Meeting Gorbachev

I'm not going to surprise anyone by stating this documentary was made exclusively with westerners in mind. They remember the bringer of freedom, Gorbi the Punished. And the actual country he kneecapped is extraneous, let them eat Pizza Hut, my fellow freedom lovers. Thankfully, Werner doesn't even try to pretend he is being objective. In the first 10 minutes, he states that he loves the man, and it's hard to even be resentful of his bias. And so Mikhail solvently tells bits and pieces of his rise and downfall, seemingly not understanding the questions he is being asked. No, it's not a mistranslation in the subtitles; he sometimes genuinely doesn't understand what is asked of him, such as his response to the Chernobyl question. Ironically, he became the same fossil as Andropov and Chernenko. The personal touches are not that compelling because, once again, you're barely given any actual personality of the man. For an hour he copes, thinking that he had some kind of chance to keep the union, and now we are crying about his wife. With westerners in mind, no Russians are actually interviewed. And no one who actually lived through the decade he helped create has given their assessment of his legacy, you know beyond saying 30 times that he stopped nuclear war. No, we only have Horst Teltschik with a straight face saying that the Russian border full of NATO countries is the safest border they can dream of and they should actually pay attention to Iran and China. A statement that seemed asinine in 2019 and now appears to be straight up schizophrenic for both sides of the border. It begs the question of what kind of documentary it would be in 2022-23.

Gorbachev is the greatest hero of the world in the last centruary. If the great man theory is correct, then he was that person. May he rest in peace.

I hope more people are seeing this considering current events (like me). It paints a very raw picture about how different things would be today if egos were different, and makes you wonder who's fault the war in Ukraine today really is. It's not as cut and dry as one might think. Fantastic documentary about someone who seems largely brushed over by modern history. Must watch.

Very interesting documentary movie... but I'm pretty sure that the one in the movie was not the real Michail Gorbachev.

Yet there is an abysmal difference between the various "Aguirre" or "Fitzcarraldo" and "Gorbachev": this time it is not the defeat of a delirium of omnipotence, of a utopian idealist who crashes against Nature and its indomitable laws, but of a statesman who was demonstrating how the Leninist way to a "human" communism was viable, so much so that the conservative forces dismissed him with a putsch. The "repubblichino" Ezio Mauro plays dumb denying the historical and macroeconomic evidence: the fall of the Wall in '89 was only a consequence of the multiple reforms carried out during his secretariat from 1985 to 1991. Growing up in a kolkhoz, he had learned to increase the purchasing power not by raising incomes, salaries and wages (see Landini and today's false left), but by keeping prices down and therefore the cost of living. The variables to modify the gap between rich and poor are 2, and a left that is truly such acts on the second, not on the first one. (Mauro Lanari)

A poor film when it comes to a man like Werner Herzog. Nothing exceptional in particular.

This documentary is one of the most important historical records of our time. Every school child in the United States (and their parent) should be required to watch. I remember these events and the U.S. press got it all wrong, preferring to elevate Reagan rather than take the opportunity for world peace. Reagan's legacy should be tarnished by this reality check. What a disgusting display of opportunism. The film also reveals the contrast between the humble home life of Gorbachev (as they visit his garden) and the gross opulence that surrounds U.S. politicians.

Gorbachev is fundamentally an interesting character study - raised in the tumult of the Second World War in unremarkable circumstances, gradually rising to prominence on the back of reforms and internal changes, before overseeing one of the world's largest countries dissolve in the midst of substantial internal and external conflict. Too moderate for the conservative nationalists despite the efficacy of his international efforts, too Soviet for the rest of the world to really embrace, undeniably intelligent. But Herzog's attempt to document his rise, the balance of his success and failures, feels too sanitized, as if an old USSR review board had final cut approval. Still, the actual interview footage stands out among the otherwise relatively conventional documentary material, offering an often candid portrayal of a figure who inhabited a unique role in 20th century history. (3/5)

Lessons from a man most politicians should learn from.

MEETING GORBACHEV is one of very few documentaries that actually falls a little short of my hopes and expectations for the content it provides and its quality. The archival footage used and the interviews do offer sufficient valuable insight, but I do feel the production (particularly the interviews themselves) has no enhancing or engaging elements to make this better than a stock-standard TV documentary.