Screenplay:
Werner HerzogCinematography:
Yuriy BurakComposer:
Nicholas SingerCast:
Werner Herzog, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Margaret Thatcher (a.f.), Boris Yeltsin (a.f.), Ronald Reagan, Vladimir Putin (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Werner Herzog and André Singer’s riveting documentary, filled with unforgettable archive materials and based on three long interviews, provides incredible access to, arguably, the world’s greatest living politician. Now 87 and battling illness, the visionary Mikhail Gorbachev, the former General Secretary of the U.S.S.R, has mellowed and slowed down. Still, gently but resolutely, he is pushing towards his goals. Herzog, as on-screen interviewer, does not disguise his affection, celebrating Gorbachev’s three remarkable accomplishments: negotiations with the U.S. to reduce nuclear weapons; cessation of Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany; and the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. All of this in six years! One German diplomat sums up Gorbachev’s approach: “The process went so quickly that… opponents were overcome by the reality of the situation.” Herzog and Singer remind us of the drastic and unforeseeable way the world changes. (Telluride Film Festival)
(more)Videos (1)
Reviews (1)
OK so I don't know if it was caused by Gorbachev's very advanced age, or simply by the fact that the classic political thing of holding out on telling the whole truth is still entrenched in him, but it seemed to me that the ex-Soviet president gives very evasive, sometimes even misguided, answers to many of Werner Herzog‘s questions, and so his firm control over the documentary crumbled a little. On the other hand, it also gives a rather interesting picture of the interviewed subject. In any case, it still leaves me with a bit of a bitter impression that Werner Herzog may have bitten off more than he could chew this time.
()
