Thirty-one words. Perhaps not quite the equal to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address for brevitic brilliance, but close. Damn close. Then, a call for renewed national purpose and an end to bloody division. In 1964, a dialogue between a future Commander-in-Chief and an all-time hottie, with little at stake but a woman’s pride. But it’s enough. While our very existence no longer hung in the balance, a gangster’s hold on a dame sure as hell did. If he let this go, well, he may as well pack up and go home. Or to the grave, which likely held more dignity. Here, in full, is that exchange:
Jack: “You get back to the hotel and stay there.”
Sheila: “I like it here.”
Jack: “Go on, get moving.”
Sheila: “I said, I like it here.”
Jack: “Well, I can change that in a hurry.”
Watch this scene on YouTube
Before we can absorb the rat-a-tat rhythm of the prose, Jack has sprung from his seat and slapped Sheila with such force, it’s a wonder she didn’t lose her head. But it’s more than a blow to feminist sass; it’s Ronald Wilson Reagan foreshadowing his future. The final on-screen appearance of an actor who saw every reason under the sun to move from the sound stage to the governor’s mansion, with the White House soon to follow, simply because acting and politics have always shared a bed. A send off so hyper-masculine, he all but repealed the Nineteenth Amendment with a single blow. Dutch’s quixotic (first) campaign for the presidency officially launched on November 20, 1975, but those most familiar know it started here. With John Cassavetes looking on.
Before Reykjavik, there was The Slap Heard ‘Round the World. Before the Brandenburg Gate, when Reagan put an evil empire on notice, there was American Manhood on trial for its very life, with sheer force as the only antidote to flaccidity. For decades, accommodation and passivity. Suddenly, as the 80’s dawned, a man more than willing to bankrupt a world to keep nuclear Armageddon at bay. Tough talk, yes, but a fucking arsenal to back it all up. And none of it happens without Angie Dickinson being willing to take one for the team. She could have sulked and mumbled her way back to the hotel, but she had a nation to inspire. A nation that needed a leader. Not the same old same old, but a man with an unhinged monomania. The obsession of a dying century. A cock-first call to arms because there will not be any more Vietnams. Not unless we’re willing to go all the way.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Two entries deep into the Men of Consequence sweepstakes, and both involve beating some broad to a pulp. Is that the standard? Cute, but not quite accurate. Remember, in Act I, Lee Marvin absorbed the blows and never raised a hand. If anything, he should have been the one calling in the troops. And in Act II, Reagan does indeed loosen at least one row of teeth, but consider the milieu. In polite society, unforgivable. But we’re among lowlifes here. Bastards, criminals, brutes, and scumbags. Not one who earns an honest dollar. I mean, the movie is called The Killers, for chrissakes. And as Hyman Roth once said to Michael Corleone, “This is the business we’ve chosen.” Here, in this context, you’re gonna take some licks. Yes, the women too. After all, when your boyfriend sends people to the morgue for a living, the babe of the woods routine rings a little hollow when he brings his work home from time to time. No one undermines the man with the biggest gun. Not even you.
So is that it, then? The Reagan Revolution was hatched by a misogynistic act of domestic violence? Unavoidably, yes. And while our 40th president looks better and better as the Trump years drone on and on with a sadistic drip previously thought impossible, it cannot be forgotten that in his own time, Ronnie appeared to many as the last gasp of civilization. If he didn’t launch the missiles himself, he was just reckless enough to inspire others to do it for him. The Day After resonated for a reason. It felt, frankly, all too possible. Now, of course, with the safety of hindsight, he’s damn near as gentle as Carter, and in other ways, more reasonable than just about any current Democrat. A masculinity that inspires both hopeful nostalgia and a fear it’s forever lost to the sands of time. But yes, it once involved clocking the star of Police Woman. Hard. For America.
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