TheArchive: Presidents in Conflict

This post was originally published on (2/15/21) and updated on (2/21/22).

On the eve of some unpredictable tensions across the world, this President’s day TheArchive honors the Presidents who have led our country through conflict.

Some have guided us past it while others caused it. 

Either way, it’s challenging at the top, especially as we see President Biden navigate some very provocative leadership moments this week. 

These stories of leadership have carved their way into our zeitgeist as they help to inform how our future can and may be shaped.

In Ronald Reagan, The Hollywood Years, and Ronald Reagan, the Presidential Years, we track Reagan’s rise to power and his brush with the kind of conflict he could rise above. From that iconic moment on stage with Goldwater in 1964, to his governorship shortly thereafter, to his presidency, Reagan is celebrated as one of the most popular presidents of our time. But we also learn that the Iran-Contra affair certainly led to some unseen conflict that unraveled his favor but only for a short while. Reagan earned a nickname, the “Teflon president,” since conflict rarely seemed to stick to a leader of such profound popularity.

Saving Lincoln explores the true story of Abraham Lincoln and his bodyguard, U.S. Marshal Ward Hill Lamon who served as the President's main bodyguard during the war, thwarting several assassination attempts. Unfortunately, Lincoln, fraught with conflict on multiple fronts, sent Lamon to Richmond, Virginia on Reconstruction business a few days before April 14, 1865, the day John Wilkes Booth assassinated the President. 

Then There Were Giants, (six time Emmy nominated miniseries including Michael Caine for best actor) explores the massive global stakes allied wartime leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin were up against to maneuver their countries through several of the major events of World War II in order to save the world. This story powerfully depicts the intensity and precariousness as these men, who were interchangeably rivals and friends, as their abilities and strategies were relentlessly tested while adroitly navigating conflict to a historic conclusion.

Of course, the history of presidential conflict would not be complete without Golden Globe and four time Emmy nominated, The Final Days which, as a de facto sequel to All the President’s Man (also Woodward and Bernstein), chronicles Nixon's last months in the White House. An inveterate paranoid power-abuser, Nixon is portrayed as perpetually in conflict. He is plagued by a culpability denial which is compounded by deep comprehension paralysis making for a man whose meteoric undoing rendered his legacy in shadows for all time.

Watch TheArchive now for all kinds of Presidential conflict and conflation.

           

     

TheArchive channel is dedicated to aficionados and lovers of story, craft, and silver screen fun – streaming rare, retro, and 4K restored films and classic TV. From indies and series, to Oscar winning documentaries, unearthed MOWs, and a killer horror library, TheArchive delivers forgotten, never-before-seen gems for free. Marilyn, Karloff, and Orson Welles stream alongside Reese, Keanu, and Samuel L. Jackson. Find true stories of Queen, Hendrix, and Sinatra, an LGBTQ library, MLK bios, and world history docs. TheArchive has the movies and shows you either saw, should’ve seen, or should be watching now!