not a mortal sin. But, given these circumstances and given the kind of Machiavellian crew that was behind him, he wasn't going to survive a gaffe like that. It really is quite an amazing moment, but it's not the worst thing someone ever did.
"That's what's so theatrically interesting about the moment, about the day. It all ties up in some weird, wonderful way. The thing that's so impressive about the script is that everything in the story is true. And Cyrus doesn't go into any kind of theatrical craziness to tell this terribly weird story. But the story is made, in a sense, complete by what this guy said and how hell came down on him."
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com